The rigor of death: the symbolic construction of the meat animal in the brazilian production

Author(s)

Juliana Vergueiro Gomes Dias

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2009-02-27

Examining board members

Nadia Farage; Omar Ribeiro Thomaz; Marina Denise Cardoso

• Advisor: Nadia Farage

Abstract

This work analyses the construction of the symbolic statute of the edible domestic animals in the contemporary brazilian industrial context. The focal point is on animal production and more specifically in its final phase, the slaughtering, which, in articulation with the universe of consumption, constitutes an important moment in the construction of the edible, i.e., the historical category of "meat animal". The meat industry presupposes disjunctions and distances, which result in the production of a commodity, autonomous and distant from its actual origin, the animal. Amongst the disjunction mechanisms promoted by the industry, the method of humane slaughter yields high symbolic results, since it permits the paradoxical gathering of the mitigation of animal suffering and the efficiency, epitome of the logic of the industrial capital (AU)