Here in the Bel Paese, like in many other poor or ex-poor countries, there are ancient dishes that are handed down from a generation to the next. And in some cases these old time favourites come back, as nouvelle cuisine delicacies. A few years ago I went for dinner to 'Checchino dal 1887' in Testaccio, one of the upcoming Roman neighbourhood (forget Trastevere, nowadays a theatrical stage left to American students, Japanese tourists and fake Irish pubs). To my French, long-living-in-the-UK friend, the menu sounded almost unbelievably gross: entrails, tripe, sweetbreads, tongue, brains, veal intestines, paws, tail. The restaurant is located just opposite the ancient slaughter house and the legend says that the animals were brought there to slaughter on behalf of the rich prelates and nobles of Rome, and what was left, the so called 'quinto quarto' – the fifth quarter of the carcass: the entrails, the tail, the testicles, etc. – was given as a bonus on top of their scarce salary to the butchers, the skinners and the other unfortunate employees that were each day in contact with meat and food that they could not even dream about! They would then go cross the road to 'Checchino' to have it barbequed.
A last word on the religion-imposed food limitations must be saved for Christianity. Well, mainstream Christians don't really follow any similarly strict rules as described above: according to one interpretation of Mark's Gospel in fact, Jesus said that men are ruined by what comes out of them, not by what goes into them [Mk. 7:19] and God himself specified to Peter that we are not to “call anything impure that God has made clean” [Acts 10:15], both clearly intending to overrule the Old Testament regulations by declaring all foods clean and allowed to their followers. An emphasis is given to having a healthy and strong body with which to serve and honour God: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” [1 Corinthians 10:31]. Moderation is certainly auspicated in many passages in the Bible, so much that gluttony is one of the capital sins – along with lust, anger, sloth and so on – and “winebibbers” are explicitly condemned [Proverbs 23:19-21].
Indeed, Christians are commanded to fast in the Bible, in order to cleanse and strengthen their spirit. The three-day fast seems to be especially recommended; although Moses has been said to abstain from food and water during the forty days he spent on Mount Sinai during the dictation of the commandments, this is seen more as an exception than an example to follow… This said, Eastern Orthodox Christians should respect a series of dietary limitations throughout the year, having to regularly avoid olive oil, meat, fish, milk and dairy products every Wednesday (betrayal of Christ) and Friday (crucifixion of Christ) plus submit themselves to three periods of 'partial fast' (40 days before Christmas, 48 before Easter and 15 in conjunction with Assumption day, the 15th of August) during which meat, dairy products and eggs are not allowed. During these fasting periods, fruits and vegetables, legumes, carbohydrates, olive oil and seafood are allowed: what's generally referred to as 'mediterranean diet' is in reality nowadays the staple of a quite limited amount of devout mediterranean basin inhabitants!
The main point about Christianity is however the theophagy performed through the transubstantiation and the Holy Communion rites – a primitive act of symbolic cannibalism that has been handed down from ancient times through to modern day Mass – during which Christians receive a morsel of Christ's body (the wafer) and a slug of his blood (the red wine). Cannibalism, in the sense of consumption of human flesh by human beings, is
widely spread in space and time terms: many cultures are known to practice or to have practiced forms of cannibalism, and for different cultural reasons. Since prehistoric times, anthropophagic rituals are and have been at the centre of numerous cults and ethnic groups, such as the Aztecs, Celtics, Amazonian populations, Congo pygmies, New Guinea Fore and Korowai tribes, Anasazi Indians in North America, … The list is endless, and by no means accurate. There are known examples in fact that those reporting the alleged anthropophagism have extensively used the accusation of cannibalism to justify racist crimes and persecutions – Anglosaxon colonizers and slave drivers in primis. As well as satanic ritual cannibalisms, other types survive in the modern era, for instance the so-called 'surviving' kind, practiced to avoid starvation (famous is the episode of the Uruguayan rugby players plane-crashed on the Andes in 1972), or the 'funereal' one, when dead relatives are eaten out of respect to ease the pain of one's loss, or the decidedly morbid psychosexual disorder which affects people who can only obtain sexual gratification by eating human flesh. And, believe it or not, there are also disturbed individuals who eat human flesh because it “is delicious, very high quality meat” [Issei Sagawa, self confessed Japanese student who killed and ate a Dutch fellow student in 1981].