Background Information for Week 5 Videos

Week 5 Video Explorations

controlled comparison—
Chinese : Buddhism : Food
in China and Malaysia

A comparative look . . .

controlled comparison—
Chinese : Buddhism : Food
in China and Malaysia

Last week we had a look at
a Taoist temple
and Buddhist Slow Food
and Locavorism
which has a thousand year history . . .

In Food for Body and Spirit we saw how food
holds a part of Chinese culture together . . .

This week, we'll see how food
tears apart a major segment of Chinese culture in Malaysia . . .

The Pig Commandments
(72 min., 2005, DVD 1690)
(70 min?)
film HomePage
course viewing guide

view streaming video

(double click on QuickTime^© window)
(pursuant to licensing agreements some UM streaming videos are not available outside of Moodle)

The Pig Commandments

Shaikh Hussain Ye Links to an external site.
Malaysia

(China) (On-line Optional Resource)
(Malaysia) (On-line Optional Resource)
[food tears Chinese culture apart in Malaysia

肉
肉

"It was hardly surprising that, for the Chinese, the words 'meat' and 'pork' became, and remain, synonymous."

-- concluding sentence to Chapter 2 "Changing the Face of the Earth," Reay Tannahill, Food in History (NY: Three Rivers Press, 1988)

Book image.

Food Revolution #2: The Meaning of Eating
-- the discovery that food is more than sustenance

Book image.

For a comprehensive review of pork avoidance and its historical and social importance see
Frederick J. Simoons, Eat Not This Flesh: Food Avoidances form Prehistory to the Present, 2^nd Ed.
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press 1994)

The Desert People
(51 min., 1965, VC 1094)

course viewing guide

view on-line Links to an external site.


Eating a "grub worm" video: Desert People Australia		Eating a lizard Australia

If you liked the film, you might also enjoy . . .

see also
Prehistoric Diets WebPage
and
related slides:

Review

Diet and Human Evolution: Introduction (.pdf) (.pptx)
[do not spend too much time on this slide set]
Diets of Extinct Humans / Paleontology (.pdf) (.pptx)
- Teeth
- Skulls and Jaws
- The Postcranial Skeleton

Optional, if you want to have a closer look at the primate chart in the slides: "Prehistoric and Contemporary Primates "

Adaptation (.pdf) (.pptx)
Using Chemistry to Infer the Diets of Extinct Hominins (.pdf) (.pptx)
Our Place in Nature (.pdf) (.pptx)
A Brief Who's Who of the Early Hominines (.pdf) (.pptx)
What Did Early Hominines Eat? (.pdf) (.pptx)
What Can We Say About the Diets of Fossil Homo (.pdf) (.pptx)
Highlight: Lactose Intolerance (.pdf) (.pptx)
- Federal Agencies Regulating Food (.pdf) (.pptx)
- USDA Food Guide Pyramid (.pdf) (.pptx) [updated Links to an external site. in 2005, then replaced by MyPlate in 2011]

News Item: Cows Are Key to 2,500 Years of Human Progress Links to an external site.
-- Guardian Links to an external site. (04 April 2010)

Nutritional Consequences of the Agricultural Revolution:
A Comparison of Foragers and Agriculturalists
(Indian Knoll and Hardin Village)
(.pdf) (.pptx)

based on The Cultural Feast: An Introduction to Food and Society, Second Edition.
Bryant, Carol A., Kathleen M. DeWalt, Anita Courtney, and Jeffery Schwartz.
(Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thompson, 2003).