Wspólnoty mięsa. Konstruowanie tożsamości grupowej wokół sporu o ubój rytualny
Meat Communities. The Constructions of Collective Identity around the Ritual Slaughter Dispute

Summary/Abstract: Recent legal changes resulted in an outburst of interest in the moral and legal acceptability of the ritual slaughter in Poland. The aim of the article is to establish in what ways the dispute over the slaughter method contributed to the construction of collective identities of two involved groups: Polish Tatars and animal rights activists. On the basis of the materials published by the groups in question, it is shown that the Tatars cement their collective identity of meritorious Poles while add an element of being the victims of political quarrels and religious discrimination. Animal rights activists deny being anti‑Semitic or Islamophobic, but they present themselves as more civilized and humane than the minority. Thus, the view on the superiority of the majority’s culinary practices is strengthened. Both groups refer to the nationalist discourse and the category of being Polish. The article shows that the nationalist discourse is flexible enough to accommodate contradictory claims of both groups, while the category of ethnicity is not deemed useful by the Tatars. Moreover, the privilege of apparent ethnic neutrality remains invisible to the social majority.

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