Meat Culture And Its Symbolic Significance Among The Kazakhs

Owing to the unique nomadic production of the Kazakh people, a distinctive type of food culture was developed in the steppes. Meat is an integral part of Kazakh's food culture's material base as well as an important source of their spiritual wealth, and thus is a central concern to Kazakh cultural studies.Based on four months of field research in which primary materials and documentary sources were collected, this study utilizes ethnology and symbolic anthropological theories and methodologies to give a detailed introduction to Kazakh's living environment and economic livelihood.The custom of treating guests with meat has been passed down through generations of Kazakhs. Different sections of mutton, beef, horse, or camel meat are given to different types of guests; who eats first, how they eat, and what part they eat are all governed by certain rules, and reflect a family or community's social level, a person's gender role, and power relationships. These rules form a non-institutionalized culture. During the process of meat consumption, we not only can see people's morals, cultural attainment, existential condition, social needs, and other spiritual and material manifestations, we can also ascertain the deep symbolic meaning given to people by food.This paper is divided into four sections, as follows:The first section is an introduction which describes the purpose and significance of the research, the scope of food culture and state of the art, the basic conditions of the field research, description of the field research site, the current state of research on the subject in and out of China, and the methodology used in this paper.The second chapter describes the living environment, economic life, and structure of consumption. In order to better understand Kazakh's meat culture, this chapter gives a detailed introduction to the domestic environment, economic life, and traditional economic production of the Kazakhs. On this basis, the structure of Kazakh's consumption habits will be explored in order to explicate the place of meat in Kazakh food culture.The third section is dedicated to the symbolic significance of Kazakh meat culture. This is the core of the study;first the methods of domestic livestock slaughter, meat production, division of bones and meat, and the related symbolic significance found in customs and eating will be introduced in detail. This will be followed by an explication of the process of meat consumption, the distribution of meat, the purpose of the distribution, and the social division reflected in Kazakh meat customs. Finally the symbolic significance of every section of bone and meat will be explained.The fourth section is about meat related rituals, folk games, and taboos found in Kazakh culture. Etiquette is an important part of Kazakh meat culture, it provides a smooth, ordered progression for meat related activities. The relation between all types of etiquette and meat consumption are explored in this section. Then all sorts of folk games and their social functions are introduced, and finally some taboos related to Kazakh meat culture will be explored.