Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and CultureWaveland Press, 1998 M07 2 - 289 páginas Why 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. |
Dentro del libro
... species. For example, the human gut simply cannot cope with large doses of cellulose. So all human groups spurn blades of grass, tree leaves, and wood (except for pith and shoots as in hearts of palm and bamboo). Other biological ...
... species of hairy spiders. Buddhist religious principles are flexible. As in Christianity, practice often falls short of or circumvents exalted ideals: witness Genghis Khan and his Buddhist Mongol hordes, who not only lived and died by ...
... species. In addition we seem to have descended from a long line of meat-hungry animals. Not so long ago anthropologists believed that monkeys and apes were strict vegetarians. Now, after closer and more meticulous observation in the ...
... species-given physiology and digestive processes predispose us to learn to prefer animal foods. We and our primate cousins pay special attention to foods of animal origin because such foods have special characteristics which make them ...
... Modern high-fat carcasses are 30 percent or more fat. In contrast, a survey of fifteen different species of free-living African herbivores revealed an average carcass fat content of only 3.9 percent. This MEAT HUNGER 41.
Contenido
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 |