ABSTRACT
As physical spaces within the city, meat markets served to reinforce boundaries and emphasise differences. In the ideological realm, meat markets were viewed as places in which religious identities could be maintained and solidified. Market regulations requiring the separation of carnicerias based on faith and Muslims, Christians and Jews were largely responsible for what happened in their own markets. The butchers of Valencia, Muslim, Christian and Jewish alike were at least partially responsible for maintaining boundaries among religious groups. The location of meat markets and regulations helped, as they were meant to, but butchers were responsible individually and collectively for adhering to the requirements of slaughter set forth by their own religious doctrines and practices. To appreciate fully how meat was used to maintain religious boundaries, it is also important to understand the life of an animal from birth through the process of death until the point of consumption by a human.
