Beef Taboo in China
Regular price
€67.99
A01=Vincent Goossaert
Author_Vincent Goossaert
Category=JBFU
Category=NHF
Category=QRF
Category=QRRL5
China food
China policy
Daoism
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
food policy
Product details
- ISBN 9780824898472
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 28 Feb 2025
- Publisher: University of Hawai'i Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
The Beef Taboo in China explains how and why, around the turn of the second millennium, the Chinese determined that cattle should not be slaughtered or eaten. This taboo remained prevalent until the beginning of the twentieth century and is still observed by some today. Goossaert situates this prohibition within evolving Chinese attitudes toward animals and meat and juxtaposes the taboo with vegetarianism and other forms of meat ethics. He argues that the emergence of this specific practice must be understood in several contexts, notably a new agricultural economy and ecology in early modern times that protected plow cattle and marginalized pastures; a sacrificial reform that eliminated beef as the standard offering to gods and spirits; and the development of Daoist rituals, cults, and moral theology that tabooed beef and made this observance a linchpin of Chinese civilization.
Vincent Goossaert is professor of Daoism and Chinese religions at École Pratique des Hautes Études-PSL.
Barbara R. Ambros is professor of East Asian religions in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Barbara R. Ambros is professor of East Asian religions in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
