[KS] custom and new environment:dog-eating
HEEKYUNG LEE
100290 at soas.ac.uk
Fri Jul 21 06:15:19 EDT 2000
> I also have been away, and now I would like to add my opinion.
>
> Personally, I love dogs enormously, having two of them as family
> pets. Historically, of course, in East Asia, in ancient Chinese
culture dog meat would have been consumed and would even
occasionally have been eaten in sacrificial and ceremonial context.
>
> Thesedays, Korean newspapers frequently contain articles debating the
> pros and cons of eating dog-meat. For myself, I do not see how the
> Korean custom of eating dogs is any worse or any better than the
> Western custom of consuming sheep, horses and many other sorts of
> animal.
>
> Historically, in Korea, the quality of the land available for animal
> pasturation was never particularly high. This may be one reason why,
> in the past, people ate dogs despite the emotional ties which arose
> when people and dogs lived in such close proximity. It is interesting
> to note the differences between the roles played by dogs in Western
> and Korean societies, a subject which would perhaps be worth pursuing
> on another occasion. In this light, I do not find the eating of dogs
> any more or less cruel than the eating of sheep.
>
> Eating the flesh of other living beings may well be cruel. Yet,
> in the name of human well-being we have always eaten the bodies of
> other creatures. However, it is also true that we seem, either
> consciously or subconsciously, to try to eat only those creatures who
> we feel are rather more 'remote' from ourselves than those we take as
> our 'neighbours'.
>
> Furthermore, thesedays, we Koreans have a much wider range of
possible sources of meat from which to choose. > The transformation
of our natural environment has led to noticeable > modifications in
people's behaviour. In such a changed environment, I, "personally",
believe that it would be much more considerate to > choose other
sorts of meat rather than that of dogs. This is because
> they have, so far, been faithful neighbours to human beings. A
> similar argument, by the way, can be applied to the custom of hunting
> in the West. This is an activity which has been, and continues to
> be, relatively widely pursued when compared to Korea, a point which I
> cannot develop here.
>
> Heekyung Lee
>
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
More information about the Koreanstudies
mailing list