ABSTRACT

Belief in human dominion does not merely legitimate meat eating-the reverse is also true: meat reinforces that presumption. Killing, cooking, and eating other animals’ flesh provides perhaps the ultimate authentication of human superiority over the rest of nature, with the spilling of their blood a vibrant motif. Thus, for individuals and societies to whom environmental control is an important value meat consumption is typically a key symbol. Meat has long stood for Man’s proverbial ‘muscle’ over the natural world.