Summary of Deciphering A Meal and The Abominable Pig

Summary of Deciphering A Meal:

In Deciphering A Meal, Mary Douglas argues how Hebrew dietary laws can be explained by using animal taxonomy. Mary presents her case by using diagrams that classify animals in their degree of holiness and by laying the rules which govern the common meal in Jewish tradition. These rules are (1) rejection of certain kinds as unfit for the table, (2) of those admitted as edible, the separation of the meat from blood before cooking and (3) the total separation of milk from meat. Also, within the diagrams, she separates and classifies the animals as beings spheres of land, air, and water. The simplest of these is the denizens of the water and the complex diagram is those concerning denizens of the land. Another interesting item that Mary finds is that the rules of holiness that apply to animals also apply to people. Mary begins to discuss that among the Israelites, only those who are not unclean can enter the temple of God and these represented the first born of Israel.

In her conclusion, Mary shows how this animal taxonomy influences the social life of the citizens of Israel, such as mariage. The Israelites considered the pig unclean because it did not chew the cud and it carried the odium of multiple pollution. Thus foreigners that ate swine were considered unclean and were likely to lead to the worship of false idols and political defections.

The Abominable Pig:

In the Abominable Pig, Marvin Harris explores the aversion of pork within Muslim and Jewish societies and shows us that there may have been economical and cultural reasons as to why pigs were viewed negatively in Middle Eastern society. Marvin begins to show us that the stereotype of the dirty pig is due in part to its living environment. Marvin explains that pigs do roll in their own filth and eat their own urine excrement but as a last resort. If pigs were given adequate cooling and were well fed, these stereotypical behavior disappeared. Also, Marvin explains that pigs have been looked down upon in the Middle East because they were not profitable and were very hard to raise. While pigs can convert 35 percent of its feed into meat, it is difficult to do this in the Middle East. Likewise, Marvin also shows that pigs will eat just about anything (including their own species) and if a famine were to occur, humans would have to fight for these scarce food sources from pigs. Finally, Marvin shows that other animals that may have been considered "unclean" could have been classified as such mainly due to the convenience of not eating these creatures or that hunting these creatures could have been a waste of time. On animal that is forbidden to be eaten in Judaism but accepted in Islam is the eating of camels. Marvin showed that eating camels would not have benefited the Jews because they were valuable creatures and eating them would do more harm than good. However, Muhammad approved of the eating of camels because it was important for nomadic tribes to eat camels in order sustain them in their long travels.

Comparison:

Both of these articles dealt with animal taxonomy and its influence on the social life of these people. Swine was considered to be unclean in both Judaism and Islam mainly due to the degrading behavior. However, Marvin showed that swine could have been viewed negatively because they were not an economically sound commodity and could easily ruin the lives of many people if swine husbandry began to occur throughout the region. Likewise, animal taxonomy was used to describe the consequences of marrying outsiders and foreigners and thus becoming unclean themselves.