why do some cultures (esp. asian) love to eat animal parts that (most) westerners would find disgusting?

Question

most people here are giving poverty as the reason. they say poor people will eat anything because they're so hungry.

but in china, strange animal parts are considered rare delicacies. people spend hundreds of dollars for rare organs. they obvioulsy must like them for some reason!

Answer 1

Cultural pecularities can not only be bound geographically, but also temporally. Things the Chinese, for instance, eat today may seem wierd, but you might have a hard time with some of the things Americans ate only a century ago. Lard sandwiches, Coca-Cola with peanuts in it, dandelions, and other things. Heck, you might think what some Americans eat today is wierd. Rocky Mountain Oysters come to mind. The short answer is, "That's just the way it is." I worked with a Chinese guy this summer who got disgusted by things like cheese. He thinks we're the wierd ones.

Answer 2

Asian cultures as well as most other traditional human groups outside Judeo-Christian traditions have not evolved under the food taboos of the tribes of Israel. Much of the West has a hidden set of laws that favor some animals while declaring others "unclean". That is because Western society is culturally rooted in the Mosaic law which defined "clean" animals in about 3700 B.C., minimally 5 to 7 thousand years ago! A long time to create customs that by now, seem to have lost their begining.

Under the Mosaic law, clean foods include birds but not those that feed on other birds, fish or animals. Not many in North America would consider an Eagle or a Crow fit for food. Do you like sea food? Well, fish is a clean food but it must have scales, thus no shrimp, crab, lobster or clams, not even cat fish because they are scavengers or filter feeders. Are you seeing a pattern here? If it is a mammal it must have a cloven hoof and chew the cud, eliminating all but grazing animals which is why rats, cats, dogs, and even horses are generally safe from being used as human food in Europe & North America, but no rabbit stew or pork ribs allowed, not to mention turtle soup!

Answer 3

Different strokes for different folks. All ethnic cuisine are relative to that ethnic. What one find disgusting might not be suitable for another's discriminating palate.? It's a question of individual idiosyncracies.

Asians eat a lot of animal parts as delicacies, They also try to consume every part; so nothing goes to waste.. In Cambodia they eat fried locusts and crickets. The Japanese eat even whales.and komodo dragons which are both extinct. Have you tried cow's brains? it's called sweetbread over here. And the insides of a pig and cows could be made into chicharons.

I can not bring myself to eat frog's legs( I magine them in my anatomy and physiology lab). Raw oysters which I consider eating snut.

Maybe by adhering to this kind of diet, there would be less health issues. Here in the US, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart attacks are prevalent . There are so much of everything, rich, fatty foods.

Most Asians are slender or skinny; and have less health problems. You hardly find a fat chinese. They use some animal parts for medicines along with a lot of herbs. They are a pioneer in alternative medicine. Have you tried goat? it's good; as goat currry. .

Dogs are eaten in some parts of the third world countries. Dogs are not considered as pets or babies unlike here. Some Indians do not eat anything with hoofs....... ergo no cows which is considered sacred and pigs. In Cambodia, rats are considered sacred and they are allowed to run about free.

Answer 4

A lot of ethnic groups dont see animals in terms of "Oh this animal herds sheep, so we cant eat it." They see all animals (and plants) as either nutritious or unhealthy. Anything considered nutritious is fair game.

In the west we have developed certain roles for animals eg. dogs are pets, cows are for food, and that's why we get so uncomfortable when we hear of eating an animal that we dont see as food. It just has to do with the way people perceive the animal.

Remember, in the west we eat things that many other ethnic groups would find absolutely vile, so it works both ways.

Answer 5

In some cultures the power of an animal is considered to be consumed by the person who eats that animal. Certain parts of that animal contain other desired features that can also be transferred to the human for example:
If a man eats a bull's testicles it is thought that the man will posess the bull's virility.

Answer 6

Hasn't it occurred to you that other cultures may find what we eat disgusting? (Beef to Indians, for instance). You're looking at it from a very euro-centric stand point, as if the Western view of the world were the only real one. They eat things we would consider "exotic" or disgusting, because in their culture evolved that way. It's no different from the way our culture grew to value certain dishes as delicacies, and who really knows how this happened in any culture.

Answer 7

Because they have had to learn to use every part of the animal that they kill--the Native Americans that were habitating this country that we now call home did the same thing with buffalo. No part of the animal went unused. Those traditions have been passed down through the generations.

Answer 8

Dude. I'm white. (From Africa - granted) My grandmother used to make curried tripe and I would sometimes come home from school to find a sheep's head staring back at me out of the oven... you will be outside, thinking "What is that heavenly smell" and then... that. My grandfather used to go for the eyes first - that was his favourite... Asian? Have you seen what any hungry person will be willing to eat? (Hannibal Lector... now there's a picky eater...)

Answer 9

It is because they are used to that and it is not disgusting for us... we in the Philippines basically eat all the chicken parts, the head, the liver, the intestines, the feet, the meat of cors... I don't blame westerners find our food disgusting... it's normal for us, it's abnormal for them... i hope westerners who read this do not find us dirty because believe me, we asians take a bath especially here in SEA, take a bath everyday!

Answer 10

Ah- I bet they think exactly the same thing about us. Also- there is the matter of how little food there is for people to eat. Ants, rats & dogs probably start to look pretty tasty after awhile if there's nothing else to eat!