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 165
... optimal foraging theory . This theory not only predicts that foragers will select the best cost / benefit food " bar- gains " available to them , but it provides a method for calculating at precisely what point a particular food item ...
... optimal foraging theory . This theory not only predicts that foragers will select the best cost / benefit food " bar- gains " available to them , but it provides a method for calculating at precisely what point a particular food item ...
Page 168
... foraging efficiency ratio from 782 to 799 calories per hour . Optimal foraging theory therefore offers an explanation for what must otherwise seem to be an utterly capricious gustatory indifference on the part of many societies to ...
... foraging efficiency ratio from 782 to 799 calories per hour . Optimal foraging theory therefore offers an explanation for what must otherwise seem to be an utterly capricious gustatory indifference on the part of many societies to ...
Page 235
... optimization theories which I now need to discuss . To say that a foodway represents an optimization of costs and benefits is not to say that it is an optimal foodway . Optimization is not the same as optimal ( optimal foraging theory ...
... optimization theories which I now need to discuss . To say that a foodway represents an optimization of costs and benefits is not to say that it is an optimal foodway . Optimization is not the same as optimal ( optimal foraging theory ...
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