Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and CultureWhy are human food habits so diverse? Why do Americans recoil at the thought of dog meat? Jews and Moslems, pork? Hindus, beef? Why do Asians abhor milk? In Good to Eat, bestselling author Marvin Harris leads readers on an informative detective adventure to solve the world's major food puzzles. He explains the diversity of the world's gastronomic customs, demonstrating that what appear at first glance to be irrational food tastes turn out really to have been shaped by practical, or economic, or political necessity. In addition, his smart and spirited treatment sheds wisdom on such topics as why there has been an explosion in fast food, why history indicates that it's "bad" to eat people but "good" to kill them, and why children universally reject spinach. Good to Eat is more than an intellectual adventure in food for thought. It is a highly readable, scientifically accurate, and fascinating work that demystifies the causes of myriad human cultural differences. |
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Page 68
... eaters , especially Christian pigs and pig eaters : " The principal reason why the law forbids swine - flesh is to be found in the circumstance that its habits and food are very filthy and loathsome . " If the law allowed Egyptians and ...
... eaters , especially Christian pigs and pig eaters : " The principal reason why the law forbids swine - flesh is to be found in the circumstance that its habits and food are very filthy and loathsome . " If the law allowed Egyptians and ...
Page 180
... eaters and non - dog eaters with two outstanding studies of the role of dogs in non - Western cultures . One , carried out by Katherine Luomala of the University of Hawaii , concerns the people and dogs of Polynesia ; the other ...
... eaters and non - dog eaters with two outstanding studies of the role of dogs in non - Western cultures . One , carried out by Katherine Luomala of the University of Hawaii , concerns the people and dogs of Polynesia ; the other ...
Page 199
... eaters supply themselves with their human repast . Basically , there are just two ways to obtain an edible corpse ; either the eaters forcibly hunt , capture , and kill the eaten , or the eaters peacefully acquire the body of a relative ...
... eaters supply themselves with their human repast . Basically , there are just two ways to obtain an edible corpse ; either the eaters forcibly hunt , capture , and kill the eaten , or the eaters peacefully acquire the body of a relative ...
Contents
ONE Good to Think or Good to Eat? | 13 |
TWO Meat Hunger | 19 |
THREE The Riddle of the Sacred Cow | 47 |
Copyright | |
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American amount animal foods Aztecs became become beef better body calcium calories camel cannibalism carried cattle CHAPTER consume consumption contain continued cooked costs cultures dead developed diet dingoes disease dogs domesticated drinking eaten efficient enemy entirely Europe European example explanation fact farmers feed fish flesh four give goats grain groups hamburgers Hindu horsemeat horses human hunting important increase Indians insects killing kind lack lactose lactose intolerance land less levels live means meat milk natural never nutritional percent pets plant population pork pounds practice preference Press prevent prisoners problem protection protein raising reason relatives remains result rickets sheep skin slaughter societies species supply taboo things United University vegetables village vitamin warfare women York