More than two decades ago, Lévi-Strauss argued that bovine spongiform encephalopathy was the result of forced cannibalism among cattle. He pointed out that not only the consumption of cattle organs by cattle but also the eating of beef by humans is a kind of cannibalism among animals. His argument highlighted the negative aspects of connection and assimilation in the act of eating. Today, several anthropological responses have been evoked to address the social, (bio)political, and economic problems caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Although this article is part of that wider corpus, it focuses not on the novel aspects of the phenomenon but on relatively familiar aspects using “classic” anthropological ideas such as substance code, dividual personhood, and taboo. By comparing the circulation of viruses within and beyond species boundaries with the circulation of substance codes observed in South Asian societies, I point out the imaginariness not of dividual personhood but of our existence as individuals. These examinations raise the significance of the anthropological understanding of people’s practices regarding boundary making and unmaking between the human and the wild to consider the problem of zoonoses originating from wild animals.

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二十多年前，Lévi-Strauss 认为牛海绵状脑病是牛被迫同类相食的结果。他指出，不仅牛食用牛器官，人类食用牛肉也是一种动物之间的同类相食。他的论点强调了饮食行为中联系和同化的消极方面。今天，已经引发了几种人类学反应来解决由新型冠状病毒 SARS-CoV-2 引起的社会、（生物）政治和经济问题。虽然这篇文章是更广泛语料库的一部分，但它不是关注现象的新方面，而是关注相对熟悉的方面，使用“经典”人类学思想，如物质代码、个体人格和禁忌。通过将病毒在物种边界内外的传播与在南亚社会观察到的物质代码的传播进行比较，我指出了我们作为个体存在而不是个体人格的想象力。这些检查提高了人类学理解人们在人与野生之间建立和取消边界的做法的重要性，以考虑源自野生动物的人畜共患病问题。