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 53
... cow's carcass at the end of its life , but as I'll show in a moment , the beef - eating taboo probably never prevented the cow from making a terminal contribution in the form of meat . As long as population density remained low , cattle ...
... cow's carcass at the end of its life , but as I'll show in a moment , the beef - eating taboo probably never prevented the cow from making a terminal contribution in the form of meat . As long as population density remained low , cattle ...
Page 58
... beef - eating , cattle - slaughter ban significantly and ar- bitrarily reduce the amount of animal foods available for human consumption ? I doubt it . As part of a preindustrial agricultural system burdened with supporting a dense ...
... beef - eating , cattle - slaughter ban significantly and ar- bitrarily reduce the amount of animal foods available for human consumption ? I doubt it . As part of a preindustrial agricultural system burdened with supporting a dense ...
Page 119
... beef lost its price advantage over pork ; and per capita beef consumption fell from a peak of 67.1 pounds at the turn of the century to 54.9 pounds in 1940. The rangeland beef boom had greatly narrowed the difference be- tween pork and beef ...
... beef lost its price advantage over pork ; and per capita beef consumption fell from a peak of 67.1 pounds at the turn of the century to 54.9 pounds in 1940. The rangeland beef boom had greatly narrowed the difference be- tween pork and beef ...
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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Aborigines agricultural American amino acids animal flesh animal foods anthropologist aversion Aztecs beef body bones Brahmans breeds calcium calories camel cattle chicken Chinese cholesterol consume consumption cooked corn costs cud-chewers cultures dairy diet dietary dingoes disease dogflesh dogs domestic animals drinking eaten ecological efficient enemy Europe European fact farmers fast-food feed fish foodways forest goats grain grams hamburgers Hindu horseflesh horsemeat horses human flesh hunting Ibid Indians insectivory insects Islam Israelites killing lactase sufficiency lactase-deficient lactose lactose intolerance large numbers leafy vegetables less Leviticus line 14 line 32 live locusts meat hunger milk Moslems mutton nutritional optimal foraging theory osteomalacia oxen percent pets plant foods plows population pork pounds practice preference prisoners protein raising ritual ruminants sheep skin slaughter societies sources of animal species spurn Staden taboo Tamil Nadu trichinosis Tupinamba vitamin vitamin D warfare cannibalism women xerophthalmia York