Meat: A Natural Symbol

Library Journal

In this thought-provoking study of the sociocultural aspects of meat-eating in Western--primarily British and American--culture, Fiddes (social anthropology, Edinburgh) argues that meat symbolizes the human (and fundamentally patriarchal) desire for control over the natural world. He concludes that because meat represents supremacy over nature, attitudes about meat have begun to change, along with a shift in social values away from industrialism and its reliance on a model of human supremacy, toward more ecologically sound ways of life. The book provides an absorbing survey of the social forces behind meat eating, including discussions of its historical, economic, political, religious, physiological, and sexual connotations. Fiddes's argument would have been more powerful had he drawn less frequently on the words of others and had he attributed his quotations from nonscholars. Still, this will be of particular interest to vegetarians, environmentalists, and feminists. Recommended for general collections in anthropology, sociology, and gastronomy.-- Ellen Finnie Duranceau, MIT Lib.