Dog Meat, Cultural Identity, And Ethical Boundaries: A Sociocultural Analysis of Mizo Society

Abstract

Food practices are not merely nutritional activities but important sites through which societies construct identity, social distinction, morality, and cultural belonging. The consumption of dog meat presents a particularly complex case because dogs may simultaneously occupy categories of companion, animal, food, and culturally meaningful social object. This article examines dog-meat consumption in Mizo society through a sociocultural and interpretive framework, focusing on the relationship between cultural identity, food classification, moral boundaries, and changing ethical perceptions. The study adopts a qualitative conceptual methodology based exclusively on the provided anthropological and sociological literature. Particular attention is given to Appadurai's concept of food as a field of social negotiation, Douglas's analysis of purity and taboo, Bourdieu's theory of taste and distinction, Fischler's relationship between food and identity, and scholarship on human–animal relationships. The analysis indicates that attitudes toward dog meat cannot be adequately understood through a universal binary of acceptable and unacceptable food. Rather, they emerge through culturally specific systems of classification, socialization, historical experience, religious influence, and changing relationships between humans and animals. The article further argues that Mizo food practices should be understood as dynamic rather than culturally fixed. Moral disagreement surrounding dog meat reflects broader processes through which communities negotiate tradition, identity, modernity, and ethical change.