Fleisch: Ursprung und Wandel einer Lust. Eine kulturanthropologische Studie

How Humans Have Evolved From Foragers to Meat-Eaters

If you believe the headlines of the rainbow press, the reasonGerhard Schröder left his wife was because she only cookedvegetarian meals. Sandra Mellinger uses this anecdote to starther brilliant study on the relationship between man and eatingmeat.

The author takes us back to the Stone Age, where humans were nothunters, but rather being hunted themselves. Humans used to be afew notches down the food chain, with several powerful animalsabove them, but now they have made it to the top as the mostpowerful hunters of all. The central theme of meat as a symbol ofpower has made its way through history since then. Offerings ofmeat could pacify the gods; giving up meat was a way ofreligiously cleansing oneself. Sandra Mellinger illustrates howwhat once was a gift of the gods has become a finished product inthe age of industrial food production, from new methods ofconservation up to how we could store a supply in case of amodern war.

The ever-present hamburger on the one hand and mad cow disease onthe other are the extremes in this new era of over-production. Itbecomes clear that the desire to eat meat is more than just aquestion of taste - it expresses a symbolic relationship topower, which becomes clear in view of gender and the connectionbetween nutrition and sexuality.