Dangerous Meats in Colonial Hà Nội

This paper historically and anthropologically examines colonial Hà Nội’s black market in meat. Beginning in 1888, colonial officials attempted to assert control over the slaughter, sale, and consumption of meat in the city. These efforts were resisted for decades and resulted in the presence of what officials described as “dangerous meats” in Hà Nội’s food supply. This resistance revealed tensions that existed between colonizers and colonized related to such issues as (in)edibility and the social production of meat, but it also had deeper implications regarding the acceptable limits of governance and the manner in which legislation structured and informed unsanctioned activities, notably the production of contraband meat, in colonial Hà Nội and its environs.