Essay On Food Taboos

Many styles of cuisine exist in the United States, a few foods are considered taboo by most of American culture. In the United States, where hundreds of world cultures blend into one society, the concept of what foods are taboo and what are simply exotic can be difficult to qualify. Food taboos of the United States differ depending on a person’s cultural background, religion and location. [1]
Dogs and cats are revered as domestic animals and important parts of many American families, these creatures are often consumed in parts of China, Korea and Southern Africa. In downtown Shanghai a provocative campaign is making the rounds, encouraging people to stop eating cats and dogs. Though frowned upon by most Western cultures, the practice is actually quite common in China and much of Asia. While the Chinese government is thinking of outright banning the
In many parts of the world, like Mexico and Polynesia, their existence predated the arrival of European settlers and they were commonly bred for food. Even now, cats and dogs are commonplace on many menus in Vietnam, Korea, and China. They’re eaten as solo meals or added to other meat dishes for a touch of extra flavor. In some cases the meat or lard is even used for medicinal purposes.
Rodents are rarely consumed by Americans, while eating mice, rats, guinea pigs and other rodents is common in places like Southeast Asia, China, Western Africa and the Peru. The term 'Orang Asli' describes a variety of aboriginal tribes, nowadays confined to the forests and forest fringes of West Malaysia. Food taboos amongst these people have been recorded by Bolton. The Orang Asli were chosen as an example of a people, in which food taboos appear to serve a double-purpose, the spiritual well-being of individuals and resource partitioning.