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A Cross-Cultural Perspective

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A Cross-Cultural Perspective View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives Vegetarian Foodways A Cross-cultural Perspective Joanna Maria Michalowska Master’s Thesis Department of Social Anthropology UNIVERSITY OF OSLO Spring 2008 2 Summary Vegetarian foodways are relatively universal – identifiable in different parts of the world and in different local contexts. However, owing to the particularities of these local contexts, vegetarian foodways are also culturally specific. I use the empirical example of vegetarianism in Japan on the one hand in order to both illustrate the transnational vegetarian foodways and show them in a context different from the original Western one. On the other hand, vegetarian foodways in Japan serve as an example of a distinct local variant of the transnational phenomenon. In addition, Japan has significantly contributed to the development of the transnational vegetarian foodways by means of the spread to the West of Zen Buddhism, macrobiotics and more general holistic attitudes to food and health, as well as certain foods. I start by presenting developments in modern Western foodways concerning the consumption of meat and attitudes to it, and within these developments, the advancement of vegetarianism as a dietary option, a lifestyle and a social movement. I point out Japan’s contribution to these developments and identify the main tenets of the transnational vegetarian ideology resulting from the meeting of ‘West’ and ‘East’: compassion for all living beings, human health and vitality of vegetarian food, and concern about the natural environment. I proceed to present vegetarianism in Japan through a series of contextualised empirical examples consisting of a vegetarian organisation and four individuals operating in Japanese society. I identify all the three tenets in the rhetoric of the vegetarian organisation, whereas the individuals represent various combinations of them. My conclusion is that vegetarianism in Japan is both part of the transnational phenomenon, and a distinct local articulation of it. The distinctiveness stems from the specificity of the Japanese context, including the traditional Japanese worldview and a traditional ‘vegetarian’ practice which is part of that worldview. 3 Preface This paper does not make a claim to being either an exhaustive or even necessarily a representative picture of vegetarianism in Japan. It is a personal account by a fairly ignorant outsider to Japanese language and culture, though an insider to the transnational phenomenon of vegetarianism. I owe a debt of gratitude to all the people who – in so many different ways – have contributed to this paper seeing the light of day, not least to my supervisor, Arne Røkkum. 4 Contents SUMMARY...........................................................................................................................................2 PREFACE .............................................................................................................................................3 CONTENTS ..........................................................................................................................................4 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................6 THESIS STATEMENT ............................................................................................................................6 APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................9 CONCEPTS, NOTIONS, ANALYTICAL TOOLS AND FRAMEWORKS ........................................................12 Agency ........................................................................................................................................12 Foodways....................................................................................................................................12 Food avoidances and prohibitions .............................................................................................13 Social movements .......................................................................................................................13 The Japanese worldview in perspective .....................................................................................15 A ‘two-way stream’.....................................................................................................................17 VEGETARIANISM AS A DEFINITIONAL CHALLENGE ...........................................................................19 The challenges............................................................................................................................19 The definitions ............................................................................................................................20 Other approaches .......................................................................................................................23 Positioning..................................................................................................................................24 Japanese terms ...........................................................................................................................25 VEGETARIAN FOODWAYS IN WESTERN PERSPECTIVE....................................................28 THE TAILS OF THE COIN: MEAT-EATING ............................................................................................28 ‘Good to eat’ or ‘good to think with’?........................................................................................28 Developments in meat-eating .....................................................................................................30 A way of life in crisis? ................................................................................................................32 5 THE HEADS OF THE COIN: VEGETARIANISM.......................................................................................34 The development of modern vegetarianism ................................................................................34 ‘Cranks’ and other alternative ‘-isms’ .......................................................................................40 The hierarchy of foods................................................................................................................42 The vegetarian social profile......................................................................................................44 Vegetarian motivations...............................................................................................................45 More than a diet .........................................................................................................................46 From challenge to incorporation ...............................................................................................47 VEGETARIAN FOODWAYS IN JAPANESE PERSPECTIVE ...................................................50 THE LOCAL CONTEXT .......................................................................................................................50 Japanese foodways .....................................................................................................................50 The traditional worldview and approach to life .........................................................................61 Diversification of values and lifestyles.......................................................................................62 VEGETARIANISM IN JAPAN ...............................................................................................................64 JAPAN VEGETARIAN SOCIETY...............................................................................................66 KEIKO: Health and Environmental Protection..........................................................................78 HELEN: The Natural Food Movement.......................................................................................90 NATSUME: Animal Rights and Lay Buddhism ..........................................................................99 TENKAI MIKI: Monastic Buddhist Vegetarian Foodways ......................................................109 CONCLUSION: VEGETARIANISM - TRANSNATIONAL AND LOCAL..............................117 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................120 FILMOGRAPHY................................................................................................................................150 6 INTRODUCTION Modern vegetarianism is primarily a Western phenomenon. The West – in my argument shorthand for Western Europe, primarily Britain, and North America – is where vegetarianism in its modern guise originated, where it is most widespread and where it has also partly spread from to other parts of the world. This paper is going to trace these developments: the occurrence and advancement of modern vegetarianism in the West and its spread to one particular other country, Japan. At the same time, as will become apparent, the movement of ideas, foodways and foods has not just gone from the West to Japan. Japan has contributed to the development of what has become transnational vegetarianism. Thesis statement Having developed in the West, with a contribution
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