How much are diet and language related?!
Answers: Meat consumption is highest in the West. Some of this is due to economics and religion, but Are there other factors. For instance, English is the only language i have seen with two separate words for an animal and its flesh. For instance, someone may raise cows, but eat beef. In most languages the words are the same for each. Does this distance people fro associating what they are eating with the animal it can=me from, and contribute to meat consumption in the English speaking world?
Those words were imported with the aristocratic Normans who invaded England a thousand years ago. Meat consumption didn't jump once the Anglo Saxons started using the words of their French aristocracy. It's just coincidence, I think.
Meat consumption has been higher in the past, and is higher today in other cultures.
- Neanderthals' diet was 95% meat. (Richards 2000)
- More than 3/4 of Inuit eat more than half of their calories from meat products. (Preliminary findings from the 2001 Aboriginal Peoples Survey, 2001, StatsCan)
- Beef and pork, the two major meats that aren't the same as the 'animal name' have the highest consumption in Argentina and Denmark, respectively. The first English speaking country for pork is 11th for world per capita consumption (Ireland) and for beef, it is 3rd (U.S.A.) (US Census Bureau)
I don't think the name really affects the consumption. You could try to make some Sapir Whorf type of hypothesis, but I don't think there's much evidence to support your argument.
i don't think it's so much the language as it is the society..
On the one hand, it is a fun theory and i may repeat it for my amusement at some point, on the other hand, probably not, after all, there is just one word for chicken and that doesnt seem to be limiting consumption.
How much are diet and language related? In almost all cases, the mouth is used for both. Other than that?
Super Awesome Interesting Question!
We discussed this in my Semantics class recently actually! And yes, you're right, it's very rare for a language to have words like pork or venison or veal, and although it will be a matter of debate forever, it certainly does point to a disassociation between the two things, doesn't it! So much of meat eating is in the mind. For example, it France it's not uncommon to see horse meat on a menu, but in North America, there would be an uproar about it!
Linguistics
semantics,values,diet and beliefs.....all connected, whether people admit it or not.
thanks for asking a good question. They're few and far between here.
I think that it has more to do with apathy.