Caring (Enough) to Kill: On Making Meat and Eating Well in Rural Egypt

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size AcknowledgementsI thank Amira Mittermaier, Naisargi Davé, Sara Salih and Zoë Wool for their support during the various phases and renditions of this article.Notes1. Cited in María Puig de la Bellacasa, Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More than Human Worlds (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017), 3.2. John Hartigan, Care of the Species: Races of Corn and the Science of Plant Biodiversity (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017), xvii.3. Cited in Thom Van Doreen, Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of Extinction (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014), 83.4. Garry Marvin, “Wild Killing: Contesting the Animal in Hunting”, in Killing Animals, ed. The Animal Studies Group (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006), 20.5. Donald Winnicott, Collected Papers: Through Pediatrics in Psychoanalysis (London: Tavistock, 1958), 157–173.6. Cited in Joanna Kellond, Donald Winnicott and the Politics of Care (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), 145.7. Sarra Tlili, Animals in the Quran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 237.8. Tlili, Animals in the Quran, 91.9. Tlili, Animals in the Quran, 253.10. Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, Green Deen: What Islam Teaches about Protecting the Planet (Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2010), 143–144.11. The Quran, 2:168.12. Boğaç Ergene and Febe Armanios, Halal Food: A History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), 110.13. During fieldwork, “eating well” always included meat, home-reared trusted meat in particular. Since I shared with my interlocutors that I only eat chickens and no fish or red meat, they repeatedly took me as an example of someone who does not eat well. My interlocutors believed that I would only be able to eat well—thus eat meat—when I rear my own meat and thus trust and know where the meat I eat comes from. It would be interesting to historicize this definition of “well” as it pertains to eating meat within Islamic history. For example, Boğaç Ergene and Febe Armanios pointed out that in the time of prophet Muhammad, animal flesh was a rare source of nourishment: Camels were very prevalent, but they played many roles, and humans only slaughtered them when they had no other alternative. In fact, early Muslims viewed meat with suspicion and associated it with health problems and exuberance. In a medieval commentary, the fourth Sunni Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib is quoted to have instructed: “Do not allow your stomachs to become graveyards for animals”; Ergene and Armanios, Halal Food: A History, 33.14. Abdul-Matin, Green Deen, 147.15. Ahmed Wally, Grain and Feed Annual: Egypt Is Able to Secure Supply of Grains during the COVID-19 Pandemic (United States Department of Agriculture). Last modified March 17, 2021. https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/Report/DownloadReportByFileName?fileName = Grain + and + Feed + Annual_Cairo_Egypt_03-15-2021.pdf16. Jen Del Carmen, Egyptian Customers Continue to Benefit from U.S. Soy’s Technical Support, SEC Programs (United States Soybean Export Council). Last modified October 19, 2021. https://ussec.org/egyptian-customers-continue-to-benefit-from-u-s-soys-technical-support-sec-programs/17. U.S. Soybean Export Council, “Egyptian Poultry Customers Appreciate Technical Support from U.S. Soy.” Last Modified December 17, 2018. https://ussec.org/egyptian-poultry-customers-technical-support-u-s-soy/18. Shaza Roushdy, Livestock and Products Annual 2018: Egyptian Beef Prices Stable, Consumption and Imports to Rise in 2019 (United States Department of Agriculture). Last modified September 19, 2018. https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/report/downloadreportbyfilename?filename = Livestock%20and%20Products%20Annual_Cairo_Egypt_9-19-2018.pdf19. Mariano J. Beillard and Shaza Omar, Livestock and Products Annual 2020 (United States Department of Agriculture). Last modified September 22, 2020. https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/Report/DownloadReportByFileName?fileName = Livestock%20and%20Products%20Annual_Cairo_Egypt_09-01-202020. Mada Masr, “Egypt Delays Approval for Brazilian Meat Imports after Spoiled Meat Scandal.” Last modified March 23, 2017. https://www.madamasr.com/en/2017/03/23/news/u/egypt-delays-approval-for-brazilian-meat-imports-after-spoiled-meat-scandal/21. Sally Madhvi, “Egypt Stops Buffalo Meat Imports over Pesticide Concerns,” The Economic Times. Last modified November 20, 2020. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/egypt-stops-buffalo-meat-imports-over-pesticide-concerns/articleshow/79326052.cms?from = mdr22. Beillard and Omar, Livestock and Products Annual 2020, 6.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the Centre for Urban Environments Research Fund at the University of Toronto.Notes on contributorsNoha FikryNoha Fikry is a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.