This book challenges those who argue that we can change the world by changing the way people think. Harris shows that no matter how bizarre a people's behavior may seem, it always stems from concrete social and economic conditions.
Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
This book challenges those who argue that we can change the world by changing the way people think. Harris shows that no matter how bizarre a people's behavior may seem, it always stems from concrete social and economic conditions.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
44 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I first read this book as "light" reading when I was a graduate student in anthropology. Now, as an anthropology instructor, I assign it as a textbook in a course on Religion, Magic and Witchcraft. It proposes logical and fascinating solutions to such puzzles as (1) why Hindus are better off going hungry than slaughtering and eating their cattle,(2) why religions of the Middle East have made pork taboo, while cultures of the South Pacific organize their ritual life around pork feasts, and (3) in what way are New Guinea cargo cults, the 12 disciples of Jesus, the European witch trials, and the popularity of New Age beliefs of today the results of similar cultural pressures.
This is the first book I have ever assigned in class that students have asked if they may read all at once, instead of a chapter a week. They can't put it down!
53 of 58 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I've read this book twice already, and on the third time, I'm still getting new perspectives from Harris' masterful analysis of puzzling cultural phenomena like religious dietary restrictions (why are cows sacred and pigs aren't?), cargo cults (why are some countries rich and others poor?), and witch hunts (what did religion have to do with it?). All the quick explanations for these phenomena we were given in school were, at best, oversimplified and incomplete. The reviewer who wrote that the book debunks mythology could also have been referring to the mythology believed by historians, scientists, and adademics. Harris occasionally turns the microscope on our own culture and the assumptions we hold and the explanations we accept for things we don't understand. He takes on the sacred cows of anthropology and history, including Sacred Cows, and presents a new paradigm for understanding each subject.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
First published in 1973, Marvin Harris' book suffers slightly from time lag (it closes with a refutation of the now-defunct counterculture movement), but is otherwise wholly engaging and undeniably fascinating. Tackling the "Most Wanted List" of anthropology's mysteries, Harris plunges in by explaining the practical socio-economic origins of the cliched "sacred cows" of India, then keeps on going through the reasons for religious dietary restrictions and on into the relationship between secular pressures, leaders and the many faces of messianism from the Middle East to the Middle Ages. His explanations are meticulously constructed, eminently reasonable and provide fuel for many a debate.
Written in an open and accessible style, COWS, PIGS, WARS & WITCHES is aimed toward the academic community, but doesn't read that way at all. Though it references classic anthropological works such as Ruth Benedict's PATTERNS OF CULTURE, the book is careful to seed the rest of the text with explanation, thus keeping the more scholarly aspects of the work from alienating readers from the "outside" and deep-sixing the book's readability.
In short, Harris' book is a solid addition to any reader's library, provided his unflinching analysis of some of the more common "sacred cows" doesn't offend.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Enlightening!
I read this book decades ago and recently bought another copy just because it really shows how customs and beliefs that seem incomprehensible at first actually make sense if looked... Read more
Published 17 days ago by Thomas Ray O'Brien
5.0 out of 5 stars
good
it was fine....fine fine fine fine fine fine fine fine fine fine fine finef..hate that i have to write so many words
Published 1 month ago by choonoo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Culture repeats itself
This is an extremely important book and I wish absolutely everyone would read it. The cultural history is fascinating and one cannot put it down. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kerry Kappell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating
Enlightening, You will have such a better understanding of the culture of food and WHY we eat what we eat.
Published 2 months ago by Linda J. Falkner
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome!
This is a great read for anyone interested in anthropology, and the kindle version is great. I really like this book.
Published 2 months ago by Grammy Cheryl
5.0 out of 5 stars
This should be a best seller
I ordered this for my daughter's anthropology class and read it myself. It sound cutesy from the title but is an intellectual search for why certain trends occur in societies. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Joyce B.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Popular Introduction to Cultural Ecology
This collection of articles made the field of cultural ecology popular(as atested by the reviews). The theory assumes cultural traits are similar to biological ones and those that... Read more
Published 10 months ago by ernest schusky
4.0 out of 5 stars
Had to read this book for a class
Some of the ideas are outdated (it was written in the early 1970s) but the author makes many thought-provoking observations in his essays. Read more
Published 18 months ago by baby
4.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful in the shallow end of the pool
For most of its first 200 pages, this book is fascinating and insightful. Harris presents a number of cultural peculiarities that laypeople commonly consider inexplicable... Read more
Published on December 30, 2010 by J. Margulies
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Return to Solidly Materialist Explanations
Civilizations, even the most advanced among them, are invariably strewn with mythologies, folklore, and recherche taboo. Read more
Published on December 3, 2010 by A Certain Bibliophile
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 34
books:
See all 34 books this book cites
83
books
cite this book:
See all 83 books citing this book
- Josephus: Jewish Antiquities, Book 20 (Loeb Classical Library No. 456) (Bk.XX v. 13) by Josephus on page 164, and Back Matter
- The Jewish War: Revised Edition (Penguin Classics) by Flavius Josephus on page 164, and Back Matter
- Pigs for the Ancestors: Ritual in the Ecology of a New Guinea People by Roy A. Rappaport on page 47, and Back Matter
- Environment and Cultural Behavior by Andrew P Vayda in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Materials Toward a History of Witchcraft by Henry Charles Lea in Back Matter
See all 34 books this book cites
- Thrown Among Strangers: The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California by Douglas Monroy in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Prisoners of Hate: The Cognitive Basis of Anger, Hostility, and Violence by Aaron T. Beck in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Why Nothing Works: The Anthropology of Daily Life (Touchstone Books) by Marvin Harris in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- How We Believe, 2nd Edition: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God by Michael Shermer in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Life in Biblical Israel (Library of Ancient Israel) by Philip J. King on page 119, and Back Matter
See all 83 books citing this book
