At 08:01 1999-08-06 +0200, Cecilia wrote: >There have been some interesting discussions on this within >anthropology. One theory is that meat-eating follows the same sexual >taboos as kinship. Animals that are close (pets) are treated as >siblings - not to be eaten. Animals that are farther out, but within >human control (tame animals) are treated as cousins. They can be >eaten, but only following certain rules - males eaten before sexual >maturity or de-sexualised for example (in many cultures cousins are ok >to play around with, but not to marry). Farthest out are wild animals, >treated as un-related persons. The !Kung regard elephant flesh as something doubtful to eat because it is too similar to human flesh, it is kind of close to cannibalism. (Megan Biesele: "Women like meat") - Hans