Monkey brains

Simulated monkey brains displayed at Tao Heung Museum of Food Culture, Hong Kong, as part of a Manchu Han Imperial Feast

Monkey brains is a dish consisting of, at least partially, the brain of some species of monkey or ape. In Western popular culture, its consumption is repeatedly portrayed and debated, often in the context of portraying exotic cultures as exceptionally cruel, callous, and/or strange.[1]

Consumption

It is unclear whether monkey brains have ever been served in a restaurant, or whether the practice itself is an urban legend.[2] While historically being a part of the Manchu Han Imperial Feast, modern day official Chinese policy with regards to killing endangered wildlife species in order to recreate portions of the feast is illegal, with sentences of up to 10 years in prison for violators.[3] Additionally, confusion over the name of the dish may have played a part in the concept, arising from the fact that in the Chinese language the term "Monkey Head" (猴頭) may also be used to refer to what is known in English as the Lion's Mane Mushroom.[2] Beyond Asia and into Africa, Angela Meder describes in Gorilla Journal a cultural practice of the Anyang tribe of Cameroon whereby a new tribal chief consumes the brain of a hunted gorilla while another senior member of the tribe eats the heart. According to the account, the practice occurs only in those specific instances, as the killing of gorillas is a forbidden practice. This tradition was reported as vanishing in 1999.[4]

Health risks

Consuming the brain and other nervous system tissues of animals is considered hazardous to human health.[5] Brain consumption can result in contracting fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathies such as variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease and other prion diseases.[6][7][8]

Depictions in media

Perhaps the most notorious depiction of the consumption of monkey's brains is from the 1978 mondo film Faces of Death, directed by John Alan Schwartz.[9] The scene depicts a restaurant with a Middle Eastern theme, including harem dancers, where American tourists are seated around a specially-designed table. A server brings out a live monkey which is enclosed in a central cage in such a manner that its head is all that is exposed. Hammers are then distributed to the restaurant patrons, who proceed to hit the monkey in the head until it dies.[10] The server then cuts open the skull and removes the monkey's brains directly onto the plates of the customers. Like many other scenes in the film, Schwartz has admitted that the scene was faked.[10][9] The hammers were foam (so as not to harm the actual monkey involved) while the 'monkey head' was actually filled with gelatin, red food coloring, and cauliflower simulating the brain.[9] Additional depictions from films released in the decade following Faces of Death were seemingly influenced by the scene, including the 1984 film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and the 1985 comedy film Clue.[1][11] Beyond Faces of Death's intent on shock value in keeping with its status as a mondo film, what the scenes mostly have in common are their representations of Orientalism, which according to author Sophia Rose Arjana are meant to "conflate bizarre and vulgarized representations of the Far East" in order to disseminate a narrative on the "dangers that non-Christians pose to 'civilized' Westerners."[12][10]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Rodewald, Lucas Alan (2016). "The Adventures of Teaching Indiana Jones in the World of the Other". Misrepresentation at the Movies: Film, Pedagogy, and Postcolonial Theory in the Secondary English Classroom (Masters thesis). Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University. pp. 22–34. Document No. 10126564 – via ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
  2. 1 2 Schreiber, Mark (August 8, 2002). "Debunking Strange Asian Myths: Part II". The Japan Times. The Japan Times Ltd. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  3. ↑ Florcruz, Michelle (3 December 2012). "China Cracks Down On Monkey Brain And Other Wild Animal Delicacies". International Business Times. Newsweek Media Group.
  4. ↑ Meder, Angela (June 1999). "Gorillas in African Culture and Medicine" (PDF). Gorilla Journal. 18: 3. Retrieved 2014-09-22.
  5. ↑ Legg, N.J.; Thomson, Alexa (February 1972). "Multiple Sclerosis and the Eating of Sheep's Brains". The Lancet. 299 (7746). doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(72)92892-9.
  6. ↑ "Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease after Eating Ovine Brains?". New England Journal of Medicine. 292 (17): 927–927. 24 April 1975. ISSN 0028-4793. doi:10.1056/NEJM197504242921721.
  7. ↑ Berger, Joseph R; Weisman, Erick; Weisman, Beverly (August 1997). "Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and Eating Squirrel Brains". The Lancet. 350 (9078). doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(05)63333-8.
  8. ↑ Collinge, John (2001). "Prion Diseases of Humans and Animals: Their Causes and Molecular Basis". Annual Review of Neuroscience. 24: 519–50. PMID 11283320. doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.24.1.519.
  9. 1 2 3 Hickey, Brian (2012). "Open The Skull: The Faces Of Death Guy Looks Back". Deadspin. Retrieved 2015-03-27.
  10. 1 2 3 Carter, David Ray (2010). "It's Only A Movie? Reality as Transgression in Exploitation Cinema". In Cline, John; Weiner, Robert J. From the Arthouse to the Grindhouse: Highbrow and Lowbrow Transgression in Cinema's First Century. Scarecrow Press. p. 307. ISBN 9780810876552.
  11. ↑ Jonathan Lynn (1985). Clue (Motion picture). Story by John Landis and Jonathan Lynn; Screenplay by Jonathan Lynn. Produced by Debra Hill. Paramount / PolyGram. ISBN 9780792166214. OCLC 995588231. Monkey's brains, though popular in Cantonese cuisine, are not often to be found in Washington, D.C.
  12. ↑ Arjana, Sophia Rose (2015). Muslims in the Western Imagination. Oxford University Press. p. 143. ISBN 9780199324927.
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