My Year of Meats

First of all, My Year of Meats so far is one of the most interesting novels that, in my opinion, we've read in class. (despite the fact that we haven't read much of it yet!) I love the switching between point of views and I like how you can see differences in the character's embodiment and roles that they play in two completely separate cultures. One of the quotes that I chose to write about was found on page 14:
     
 "The eating of meat in Japan is relatively new custom. In the Heian Court, which ruled from the eighth to the twelfth centuries, it was certainly considered uncouth; due to the influences of Buddhism, meat was more than likely thought to be unclean."

The quote shows the influence that Religious bodies and beliefs had on the cultures of the people of the time. So far there is a very present aspect of cultural differences between the embodiment of the characters. There was also another section of our reading that emphasized that fact. On pages 12 and 13, the section titled "Note on American Husbands" described, while not bringing up the religious aspects of it, the similar theme of the differences in cultures. Japan's culture didn't eat meat because of it's "uncleanliness" and religious beliefs. It also compared to how the American household couples are different than what the Japanese household couples seem to be. With that, along with the mentioning of the lack of dietary meat in Japan, those are just two examples of how the cultural embodiment are described within the first 3 chapters of the book.

I imagine that there will be plenty of more differences seen throughout the pages that enhance the differences between the roles of culture and the way it influences both genders to act. I hope that there is a bigger theme of how the meat is produced and I hope that the book explores more into the things that people seem to ignore when it comes to producing meat for the consumers of both cultures.