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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... feeding cows that are too old to have calves and give milk, Hindus reply: “Will you then send your mother to a slaughter house when she gets old?” The sacredness of the cow is linked in Hindu theology to the doctrine of transmigration ...
... feeding herds of cows kept by Hindu temples. They believe that the dead must cross a fiery stream and that these donations buy the departed the right to hold onto a cow's tail while swimming across. For the same reason, orthodox Hindus ...
... feed into calories five times more efficiently than modern beef cattle convert feed into edible meat calories; and they convert feed into edible protein six times more efficiently than modern beef cattle. These figures include the ...
... feed and fodder. Contrary to popular stereotypes, the presence of large numbers of these animals in the Indian countryside under the protection of the antislaughter and beef-eating taboos is indicative neither of waste nor folly. They ...
... beef markets would inevitably push up the price of Indian cattle to the levels of international beef prices; cattle feeds and supplement would be devoted to raising beef; and small farmers would find it increasingly 58.
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 |