Sacred Rituals and Humane Death: Religion in the Ethics and Politics of Modern Meat

(Hardback)

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Sacred Rituals and Humane Death critically analyzes the civilizing nature of the underlying fundamental concept of humaneness in contemporary discourses around modern meat and animal ethics. As religious methods of animal slaughter, such as the halal method in Islam, as well as the practice of religious animal sacrifice, are sometimes categorized as barbaric in recent debates, the civilizing narrative of progress leads supposedly to more humane adaptation of methods and practices of animal curation and slaughter. This volume argues that the shift toward modern meat does not constitute a shift toward less pain and suffering as purported by supporters of contemporary methods, particularly mass agriculture. Rather, it is a shift in what is considered as acceptable versus unacceptable pain and suffering. In this work, the author analyzes the concealment and distancing that characterize modern meat production, uncovering the acceptable pain and suffering involved in these procedures heralded as progress and advocating for a retrieval of earlier, tradition-bound practices rooted in religious, cultural, and ethical respect of animals and their important and sacred roles in sacrifice.

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Dahlan contests the commodification that impels secular meat consumption as well as the assumption that halal status depends on the slaughter method alone.She challenges her fellow Muslims to take farm animal diets, housing and flourishing just as seriously while also calling into question the poor animal welfare in so much modern farming. Thisbook launches a two-way critical dialogue that must continue. -- David Grumett, Senior Lecturer in Theology and Ethics, University of Edinburgh

Author Bio

Magfirah Dahlan is full-time faculty in religious studies, philosophy, and political science at Craven Community College. She has published on religious ethics, animal ethics, Islamic food justice, identity politics, and multiculturalism.