Diet taboos and ethnic groups

Dietary taboos are the most intuitive cultural anchor of ethnic identity. They are neither scientific health-preserving principles that are completely universally applicable, nor are they feudal dross without any reason. Instead, they are flexible boundary markers that have been deposited by specific ethnic groups in the long process of survival, evolution, identity construction, and cultural inheritance.

Last summer when I was working in the field in Zhagana, Gannan, I followed the local Tibetan guide Tashi to a noodle shop in the town for dinner. I pointed to the sauced pork elbow on the menu and asked the boss if he could make it. Tashi smiled and touched my arm and waved me to change the dish. My first reaction at the time was "Oh, yes, Tibetans don't eat pork." It was only after chatting with him while waiting for the food that I realized that it was actually not a hard and fast rule at all - his hometown is in a more remote pastoral area, and the saying passed down by the older generation is that free-range pigs will eat carrion and unclean things, and they will easily get sick if they eat it. This has gradually become a common practice. Now that he is working in the city, he will not hide when his colleagues order twice-cooked pork, but he will not take the initiative to eat it. He said, "I haven't been used to it since I was a child, and the smell is weird."

To be honest, when I was talking about this with my friends who are doing anthropological research in the circle, we all had quite a quarrel. Some people are staunch functionalists and say that all dietary taboos are ultimately solidified by the survival experience of our ancestors. For example, the Arabian Peninsula is arid and lacks water. Pig breeding consumes a lot of water and is prone to parasites. Not eating pork is essentially a strategy to reduce the cost of survival. Now that cold chain and quarantine technology are developed, these taboos are naturally no longer necessary. ； There are also people who are fans of symbolism and feel that there is not so much practical logic. To put it bluntly, it is a tool used by ethnic groups to draw the boundaries of "one of their own". It is the same as the fact that you have to wear the home team's jersey when you join the fan association, and you have to abide by the employee code when you join the company. What you eat and don't eat is essentially telling the people around you "I belong to this group"” ； There are also more radical views, which believe that all dietary taboos are bad customs that bind people, and modern society should be abolished without specialization.

My brother Ma, who opened a halal noodle shop in Quanzhou last year, does not agree with the functionalist view. He is from the Hui ethnic group in Linxia, ​​Gansu Province. A banner depicting Mecca is hung on the wall of the noodle shop, and a special halal certification plate is placed on the operating table. He said that many people who come to his restaurant to eat will ask, "Is it because pigs are your ancestors if you don't eat pork?" ”“Is it because the pork is unclean? ”Every time, he would explain for a long time, saying that the core of the halal diet is "kosher food". Animals that died by themselves, their blood, livestock that were slaughtered without reciting the name of Allah, even beef and mutton, cannot be eaten, and it has nothing to do with whether they are clean. “I went to the mosque with my father to worship since I was a child. All my relatives and friends around me went to halal restaurants for meals. If I went to eat non-halal food one day, I would feel panicked without anyone having to tell me. At our middle school class reunion last time, the class monitor specially chose a halal restaurant. As soon as I entered, I felt friendly. We are all friends who grew up together. There was no need to explain anything, that was enough. ”

Of course not everyone takes these taboos seriously. Xiao Feng, a post-2000 Yao girl whom I met in Jinxiu Yao Village in Guangxi last month, said that they had so many taboos before they went to the Yao Village in Guangxi: You can’t say what you caught on the roadside when you come back from hunting, otherwise you will come back empty-handed next time. ； Don't stick chopsticks in your rice when eating, it's a way of offering sacrifices to ghosts ； Pregnant women cannot eat rabbit meat, otherwise their children will develop cleft palate. She went to college in Nanning for four years. When she went out to eat with her classmates, she often stuck her chopsticks in her rice. Nothing bad happened. She even ate rabbit hot pot frequently. Her younger brother just entered high school this year and could only speak a few words in Yao language, let alone memorize the old rules. But every time she went home to eat, she would deliberately put her chopsticks away, "It's not because I'm afraid of any taboos, but because I'm afraid my grandma will say it. She has kept the rules her whole life, so I just follow her, and it's not a big deal." ”

What’s interesting is that many people think that dietary taboos are “not allowed to eat”, but in fact there are many implicit rules that “must eat”. My friends in Putian told me that every year on Mazu’s birthday, every household in their village must cook Mazu noodles. The noodles must be stretched long enough, and the ingredients must include mushrooms, shrimps, and day lilies. If any family fails to cook, the neighbors will whisper behind their backs, saying that you do not respect Mazu and are not from the village. This "must eat" requirement is essentially the same thing as the "no eating" taboo. They are both the ties that bind the entire ethnic group together through food.

Nowadays, many people say that young people are increasingly disobeying the dietary taboos of their ancestors. Are the boundaries of ethnic groups disappearing? Amul, a Mongolian young man I met in Hulunbuir a while ago, felt that this worry was completely unnecessary. He has lived with his parents in a pastoral area since he was a child, and he has to follow all the rules when offering sacrifices to Aobao and Naadam. He also grew up eating meat and milk tofu, but he also loves eating Northeastern pig-killing dishes and orders them every time he goes out to eat with Han friends. Some people said that he "doesn't abide by the Mongolian rules." He rolled his eyes and said, "I can speak Mongolian fluently. I know what my grandfather's name is and what my great-great-grandfather's name is. I never touch the tributes when I offer sacrifices to Obo. How can I not be Mongolian if I love to eat pig meat?" How come there are so many rigid rules? ”

In fact, after traveling to so many places and meeting so many people of different ethnic groups, my biggest feeling is that there is no need to put dietary taboos in a black-and-white position. You don’t need to label someone as “feudal and backward” when you see them following different dietary rules, and you don’t have to worry about touching them to be offensive. If you are really curious and ask, “Why do you have such particularity?”, you will most likely hear an interesting story about a family or ethnic group, which is much more lively than the dry definitions in textbooks. After all, in the final analysis, what to eat or not to eat ultimately falls on everyone. Isn’t it just a matter of making yourself comfortable and making those around you comfortable?