Meat: A Natural Symbol

by Nick Fiddes

This book is a broad-ranging and provocative study of the human passion for meat. It will intrigue anyone who has ever wondered why meat is important to us; why we eat some animals but not others; why vegetarianism is increasing; why we aren't cannibals; and how meat is associated with environmental destruction.

Genres: Food, Philosophy, Animals, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Ecology, Science

261 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1991

Reviews

[Martin Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been over 20 years since I read this book—not too long after it first came out—and it's both depressing and enlightening just how little has changed: meat is still the locus for status, masculinity, and the inevitable triumph of capitalism, even though the effects on our waistlines, the environment, and animal welfare of our devotion to animal flesh have only become more dramatic and existentially threatening. Fiddes writes clearly, with passion (and some irony), and with astonishing prescience, given how back in 1991 climate change was not widely discussed and animal agriculture's role in it barely known. Yet it's in this book, alongside a set of provocative ideas that are still (shockingly) too rarely discussed, let alone admitted. Fiddes' book is almost contemporaneous with Carol Adams' equally pioneering THE SEXUAL POLITICS OF MEAT, and only Marta Zaraska's recently published MEATHOOKED ventures into this territory. Shamefully (and I say this as a publisher), Routledge has turned what was an accessible, reasonably priced paperback into an absurdly expensive hardcover. That's the only downside for a book that, like Adams' SPOM, remains after a quarter-century still ahead of its time.

[Cee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why is meat so important in Western society? Is it really because we need the protein? How do our myths about meat consumption shape our conceptions on ethics, animal husbandry, and ecology?

Mr Fiddes has written a broad sociological introduction in Meat, discussing topics ranging from European intellectual thought, as well as using interviews and quantitative statistical data. Meat is a symbol within our culture - it is a sign of prosperity, of control over nature, of mankind's power. The author lays out his argument in a clear manner, never necessarily critiquing meat consumption itself, but rather baring the underlying reasons for why we find meat so important. Although written in the eighties, I found many of his conclusions and observations to be surprisingly contemporary.

My own relationship with meat has been a difficult one, as I have moved from eating meat daily to only eating it once or twice a week, mainly from an environmental perspective. Meat production is inefficient, no matter how you look at it, and it takes away precious resources from countries that need them most. If the entire world ate as much meat as we do in the West, the available farmland would not be able to sustain the population. Meat has inspired me to - again - rethink my stance on meat, and how important it is for myself to keep eating it.

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read. Not at all about the usual nutritional information and Atkinites-vs.-the-Vegans stuff, but about what meat means to us as a culture. Wide-ranging and well-thought-out.

[Jonathan]

"The unvoiced symbolic values which continue to underpin meat’s popularity today principally concern our relationship with nature, as we perceive it. In this way changing attitudes to meat, as revealed by changing habits, may also be eloquent commentary on fundamental developments in society. Meat’s signification, I suggest, principally relates to environmental control, and it has long held an unrivalled status amongst major foods on account of this meaning. But meat’s stature is not inherent in its substance, but has been invested in it by successive generations who highly valued its meaning: who liked the notion of power over nature that it embodies. Its waning prestige—and outright rejection by many—may be indicative of more than changing tastes in food".