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We're going to talk in this next segment
about what counts as being food and what

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counts as not being food.
This brings us into all kinds of complex

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conversations that you and I have with the
other organic matter that populates our

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universe including like our friend here
this little puppy dog.

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He's not supposed to be getting into that
restaurant, why should the dog be mixing

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up in of course the dog should be kept out
of the restaurant that's where we eat

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food.
We want to be very cautious about where

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the boundary between food, and thing that
aren't food gets drawn, we want be

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cautious about that as human beings.
Now, for our episode as we saw in a final

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culminating on one of our adventures, we
have this question about food crimes.

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The Odysseus's men are punished severely.
They're supposed to just go ahead and

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accept the idea that they are gonna starve
to death, when all of this food that is

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fully authorized by their cultural norms
is sitting right in front of them

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glistening waiting for them to eat him.
And we're supposed to just say, let's just

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say Homer goes ahead and just says oh my
gosh, I can't believe they did that, it's

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awful, and they get blotted out from the
face of the earth.

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Their own reckless ways.
Remember, it's cued up for us at the very

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beginning of the epic causes Odysseus' men
cross the line and eat the Cattle of the

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Sun.
Now, on the one hand, we might think this

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seems like an absolutely ruthless kind of
divinity that would punish them so awfully

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for just doing what normal people would
do.

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Normal Greeks would do eating some flesh
of this animal cow which the Greeks said

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is completely authorized to eat.
Well it's not quite like that.

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We mentioned at the end of our last
lecture.

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The point here is that our god, Helios has
declared that these cows be not food.

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In taking them away from the category of
authorized protein to eat, what the god

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has done is remove them from the normal
kinds of things that you and I can go

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ahead and sink our teeth into and enjoy.
Now, when we get to this rule about what

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counts as being food and what is not food,
we enter into a very interesting kind of

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conversation with our fellow human beings.
Some of us will look at something like

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this little creature in front of us.
And say to ourselves, oh my goodness

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there's no way that, that could properly
count as food or meat.

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Certainly not, there's no way I could eat
this insect, this cricket with wings and

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it's probably crunchy and what do you do
with it anyway?

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It just seems for some of us to provoke a
kind of nasty response that would even be

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a disgust response where we would be
absolutely repulsed by the idea of eating

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this thing.
Then we might get into another cultural

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dimension where we would say, oh, look at
this little creature and there will be

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some people that say, well actually, this
is perfectly fine, this is food.

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And, and it's, it's perfectly happy and
healthy and it's the kind of thing you

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would serve to guests to make them feel
good.

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Other people will look at this exact same
creature and say to themselves, no.

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There's no way.
The disgust response will be provoked.

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Even at a creature that other people think
is just fine to eat.

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Then we'll run into this figure here.
Who dressed up as he is in the garb that

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the Greeks like to give to the sacrificial
animal that they're giving to the, to the

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gods.
And gods like to eat it.

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So we Greeks know that this is normal
authorized food.

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There will be some other cultures out
there contemporary ones and other past

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ones.
That would look at this source of food and

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say to themselves, ugh, it provokes a
disgust response.

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It can't count as food.
It's on the other side of that normal

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everyday dividing line between what's food
and what's not food.

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Others will see something like this and
look at it and say well maybe it's not the

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most tempting food but I, I could surely
eat it and it would sustain me for a meal.

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Others would be ravenous for this kind of
a thing.

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Still others would look at it and say, no
look at that it's a violation, this

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particular cheeseburger.
You're bringing together kinds of foods

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that ought never to be brought together,
and so a disgust response is provoked.

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Now, the line between what counts as
normal authorized food, things that are

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okay to eat, and food that is, or
potential food things you could chew up

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and swallow but that don't count as food.
That line is exceedingly, exceedingly

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clear for most of us.
In its clarity, most of think that it's

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absolutely natural, but when we look at
the cultural differences in historical

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context as well as even in a contemporary
context, it's obvious that this line,

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despite how clear it is, is not natural.
It's culturally informed.

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Culturally determined.
Our culture tells us what the line is

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between what's food and what's not food.
Now, this line then, this culturally

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constructed line, drawing it right down
the middle, I hope I'm on the not food

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side [laugh] over here is food and over
here is, let's say, for sure, not food.

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So this line down the middle, culturally
constructed as it is, just because it's

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culturally constructed doesn't mean
therefore it's irrelevant.

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Well gosh, it's extremely relevant.
It's exceedingly relevant for all of us.

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It's one of the basic building blocks of
how we decide we're gonna associate with

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people.
Do they eat the same kind of a food that I

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do?
And if they don't eat a food that I do and

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we see them on the other side of this of
this food line, we say to ourselves oh my

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goodness that's so strange.
And in fact, we may have a kind of disgust

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response watching the other people eat
this food that's not authorized in our

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cultural categories.
That disgust response is non negotiable.

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So, the line between what's food and
what's not food is culturally determined.

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Number one and number two, it's also
non-negotiable.

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When someone is entering into that kind of
disgust response, oh my god, you're eating

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something that doesn't count as food, it's
not as though you can just kind of talk

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them out of it.
And say, oh wait a minute it's a perfectly

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clean protein source.
You deep fry anything for long enough and

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it becomes clean.
You're going to be okay, it's been

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prepared very carefully, etc, etc, etc.
You can't just get talked out of whatever

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disgust response you have.
The point is, that there is a strong, firm

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line between what's food and what's not
food.

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Now, at the far end of the category of
things that count as being not food, I've

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already alluded to it in drawing my line
where I did.

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Food on this side, not food over here.
At the far end of the not food is, that's

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right.
You and me.

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We count as not food for you and I.
And mostly, I'm not going to say it's

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absolutely universally true, but mostly
it's true.

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And by mostly very widely, is it true that
eating other human beings is considered to

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be an awful from the crime.
And it's absolutely case for the Greeks

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the idea of humans eating other human ugh,
that's just the worst the idea of monsters

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eating other humans, the idea of any human
beings entering into the food chain.

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We are talking about food crimes, when we
are talking about entering into the food

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chain.
And if other human are the people

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responsible for doing the metabolizing,
then it gets even worse.

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So crossing that line between what counts
as food and not food provokes a disgust

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response.
That's not negotiable, it just happens.

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It also flirts with, flirts with, but
doesn't always cross the line of, but

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flirts with that most extreme of food
crimes which we would put in the category

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of cannibalism.
Eating something that's not authorized as

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food gets us already thinking down that
path.

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So now, for Odysseus and his men to
transgress this line and go ahead and eat

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something that they already know or god
has declared is, count, counts as being

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not food is a much more serious thing than
just satisfying their hunger because they

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happen to have got into a bad spot in
their journey.

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No, it's, they have crossed a food crime.
Now when they've done that and entered

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into taking upon themselves to metabolize
something they ought not to be

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metabolizing they have committed an awful
crime indeed, and therefore the god is

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going to have it out and punish them with
utter severity.