Matzah, Meat, Milk, and Mana: Psychological Influences on Religio-Cultural Food Practices
Religio-cultural groups endorse an astounding diversity of beliefs and rituals regarding food. The authors theorize that such practices in part originate and persist because they (a) mark in-group membership through the consumption of unique foods and the establishment of common food rituals, (b) si...
| Authors: | ; ; ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage
2011
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| In: |
Journal of cross-cultural psychology
Year: 2011, Volume: 42, Issue: 8, Pages: 1421-1436 |
| Further subjects: | B
Essentialism
B Rituals B 宗教 B Evolutionary Psychology B Food |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Religio-cultural groups endorse an astounding diversity of beliefs and rituals regarding food. The authors theorize that such practices in part originate and persist because they (a) mark in-group membership through the consumption of unique foods and the establishment of common food rituals, (b) signal status through fasting or ingesting certain foods or large quantities of food, and (c) help individuals avoid disease by promoting or prohibiting specific foods that were historically available. Moreover, the authors theorize that these sociofunctional motives are grounded in essentialist beliefs about the discreteness of biological kinds and/or beliefs about unseen spiritual essences, transmitted through food or food preparation. They consider how psychological explanations of religio-cultural food prescriptions and prohibitions may or may not map onto religious explanations. The authors also offer testable hypotheses about where and why certain food practices may originate and persist, and they hope that this analysis is the kind that provides insight into factors that may have shaped a wider range of religio-cultural beliefs and practices. |
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| ISSN: | 1552-5422 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of cross-cultural psychology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/0022022111412528 |