Full name: Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture

Author: Marvin Harris Year: 1985 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Anthology, Non Fiction, History, Science Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9781577660156 1577660153

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, bestselling author Marvin Harris leads readers on an informative detective adventure to solve the world's major food puzzles. He explains the diversity of the world's gastronomic customs, demonstrating that what appear at first glance to be irrational food tastes turn out really to have been shaped by practical, or 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 it's "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. Similar books: Cultural Materialism by Marvin Harris The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea by Annette B. Weiner Totemism by Claude Levi-Strauss Our Kind by Marvin Harris Patterns of Culture by Ruth Benedict Cannibals and Kings by Marvin Harris Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches by Marvin Harris Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead Male and Female by Margaret Mead The Harmless People by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies by Margaret Mead The Interpretation of Cultures by Clifford Geertz In Search of the Primitive by Stanley Diamond Food and Culture by Carole Counihan Culture and Commitment by Margaret Mead Before the Dawn by Nicholas Wade The Power of Babel by John McWhorter In Small Things Forgotten by James Deetz Breaking the Maya Code by Michael Coe Masters of the Planet by Ian Tattersall