I think that it is more than just culture. It is as much how you have lived as where you live. I am a country boy and the difference between country people and city folks is a huge and growing chasm. Part of the difference has to do with how close you live to the earth and all of its creatures great and small and even the plants on a farm are little different to you than the animals. They all require feeding, care, water, and protection from things that would eat or harm them.
People in town may have gardens, pets and lots of birds and squirrels in their yard, and lawns that they take great care for but there is a big difference. You take care of your cattle, pigs, rabbits, chickens, and ducks BUT the day also comes when you will go out and kill one for your supper or to butcher for the freezer. You may have bottle-raised a calf that you bought from a dairy. They sell bull calf CHEAP because they have no use for them at the dairy. You know even as you pet him and feed him that he is food. We usually named them Hamburger, Cheeseburger or T-Bone to keep this in mind.
They were cared for and protected, I would say that we even offered them love but you always knew that they would be killed so that you could eat. You may eat meat from the store but that doesn't bring you close to the truth of your nature like killing something in cold blood for supper. It isn't at all like hunting. You just have to have the ability to love, respect them for their sacrifice and still understand that they must die for you to live. Even vegetarians live at the cost of the lives of animals. Those big farms that grow your food do it on land that used to be home to many animals and they were both displaced and killed for their land.
i am not at all cold-hearted but because of the way I was raised, I would never have a problem sacrificing the life of an animal to better the lives of those that I care about. To me, there is little to no difference between sacrificing a chicken or frog to lift a curse from someone that I care for and killing livestock to feed my family. It would be evil to kill to place the curse but we all live off the deaths of animals and plants. I always have felt that when you eat you are nourished by their life that they gave up that you might live. The meat is infused with their life and if you accept their gift and honor it you get more than just meat from them.
Modern people are too far from reality. The people like me that have lived closer to the bone are appalled by the way commercial chicken places treat their birds. I have often felt like if you won't kill one then maybe you shouldn't eat them. When you kill them you understand the gift they offer you. Buying it in the store distances you from them. It is sanitized and you don't think of it as ever having been a living creature.
Where people believe in curses and witch doctors there is no difference between killing an animal to eat and killing one to appease the spirits and allow you to live.
People seldom understand people that were raised in a different culture. Their gods are just as real to them as your gods are to you. They see things in their culture as the RIGHT way to live and do just like you believe the things that your culture has taught you.
