[Sca-cooks] Horseflesh in Early Period NW Europe?

[Laureen Hart]

Hippophagy - I never knew there was a specific term for it.
Is there one for eating dog? Canophagy? (no Latin here).
Both are pretty emotionally charged topics.
Other animals were used/eaten sacrificially, I wonder what caused the church
to ban horse specifically? Logistically it is probably more cost effective
to raise other animals to eat so maybe it was a "safe" thing to ban? Was
there dispensation to eat them if you were starving, or in a siege or
something?

They used to carry Horsemeat at the Seattle Pike Place Market. It really
freaked some people out. I understand some of the issues with where the meat
was supposedly coming from (wild mustangs), but some people were outraged at
the concept of it in any form.

I have always figured something raised to eat or wear isn't any different
from eating or wearing a cow. I have learned to be generally cautious
discussing it. I even have to keep my mouth shut when people start talking
about "Dolphin safe Tuna" Guys...what about the Tunas, who is keeping them
safe?

That said, I would have to be reaaaaallly hungry to eat cat. 
Randell Raye.

-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-bounces+lhart=graycomputer.com at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-cooks-bounces+lhart=graycomputer.com at lists.ansteorra.org] On
Behalf Of Terry Decker
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 1:55 PM
To: Cooks within the SCA
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Horseflesh in Early Period NW Europe?

Gerald or Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) provides a description of the 
sacrifice and consumption of horse in Ulster, chapter 102 of his The History

and Topography of Ireland.

St. Boniface's mission to the Germans (part of Charlemagne's move to control

the various German tribes) espoused the papal prohibition of not eating 
horsemeat.  Hippophagy was prohibited to Christians apparently because it 
was tied to pagan sacrifice across a wide range of migratory peoples.  A 
dispensation was given to Iceland in 999.

You might wish to check out:  Bhawe, S., Die Yajus des Asvamedba; Versuch 
einer Rekontruktion dieses Abschnittes des Yajurveda auf Grund der 
Uberlieferung seiner funf Schulen, Bonner orientalistiche Studien 25, 
Stuttgart, 1939.  Bhawe ties hippophagy to to an ancient Indo-European 
fertility rite.

You might also try contacting Ken Jukes, who appears to writing a dsoctoral 
thesis entitled Hippophagy in AngloSaxon England. 
http://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/?id=1225

Bear