Doubtful Food, Doubtful Faith
A Comparative Study of the Influence of Religious Maximalism on New Ideas of Food Taboo in Some Contemporary Jewish and Muslim Communities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v3i2.245Keywords:
Halal, Kosher, taboo, food, fundamentalism, authenticity, doubt, purity, glattAbstract
The encroachment of maximalist thinking in Jewish and Muslim communities globally has been widely noted by scholars across disciplines. Todate, the influence of such thinking on the cultural construction of foodways, particularly food taboos, within these communities has been largely ignored. This article seeks to address shortcomings in this area of research. Using both fieldwork data from communities in Sydney, Australia, and digital ethnography, this article problematizes anthropological material that suggests that kosher and halal necessarily unite diverse co-religionists. Today, fundamentalists within these faith groups use the concept of “stringency” or “exactingness” in association with food preparation and products to reinterpret the concept of taboo. This process undermines normative communal ideation pertaining to food, providing fundamentalists opportunity to reject intra-communal commensality. Taboos then cease to function as a symbolic marker of communal unity, instead serving the anti-pluralist agenda of fundamentalists. In this way, food becomes the symbolic medium through which the discourse of communal legitimacy, authenticity, and purity, is paradoxically both achieved and rejected.
References
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Bilgrami, Akeel. 2003 “The Clash Within Civilizations.” Daedalus 132(3): 88–93.
Buckser, Andrew. 1999 “Keeping Kosher and Eating Kosher: Social Identity among the Jews of Denmark.” Ethnology 38(1):191–209. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3773813
Butler, Erica. 2010 “Rabbis Claim Lox No Longer Kosher.” Online URL: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Rabbis-Claim-Lox-No-Longer-Kosher-86905912.html.
Chaudry, Muhammad M. and Mian N. Riaz. 2004 Halal Food Production. London: CRC Press.
Colding, J. and C. Folke. 1997 “The Relations Among Threatened Species, their Protection, and Taboos.” Conservation Ecology (online) 1(1): 6.
Douglas, Mary. 1966 Purity and Danger: An Analysis of concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203361832
Durkheim, E. 1926 The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Translated by J.W. Swain. New York: Macmillan.
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Frazer, J.G. 1927 The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. New York: The Macmillan Co.
Garcia, Angela Cora, Alecea I. Standlee, Jennifer Bechkooff and Yan Cui. 2009 “Ethnographic Approaches to the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication.” Ethnography 38(1)52–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0891241607310839
Gottlieb, Yaron. 2010 “Copyrighting a Sectarian Minefield” Online URL http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/contributors/copyrighting-kosher-a-sectarian-minefield-20100527-wh7j.html.
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Heilman, Samuel C. and Menachem Friedman. 1991 “Religious Fundamentalism and Religious Jews: The Case of the Haredim.” In Fundamentalism Observed, edited by Marty, Martin E. and Appleby, R.Scott, 197–264. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Helland, Christopher. 2005 “Online Religion as Lived Religion. Methodological Issues in the Study of Religious Participation on the Internet.” Online—Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet. 1(1):1–16.
Hotels of Israel. 2000 “Glatt Kosher Hotels in Jerusalem.” Online URL http://www.hotels-of-israel.com/glatt_kosher_hotels_in_jerusalem.htm.
Kazi. 2003 “Eating Kosher Meat.” Online URL http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503547478.
Kifleyesus, Abbebe. 2002 “Muslims and Meals: The Social and Symbolic Function of Foods in Changing Socio-Economic Environments.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 72(2): 245–276. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/afr.2002.72.2.245
Kosherica.com. 1995 “Kosherica—The Glatt Kosher Cruise Leader.” Online URL http://www.kosherica.com/
Kraemer, David. 2009 [2007] Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages. New York: Routledge.
Lindemann, K. 2005 “Live(s) Online: Narrative Performance, Presence, and Community in LiveJournal.com.” Text and Performance Quarterly 25: 354–372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10462930500362494
Leach, E.R. 1964 “Anthropological Aspects of Language: Animal Categories and Verbal Abuse.” In New directions in the study of language, edited by E.H Lenneberg, 22–63. Cambridge, MA; MIT Press.
Marks, Gil. 2010 Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. New Jersey: Wiley and Sons.
McDonald, David R. 1977 “Food Taboos: A Primitive Environmental Protection Agency” (South America). Anthropos 72(5): 734–748.
Mauss, Marcel. 1954 The Gift. London: Cohen and West.
Morton, Shafiq. 2010 “Throwing Rocks at the Moon: The Question of Halal Water.” Online URL:http://www.crescentsofbrisbane.org/00%20Files%20&%20Images/CCN286/Throwingrocksatthemoon-shafiqmorton.pdf.
Meyer-Rochow, Victor Beno. 2009 “Food Taboos: Their Origins and Purposes.” Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 5(1): 18–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-5-18
Mufti, Aamir R. 2000 “The Aura of Authenticity.” Social Text 18(3): 87–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/01642472-18-3_64-87
Murugaiah, C., Z. M. Noor, M. Mastakim, L. M. Bilung, and J. Radu. 2009 “Species Identification and Halal Authentication Analysis Using Mitochondrial DNA.” Meat Science 83(1): 57–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2009.03.015
Nasir, K. and A. Pereira. 2008 “Defensive Dining: Notes on the Public Dining Experiences in Singapore.” Contemporary Islam 2: 61–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11562-007-0033-8
Niehof, Anke. 2010 Food, Diversity, Vulnerability, and Social Change: Research Findings from Insular Southeast Asia. Wageningen, Wagenigen Academic Publishers.
Noor, Fauziah. 2009 “The Importance of Halal in Islamic law and Muslim life: Fundamental Principles and Cardinal Values Pertaining to Human Welfare.” Halal Pages 12–17.
Peters, Rudolph. 1980 “Idjtihad and Taqlid in 18th and 19th Century Islam.” Die Welt des Islams 20(3/4): 131–145. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1569501
Poll, Solomon. 1969 The Hasidic Community of Williamsburg. New York: Schoken Books.
Qaradawi, Al-, Yusuf. 2009 [1985] The Lawful and The Prohibited in Islam. Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust.
Rahman, Siti Zawiah. 2006 “Your Online Halal Gelatine.” Online URL http://www.halalgelatine.com/.
Rappaport, R.A. 1967 “Ritual Regulation of Environmental Relations Among a New Guinea People.” Ethnology 6(1): 17–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3772735
Reichel-Dolmatoff, G. 1979 “Desana Animal Categories, Food Restrictions and the Concept of Color Energies.” Journal of Latin American Lore 4(2): 243–291.
Regenstein, J.M., M.M. Chaudry and C.E. Regenstein. 2003 “The Kosher and Halal Food Laws.” Comprehensive Reviews in Food Safety 2: 111–127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-4337.2003.tb00018.x
Ross, E. 1978 “Food Taboos, Diet, and Hunting Strategy: The Adaption to Animals In Amazon Cultural Ecology.” Current anthropology 19(1): 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/201999
Rouse, Carolyn, and Janet Hoskins. 2004 “Purity, Soul Food, and Sunni Islam: Explorations at the Intersection of Consumption and Resistance.” Cultural Anthropology 19(2): 226–249. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/can.2004.19.2.226
Rozin, P. 1999 “Food is Fundamental, Fun, Frightening, and Far Reaching.” Social Research 66(1): 9–30.
Schneerson, Menachem Mendel. n.d. “How Many Lights?” Online URL http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/104113/jewish/How-Many-Lights.htm.
Silberberg, Naftali. n.d. “What is “Mehadrin” kosher?” Online URL http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/259,42956/What-is-Mehadrin-Kosher.html
Simoons, F.J. 1994 Eat Not This Flesh: Food Avoidances from Prehistory to the Present. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Smith, W.R. 1894 Lectures on the Religion of the Semites. London: A. & C. Black.
Speth, J.D. 1991 “Protein Selection and Avoidance Strategies of Contemporary and Ancestral Foragers: Unresolved Issues.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Biological Sciences 334(1270): 265–269. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1991.0115
Steinmetz, Sol. 1981 “Jewish English in the United States.” American Speech 56(1): 3–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/454475
“The Learner.” 2004 “Are Christians “Mushrik’ (Polytheists) or “Kafirs’ (Rejecters)?” Online URL http://www.understanding-islam.com/ro/or-011.htm.
Tambiah, S.J. 1991 Sri Lanka, Ethnic Fraticide and the Dismantling of Democracy. Chicago, IL: The Uniersity of Chicago Press.
Twigg, Julia. 1979 “Food for thought: Purity and Vegetarianism.” Religion 9: 13–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0048-721X(79)90051-4
Valeri, Valeria. 2000 Forest of Taboos: Morality, Hunting, and Identity Among the Huaulu of the Moluccas. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Weiss, Raymond L. and Charles Butterworth. 1975 Ethical Writings of Maimonides. New York: New York University Press.
Young, Michael W. 2009 [1971] Fighting with Food: Leadership, Values, and Social Control in a Massim Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zivotofsky, Ari Z. 1999 “What’s the truth about glatt kosher?” Online URL http://www.kashrut.com/articles/glatt/.
Adelson, Seth. 2010 “Shabbat Hol Hamoed Pesah 5770: Apples and Fundamentalism.” Online URL: http://themodernrabbi.blogspot.com.au/2010/04/shabbat-hol-hamoed-pesah-5770-apples.html.
Barak-Erez, Daphne. 2007 Outlawed Pigs: Law, Religion, and Culture in Israel. London: University of Wisconsin Press.
Belasco, Warren. 2008 Food: The Key Concepts. New York: Berg.
Bilgrami, Akeel. 2003 “The Clash Within Civilizations.” Daedalus 132(3): 88–93.
Buckser, Andrew. 1999 “Keeping Kosher and Eating Kosher: Social Identity among the Jews of Denmark.” Ethnology 38(1):191–209. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3773813
Butler, Erica. 2010 “Rabbis Claim Lox No Longer Kosher.” Online URL: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Rabbis-Claim-Lox-No-Longer-Kosher-86905912.html.
Chaudry, Muhammad M. and Mian N. Riaz. 2004 Halal Food Production. London: CRC Press.
Colding, J. and C. Folke. 1997 “The Relations Among Threatened Species, their Protection, and Taboos.” Conservation Ecology (online) 1(1): 6.
Douglas, Mary. 1966 Purity and Danger: An Analysis of concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203361832
Durkheim, E. 1926 The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Translated by J.W. Swain. New York: Macmillan.
Fertig, Maya. 2009 “Different From All Other Years: Streit’s Matzo Off Preferred List in Five Towns in Queens.” Online URL http://thejewishstar.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/different-from-all-other-years-streit%E2%80%99s-matzo-off-preferred-list-in-five-towns/.
Fessler, Daniel M.T and Carlos David Navarrete. 2003 “Meat is Good to Taboo: Dietary Proscriptions as a Product of the Interaction of Psychological Mechanisms and Social Processes.” Journal of Cognition and Culture 3(1): 1–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156853703321598563
Frazer, J.G. 1927 The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. New York: The Macmillan Co.
Garcia, Angela Cora, Alecea I. Standlee, Jennifer Bechkooff and Yan Cui. 2009 “Ethnographic Approaches to the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication.” Ethnography 38(1)52–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0891241607310839
Gottlieb, Yaron. 2010 “Copyrighting a Sectarian Minefield” Online URL http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/contributors/copyrighting-kosher-a-sectarian-minefield-20100527-wh7j.html.
Harris, Marvin. 1989 [1974] Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches. New York, Vintage Books.
Heilman, Samuel C. 2006 Sliding to the Right: The Contest for the Future of American Jewish Orthodoxy. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Heilman, Samuel C. and Menachem Friedman. 1991 “Religious Fundamentalism and Religious Jews: The Case of the Haredim.” In Fundamentalism Observed, edited by Marty, Martin E. and Appleby, R.Scott, 197–264. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Helland, Christopher. 2005 “Online Religion as Lived Religion. Methodological Issues in the Study of Religious Participation on the Internet.” Online—Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet. 1(1):1–16.
Hotels of Israel. 2000 “Glatt Kosher Hotels in Jerusalem.” Online URL http://www.hotels-of-israel.com/glatt_kosher_hotels_in_jerusalem.htm.
Kazi. 2003 “Eating Kosher Meat.” Online URL http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503547478.
Kifleyesus, Abbebe. 2002 “Muslims and Meals: The Social and Symbolic Function of Foods in Changing Socio-Economic Environments.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 72(2): 245–276. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/afr.2002.72.2.245
Kosherica.com. 1995 “Kosherica—The Glatt Kosher Cruise Leader.” Online URL http://www.kosherica.com/
Kraemer, David. 2009 [2007] Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages. New York: Routledge.
Lindemann, K. 2005 “Live(s) Online: Narrative Performance, Presence, and Community in LiveJournal.com.” Text and Performance Quarterly 25: 354–372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10462930500362494
Leach, E.R. 1964 “Anthropological Aspects of Language: Animal Categories and Verbal Abuse.” In New directions in the study of language, edited by E.H Lenneberg, 22–63. Cambridge, MA; MIT Press.
Marks, Gil. 2010 Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. New Jersey: Wiley and Sons.
McDonald, David R. 1977 “Food Taboos: A Primitive Environmental Protection Agency” (South America). Anthropos 72(5): 734–748.
Mauss, Marcel. 1954 The Gift. London: Cohen and West.
Morton, Shafiq. 2010 “Throwing Rocks at the Moon: The Question of Halal Water.” Online URL:http://www.crescentsofbrisbane.org/00%20Files%20&%20Images/CCN286/Throwingrocksatthemoon-shafiqmorton.pdf.
Meyer-Rochow, Victor Beno. 2009 “Food Taboos: Their Origins and Purposes.” Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 5(1): 18–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-5-18
Mufti, Aamir R. 2000 “The Aura of Authenticity.” Social Text 18(3): 87–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/01642472-18-3_64-87
Murugaiah, C., Z. M. Noor, M. Mastakim, L. M. Bilung, and J. Radu. 2009 “Species Identification and Halal Authentication Analysis Using Mitochondrial DNA.” Meat Science 83(1): 57–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2009.03.015
Nasir, K. and A. Pereira. 2008 “Defensive Dining: Notes on the Public Dining Experiences in Singapore.” Contemporary Islam 2: 61–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11562-007-0033-8
Niehof, Anke. 2010 Food, Diversity, Vulnerability, and Social Change: Research Findings from Insular Southeast Asia. Wageningen, Wagenigen Academic Publishers.
Noor, Fauziah. 2009 “The Importance of Halal in Islamic law and Muslim life: Fundamental Principles and Cardinal Values Pertaining to Human Welfare.” Halal Pages 12–17.
Peters, Rudolph. 1980 “Idjtihad and Taqlid in 18th and 19th Century Islam.” Die Welt des Islams 20(3/4): 131–145. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1569501
Poll, Solomon. 1969 The Hasidic Community of Williamsburg. New York: Schoken Books.
Qaradawi, Al-, Yusuf. 2009 [1985] The Lawful and The Prohibited in Islam. Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust.
Rahman, Siti Zawiah. 2006 “Your Online Halal Gelatine.” Online URL http://www.halalgelatine.com/.
Rappaport, R.A. 1967 “Ritual Regulation of Environmental Relations Among a New Guinea People.” Ethnology 6(1): 17–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3772735
Reichel-Dolmatoff, G. 1979 “Desana Animal Categories, Food Restrictions and the Concept of Color Energies.” Journal of Latin American Lore 4(2): 243–291.
Regenstein, J.M., M.M. Chaudry and C.E. Regenstein. 2003 “The Kosher and Halal Food Laws.” Comprehensive Reviews in Food Safety 2: 111–127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-4337.2003.tb00018.x
Ross, E. 1978 “Food Taboos, Diet, and Hunting Strategy: The Adaption to Animals In Amazon Cultural Ecology.” Current anthropology 19(1): 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/201999
Rouse, Carolyn, and Janet Hoskins. 2004 “Purity, Soul Food, and Sunni Islam: Explorations at the Intersection of Consumption and Resistance.” Cultural Anthropology 19(2): 226–249. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/can.2004.19.2.226
Rozin, P. 1999 “Food is Fundamental, Fun, Frightening, and Far Reaching.” Social Research 66(1): 9–30.
Schneerson, Menachem Mendel. n.d. “How Many Lights?” Online URL http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/104113/jewish/How-Many-Lights.htm.
Silberberg, Naftali. n.d. “What is “Mehadrin” kosher?” Online URL http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/259,42956/What-is-Mehadrin-Kosher.html
Simoons, F.J. 1994 Eat Not This Flesh: Food Avoidances from Prehistory to the Present. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Smith, W.R. 1894 Lectures on the Religion of the Semites. London: A. & C. Black.
Speth, J.D. 1991 “Protein Selection and Avoidance Strategies of Contemporary and Ancestral Foragers: Unresolved Issues.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Biological Sciences 334(1270): 265–269. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1991.0115
Steinmetz, Sol. 1981 “Jewish English in the United States.” American Speech 56(1): 3–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/454475
“The Learner.” 2004 “Are Christians “Mushrik’ (Polytheists) or “Kafirs’ (Rejecters)?” Online URL http://www.understanding-islam.com/ro/or-011.htm.
Tambiah, S.J. 1991 Sri Lanka, Ethnic Fraticide and the Dismantling of Democracy. Chicago, IL: The Uniersity of Chicago Press.
Twigg, Julia. 1979 “Food for thought: Purity and Vegetarianism.” Religion 9: 13–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0048-721X(79)90051-4
Valeri, Valeria. 2000 Forest of Taboos: Morality, Hunting, and Identity Among the Huaulu of the Moluccas. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Weiss, Raymond L. and Charles Butterworth. 1975 Ethical Writings of Maimonides. New York: New York University Press.
Young, Michael W. 2009 [1971] Fighting with Food: Leadership, Values, and Social Control in a Massim Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zivotofsky, Ari Z. 1999 “What’s the truth about glatt kosher?” Online URL http://www.kashrut.com/articles/glatt/.
Published
2012-12-31
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Theobald, S. (2012). Doubtful Food, Doubtful Faith: A Comparative Study of the Influence of Religious Maximalism on New Ideas of Food Taboo in Some Contemporary Jewish and Muslim Communities. International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 3(2), 245-268. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v3i2.245
