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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... taboos, but neither politics nor religion explains why cattle slaughter and beef eating have achieved symbolic prominence. Why the cow and not the pig, horse, or camel? I do not doubt the symbolic power of the sacred cow. What I doubt ...
... taboo probably never prevented the cow from making a terminal contribution in the form of meat. As long as population density remained low, cattle could be grazed on uncultivated land and per capita beef production could be maintained ...
... taboos is indicative neither of waste nor folly. They seldom compete with humans for resources since they seldom graze on planted pasture nor on any lands which can be used for growing human food crops. The density of the human ...
... taboo strengthens their resolve to preserve their breeding stock as long as possible, it enhances rather than diminishes the long-term effectiveness of the agricultural system and reduces caste-based inequalities in the consumption of ...
... taboo, 30 million cows are surplus and could be killed off or shipped overseas to everyone's benefit. The flaw in this argument is that most of the less productive cows—cows that are neither breeding regularly nor giving much milk—are ...
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 |