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
Results 1-5 of 44
... slaughter or witness the slaughter of animals; but they can eat animal flesh as long as they are not responsible for the termination of the animal's life. Buddha himself never gave up eating boar meat, and in Tibet, Sri Lanka, Burma ...
... slaughter and consumption of domestic animals a principal focus of their sacraments. The very idea of sacrifice, fundamental to the formative doctrines of Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam, arose from the sharing of meat in the ...
... slaughter of cattle and the consumption of beef. There is a section of India's federal constitution called the Directive Principles of State Policy which sets forth guidelines for laws to be enacted by state legislatures. Article 48 ...
... slaughter and the aversion to beef. India also has 700 million people. Since no one denies that much of this huge human population is sorely in need of more proteins and calories, the refusal to kill and eat cattle seems to be “plainly ...
... slaughter house when she gets old?” The sacredness of the cow is linked in Hindu theology to the doctrine of transmigration. Hinduism portrays all creatures as souls which have risen or fallen from various stages of THE RIDDLE OF THE ...
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 |