Animal to Edible

By Noélie Vialles and Noilie Vialles

Why do we find it necessary to slaughter living animals in order to enjoy their flesh? And why does this act offend our sensibilities, without necessarily making us into vegetarians? In her study of abattoirs in southwest France, No?lie Vialles brings to light a complex system of avoidances. Her analysis reveals that beyond the specific denial of the work of the abattoirs lies a whole system of symbolic representations of blood, human beings and animals, a symbolic code that determines the way in which we prepare domestic animals for the table.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521466725
• ISBN13: 9780521466721
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Brilliant Reading

French anthropologist Vialles takes us into the depths of the mystifying--and often horrifying--French abattoir's and shows us how our culture has constructed an industry that transforms an animal into meat. The mystery of the work is complicit in "creating" something completely divorced from the living being that has entered the abattoirs doors. This book is not only a knowing reading of how meat is produced, but a piece of Foucault-inspired intellectual history that speaks volumes about the kind of mentality required to keep our society the smooth and modern machine that it is.