Original scientific paper

Traces of Cannibalistic Instinct in Food Denomination

Maria Luisa Mayer Modena

Abstract

Drawing attention to the associations evoked in the process of food denomination, the
paper attempts to reveal the traces of cannibalistic instinct in this realm. By singling
out some of the principal ways used in the semantic reticulum to name food, special attention
is devoted to those names that allude to particular categories of enemies (devoured
as wholes or as parts of the body). What is referred to as »anti-taboo« shows how
the linguistic and more generally the anthropological 'substitution process' is a human
reaction to the persistence of the cannibalistic taboo in the face of the belief that cannibalism
is an impulse far removed from modern society. Finally it is noted that cannibalistic
metaphors have been analysed in other fields, whereas in the area of food denomination
they have been neglected. The suggestion is that the reason for such neglect may
lie in an attempt to conceal our closeness to the cannibalistic instinct in the form of linguistic
substitution.

Keywords

food denomination; cannibalism; anti-taboo theory; metaphor

Hrčak ID:

27938

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/27938

Publication date:

24.6.2004.

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