Meigs

In the article, Food as a Cultural Construction. Anna Meigs shows us how the Hua people believe food and eating is a part of a central process that connects organic to inorganic forms. Meigs explores how food and eating are understood as a means that unite apparently separate and diverse objects and organisms, both physiologically and mystically, in a single life. This eating induced unity has important implications for the Hua understanding of self. Among the Hua all persons observe food rules.

All Hua rules are either absolute or relative. Absolute rules define a relation between the consumer and a certain kind of food. X can not eat Y. An example of this rule is, Men prior to battle should eat kaso’namo (sharp scratchy things). What this means is that the Hua hope that the sharp, wounding, scratchy, blood drawing qualities of such plants will be transmitted to there eaters, making them ore fierce and effective fighters. Relative rules define a relationship between a consumer, a food, and a source. X can not eat Y from Z. An example is when a stranger tries to give you food. You don’t take it in fear that is might be contaminated because they may have intension of harming you.

Relative rules deals with nu, a central concept in Hua culture, and in theory of nurture. Nu is associated with quintessentially with body fluids (sweat) but it also includes any body substance (hair)and is extended to any product of the body (footprint) or its labor. Nu is always in motion. Nu is passed directly from person to person, not only intensional acts (blood letting) but also through unintentional acts (transfers of body oil). All foods with the exception of wild species contain the nu of their producer..All food transactions involve transfers and exchanges of nu. Aging is the expenditure of nu by the senior generation on the junior generation, so aging is a process of "nurturing oneself out."Nu is the source of nourishment and growth; the most powerful forms of nu is the most direct, blood and flesh.