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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... hunt for meat. Problems with the meat supply endanger the security of P0land's state socialist system. If the butcher shop lines grow longer and the shelves emptier, watch out. In 1981 the government announced a 20 percent cut in ...
... hunting and bring back more meat. If two or three meatless days go by, the women get together, put on their beads and face paint, and corner each man in the village one by one. They gently tug at the man's shirt or belt and sing him a ...
... Hunter-gatherers and village horticulturalists commonly complain that they are “meat hungry,” a condition which their languages denote by words which are different from the words for ordinary hunger. Among the Canela of the Amazonia, ii ...
... hunters, for example, believe that if they do not share their catch, they will lose their hunting skills. Individuals and families rarely share their plantains and other crops, but they never consume a hunter's catch without cutting it ...
... hunt may lead to quarrels, a split in the community, and the outbreak of warfare between neighboring camps and ... hunting grounds. Recent studies show that the problem of dwindling animal resources lies behind much of the endemic ...
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 |