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 6-10 of 60
... India, for example, and the most famous of all irrational foodways, the ban on 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 ...
... India has the largest number of cattle in the world—about 180 million Bos indicus (plus 50 million buffalo), a situation which might reasonably be attributed to the fact that no one seems to want to kill or eat them. India also has the ...
... India today, describes himself in Hindu sacred literature as a cowherd, protector of cows, who are his wealth ... Indian pinup calendars depicting jewel-bedecked cows with swollen udders and the faces of beautiful human madonnas. Hindu ...
... India's independence after World War II. In the earliest days of the new state the dominant Congress party preempted the picture of a cow and a calf as its national logo, immediately giving its candidates an advantage among illiterate ...
... Indian's foodways, but India's foodways have affected India's religion even more. My justification for saying this lies in the history of Hinduism. The central fact of that history is that cow protection was not always the central fact ...
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 |