ACQUIRED TASTES BY NANCY CANNADY PREFERRED FOODS OR NATURAL DELECTABLES SPECIFIC CRUISINES MAINLY REPRESENT PRACTICAL SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDING THE ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS TO POPULATIONS UNDER DEFINITE NATURAL AND CULTURAL CONDITIONS.

Basic components of food tradition usually have nutritional, ecological, or economic causes. Hot, peppery foods, for example, have three conditions: WARM CLIMATES (frost-free, warm, & moist) MAINLY VEGETARIAN DIETS MARGINAL CALORIC INTAKE WITH LITTLE VARIATION FROM DAY TO DAY

THESE FOODS MAY CAUSE A GREAT DEAL OF INTESTINAL FLAUTUS Some Scientific Evidence supports the Belief that peppery sauces relieve this problem.

For people who go to sleep hungry, peppery condiments stimulate the salivary glands and produce a sensation of fullness. North American do not have these conditions thus they have rather a bland diet.

FOOD SOURCES Which is the better bargain? Cost per pound of hunting or raising animals. What is available and abundant?

The simple formula predicts the extent to which different cultures reject or accept animal tidbits: What is available!

Insects are plentiful and there are few large animals to be hunted.

There are an abundance of domesticated animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep, and chicken.

OLD TESTAMENT & PIGS Why ban pigs? Pigs don’t give milk. Pigs can’t pull plows. Pigs can’t thrive on grass. Pigs need shade. Pigs are poor investment. in the hot, dry Biblical heartland's.

Cattle CostsBenefits feed (cheap grass)traction for cart herding (little labor)traction for plows disease( anthrax)meat, milk,dung,hides Pigs feed (cheap waste)meat herding(much labor)dung wallowshides shade disease (trichinosis,anthrax)

PUZZLING TRADE-OFFS CULTURAL DETERMINATIONS OF FOOD PREFERENCES AND AVOIDANCES INVOLVE TRADE-OFFS BETWEEN ANIMALS AS A SOURCE OF FLESH AND ANIMALS AS A SOURCE OF IMPORTANT PRODUCTS OR SERVICES. SOME ANIMALS ARE WORTH MORE DEAD THAN ALIVE CATTLE IN INDIA Used in plowing,source of fertilizers and cooking fuel, milk, and meat After a lifetime of service, even their flesh does not go to waste

Natural selection Cultural selection Are they controlled by genetic tendencies?

GENES, GENES, GENES Mexican passion for peppers Antipork genes to explain why Jews & Moslems abhor pork Cow protection genes to explain the Hindu rejection of beef. Insect loathing genes to explain why Euro- Americans abhor insects

INCREASE REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS???? The recent history of the Western world shows that the best- nourished people are not necessarily the ones with the most babies……..

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER SOMETIMES, VERY RARELY, HAS NATURAL SELECTION AND REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS BEEN INFLUENCED BY CULTURE Aversion to milk

THE ACQUIRED TASTE IS BASED ON THE ABUNDANCE,CONCENTRATION, AND THE AVAILABILITY. WE EAT WHAT WE EAT BECAUSE IT IS THERE. HERE IN THE U.S.A. WE ARE A BLESSED NATION AND DO NOT HAVE TO DEPEND SO MUCH ON THESE THREE ISSUES, BUT WORLDWIDE IT IS A MATTER OF SURVIVAL…..

A ECOLOGICAL MATERIALIST STRATRGY What are the basic features of social life? These conditions involve such things as the nature of the physical environment population and its composition, and the level of technology.

DO PIGS AND THE OLD TESTMENT GO IN THIS CHAPTER? I DON’T THINK SO - HE COULD HAVE HAD ANOTHER CHAPTER ON WASTEFUL TABOOS