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, best-selling author Marvin Harris leads readers on an informative detective adventure to solve the worlds major food puzzles. He explains the diversity of the worlds gastronomic customs, demonstrating that what appear at first glance to be irrational food tastes turn out really to have been shaped by practical, 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 its 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. |
From inside the book
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... animals for food than to raise plants for food. Expressed in energy terms, it takes nine additional calories to provide one calorie for human consumption when grain is converted into animal flesh. Or in terms of protein, it takes four ...
... animal foods and plant foods play fundamentally different biological roles in human foodways. Despite recent ... flesh, only a tiny minority of cultists, monks, and mystics has ever professed a bias against all foods of animal origin—a ...
... animal flesh from the diet of ordinary people. Hindu foodways in this regard simply do not conform to popular stereotypes. In India people delight in consuming as much milk, butter, cheese, and yogurt as they can afford, and ghee, or ...
... animal flesh among Brahmans, Buddhists, and members of less influential religious groups such as the Jains and Seventh-Day Adventists would take me far afield. For the moment, all I need to say is that less than 1 percent of the world's ...
... animal food can make people feel good. Hunter-gatherers and village horticulturalists commonly complain that they ... animal flesh recently will say, “I haven't eaten for days.” The Yanomamo, who also have 26.
Contents
13 | |
19 | |
47 | |
The Abominable Pig
| 67 |
Hippophagy
| 88 |
Holy Beef USA
| 109 |
Lactophiles and Lactophobes Milk Lovers and Milk Haters
| 130 |
Small Things
| 154 |
Dogs Cats Dingoes and Other Pets
| 175 |
People Eating
| 199 |
Better to Eat
| 235 |
References | 249 |
Bibliography | 258 |
Index | 275 |