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Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture

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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!

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.

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.

A delightful little book that goes a long way to explaining why religions around the world have developed the way they have. He shows how common sense survival rules have become religious rules, how oppressed people develop 'Messiah's" and how those in control used fear and panic to keep control.

Of course some Christians might not like what he has to say about their 'Messiah', but when all the facts are looked at, including the development of 'Messiah's' in other cultures, he is very convincing.

Even though he doesn't say it, his book shows how cultures around the world live by a simple rule, 'those who have lots - waste lots, those who have little - waste little'. I found this amusing as environmentalists usually look to primitive societies as 'waste not want not' societies.

This is a book that should seriously be incorporated into the school curriculum. It's explanation of how our differences developed show how similar we actually all are.

I found this book to be an excellent work in cultural anthropology, as well as a great read for general intrest. It brought to light many possible reasons behind why people believe things that seem outrageous to others. It was well-written, scholarly, but not so much so that the average person(like me) was boggled down in technical terms. A must-read for anyone interested in why people behave the way they do.

If you have gotten turned on to anthropology by reading "Ishnael" or "patterns of culture", than this hard-to-find tome is a must-read. It discusses first,the reasons for cow-loving in India and pig-hating in the Middle East, discusses warfare in New guinea, and then miraculously uses this information,along with the Dead Sea Scrolls to put a mind- blowing perspective on the Jesus story and the persecution of witches in the middle ages. This book will change your perspective on western history-guaranteed.(Not recommended for truly devout Christians.)

This book is one of my absolute favorites! I was introduced to it as an undergraduate anthropology student, and I've kept the same copy (now well-worn and stained) throughout graduate school and after. This book is a refreshing change from the dry, jargon-filled tomes normally produced by anthropologists. Harris delves into some of the most perplexing aspects of human cultures and takes the reassuring position that somewhere, somehow a logical explanation exists for everything. I don't necessarily agree with all of his conclusions, but I find him thought-provoking and intriguing. I appreciate as well his humor, insight, and humanity.

This book succeeds where so many other books have failed - Harris has written a scholarly book that's fun to read. What's really surprising is how little controversy this book has provoked so far.

A previous reviewer complained about Harris's style - well there's no accounting for taste, and Harris's method of leading the reader from one topic to the next in a logical sequence is part of what makes the book so good. The chapter on cow worship leads into a chapter on cultures that consider pigs disgusting - and others that treat pigs like beloved pets.

What must surely be the most controversial aspect of the book begins when Harris compares the cargo cults of New Guinea to Christianity:

--- excerpt ---

I'm sure that you've noticed the resemblance between cargo cults and early Christian beliefs. Jesus of Nazareth predicted the downfall of the wicked, justice for the poor, the end of misery and suffering, reunion with the dead, and a whole new divine kingdom. So did (cargo cult leader) Yali. Can the phantom cargo mystery help us to understand the conditions responsible for the origin of our own religous lifestyles?

-- end of excerpt --

He then goes on to point out, in the chapter called "The Secret of the Prince of Peace" that in spite of later Christian revisionism, Jesus was not actually a prophet of peace but a messianic warrior:

-- excerpt ---

The lifestyle consciousness shared by Jesus and his inner circle of disciples was not the lifestyle consciousness of a peaceful messiah. Although the gospels clearly intend to deny Jesus the capacity to carry out violent political acts, they preserve what seems to be an undercurrent of contradictory events and sayings which link John the Baptist and Jesus to the military-messianic tradition and implicate them in the guerrilla warfare. The reason for this is that by the time the first gospel was written, nonpeaceful events and sayings which had been attributed to Jesus by eyewitnesses and by unimpeachable apostolic sources were widely known among the faithful. The writers of the gospels shifted the balance of the Jesus cult's lifestyle consciousness in the direction of a peaceful messiah, but they could not entirely expunge the traces of continuity with the military-messianic tradition. The ambiguity of the gospels in this regard is best demonstrated by arranging some of Jesus' most peaceful statements in one column and the unexpected negations in another:

Blessed are the peacemakers. (Matthew 5:9)

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth, I come not to send peace but a sword (Matthew 10:34)

Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. (Matthew 5:39)

Suppose ye that I come to give peace on earth? I will tell you nay, but rather division. (Luke 12:51)

All that take the sword shall perish with the sword (Matthew 26:52)

He that hath no sword, let him sell his garments and buy one. (Luke 22:36)

Love thine enemies; do good to them that hate you. (Luke 6:27)

And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them out of the temple... and poured out the changer's money and overthrew the tables. (John 2:15)

I should also note at this point the obviously false construction traditionally given to what Jesus said when he was asked if Jews ought to pay taxes to the Romans: "Render unto Caeser that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's." This could mean only one thing to the Galileans who had participated in Judas of Galilee's tax revolt - namely, "Don't pay." For Judas of Galilee had said that everything in Palestine belonged to God. But the authors of the Gospels and their readers probably knew nothing about Judas of Galilee, so they preserved Jesus' highly provocative response on the mistaken assumption that it showed a genuinely concilliatory attitude toward the Roman government.

--- end of excerpt ---

Harris doesn't mention it, but his view of human culture is based on his anthropological paradigm known as cultural materialism. Those who read and like this book and want to learn more about the basis of Harris's views should check out his book "Cultural Materialism: The Struggle for a Science of Culture."

For many decades, anthropologists conceived cultural particularities between peoples as something unexplainable, like designed by god's will. Then, came Mr. Harris and challenged this view. Instead, he suggested that cultural manifestations are the consequences of the material conditions (environment, nutrition, economic structure, etc.) within which peoples develop and with whom they have to deal in their struggle for surviving. This is the starting point that allows Harris to finally find reasons and explanations in this book not only for cultural differences but also for reciprocity vs. distribution mechanisms, human's search for a Messiah or the "logic" of witches persecution, for instance. Now, this book, as any other, has its weaknesses and strengths. I think for example that Harris' theory on jewish porcophoby should be tested by trying to explain the whole jewish system of "kashrut" which is far more complex. Actually, it looks like have been written by a taxonomist. On the other hand, according to my point of view, Harris' analysis and theory of the birth and development of the Messiah's idea on judaism and christianism is simply brilliant, among other things, because it can explain why Jesus turned to be "peacefull" when in the beginning he looked like another revolutionary jewish leader during the roman rule in Judaea (before the Great War of 66-70). In general, I guess that the main weakness of this book is a lack of deeper analysis on some subjects (for example, Paul Johnson have also a very interesting theory on witches persecution), while I think that it's main strenght relies on the originallity, the innovative set of ideas that Harris provides in order to challenge wrong conventional wisdom on many aspects of human nature. Finally, the most intriging part of the book is, doubtless, Harris attack on "New Age" movement. Though Harris might be right when arguing about the negative contribution of "New Age" to the development of human knowledge, one can't help finishing this book wondering what happened between Harris and the people from "New Age" movement in the seventies: It seems that they didn't like Mr. Harris assesments.

Harris made a strong case for the beneficial role of the Hindu religion's belief that cows are sacred. The reason is because male draft animals are needed to plow the fields for next year's harvest, and cows are needed to breed the draft animals. Succumbing to temptation during a famine and killing your cow is like killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

Harris was not as convincing describing the "pig love" of the Maring tribe. They are a polygamous society in which women do all the work, both gardening and raising pigs. The pigs are beloved and wander freely. But after eight or ten years there are too many adult pigs. They cause too much destruction in the gardens, and they consume too much food. So the men agree to hold a grand feast, or kaiko, in which most of the pigs are slaughtered and eaten. Then the men go to war with the neighboring tribe. This is a strange arrangement. If the Maring wanted to be efficient, they should pen the pigs. That way they won't damage the gardens. They should also slaughter the pigs as soon as they reach their adult size. Continuing to feed them for another eight years after they've already reached their adult size is a waste of food. That is not adaptive! Of course, Harris has an explanation. The reason why the Maring behave in their seemingly counter-productive way is that by being inefficient they can keep their population in check. Maximizing their pig production would take them dangerously close to the carrying capacity of their environment. The ritual warfare after the periodic feasts and the female infanticide also contribute to keep the size of the Maring population in harmony with the environment.

The role of "pig love" contradicts the role of "cow love." If a trait is good then it is clearly functional and adaptive. But if it is bad it is also functional and adaptive - it keeps the population in check. Harris' functionalist view of anthropology is now revealed as a non-falsifiable hypothesis. If Indians did not practice cow love, Harris would doubtless say that consuming valuable breeding stock for food is an adaptive form of population control.

I would instead recommend Sick Societies: Challenging the Myth of Primitive Harmony by Robert Edgerton. It is an accessible but dense tour of the literature that debunks the two sacred cows (pun intended) of anthropology: cultural relativism and functionalism - the belief that every cultural practice such as "cow love" and "pig love" provides a useful function.