Friday, September 26, 2008

Cuisines of the Axis of Evil


Here's an excerpt from the intriguingly titled Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States: A Dinner Party Approach to International Relations.

"While most folks recognize the power of food to bring people together, I notice most its power to divide. Many religions enshrine various forms of commensalisms, or rules that govern with whom you can eat and with whom you
cannot. In Hinduism, high-caste persons can't eat in the presence of those who are low caste, whose very shadow defiles the former. Many religions specify not only the animals that can be eaten but the ways in which those animals must be killed as a precondition for eating them and the means by which they must be prepared. This can seriously limit the number of people one can eat with."


You can listen to the entire excerpt on NPR's website here.
And here is a link to the authors Amazon blog. Not having posted since August 19th, Chris Fair is coming dangerously close to a knitwithcats award.

1 comment:

Rachel said...

Sounds very interesting!