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
... Beef, U.S.A. Lactophiles and Lactophobes: Milk Lovers and Milk Haters Small Things Dogs, Cats, Dingoes, and other Pets People Eating Better to Eat References Bibliography Index 13 19 47 67 88 109 130 154 175 199 235 249 258 275 CHAPTER ...
... beef, Jews and Moslems abominate pork, and Americans barely avoid retching at the thought of dog stew, one can be sure that something beyond mere digestive physiology is shaping the definition of what's good to eat. That other something ...
... beef. True enough, the total quantity of animal flesh consumed by Hindu Indians amounts to less than a gram per day per capita, but that is because all kinds of animal foods are in scarce supply in relation to the huge population ...
... beef, chicken, ducks, silkworms, snails, shrimp, and crab. During the rainy season they may eat as much as a pound of frogs a week. Cambodian Buddhists consume fish, crabs, frogs, mussels, and certain highly esteemed species of hairy ...
... beef ranking tenth and thirteenth. But for the top 25 percent of Jamaicans, beef and chicken rank first and second while wheat flour rank seventh. This relationship holds around the world. The elites in Madagascar consume twelve times ...
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 |