DVM 4330 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Biopolitics

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: International Development and Globalization
• Course: DVM 4330
• Professor: Alberto Florez- Malagon

Document Summary

Reading notes: consuming flesh: the biopolitics of beef consumption by gwendolyn. Gwendolyn blue"s article notes that biopolitical construction can give meaning to animal bodies for human when it is consumed as flesh. The reduction of animals to meat, through the development of the business of slaughterhouse based on the mass killing of animals, designed for the visual as well as factual consumption by the masses. The author notes that beef consumption can be analysed through a cultural politics lens, where the consumption of meat may hold uniquely attitudes in a different cultures. For example, westerns do not consume dogs, cats, horses because these animals are domesticated with love and affection and are seen to have personalities. In india, eating beef is a taboo because of the sacredness of the cow and the value it brings to households in india. Meat consumption therefore is understood as a marker to draw differences between societies and cultures.