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Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture
This book challenges those who argue that we can change the world by changing the way people think. The author shows that no matter how bizarre a people's behavior may seem, it always stems from concrete social and economic conditions. It is by isolating and identifying these conditions that we will be able to understand and cope with some of our own apparently senseless life styles. In a devastating attack on the shamans of the counterculture, the author states the case for a return to objective consciousness and a rational set of political commitments.
288 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1974
About the author
Marvin Harris
44 books227 followersAmerican anthropologist Marvin Harris was born in Brooklyn, New York. A prolific writer, he was highly influential in the development of cultural materialism. In his work he combined Karl Marx's emphasis on the forces of production with Malthus's insights on the impact of demographic factors on other parts of the sociocultural system. Labeling demographic and production factors as infrastructure, Harris posited these factors as key in determining a society's social structure and culture.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 428 reviews
December 14, 2019
I'm still at the stage of 'review' to come. The book has immense depth over many disciplines, I just don't know how to condense it into a few paragraphs. Everyone should read it, everyone. The breadth of the author's explanation of the world enlarged mine immensely. The chapter on Jesus and messiahs has little to do with religion and much to do with history, the Romans, the times - the turmoil of one not-very-sophisticated culture butting up against a tremendously advanced, authoritarian and bloody regime.
I do want to write a review because I think everyone should read the book, and I need to find a way to explain why, how everyone who reads will be enriched in their understanding of the world.
______________
Phenomenal! The last 10-star book of the year probably. The chapter on the historical Jesus from extant sources rather than gospels written many decades after Jesus' demise placing him as a historical figure and a reason for why he is called the messiah is brilliant. It's not going to please anyone who would denigrate or ignore all facts to maintain their unquestioning faith, but for those both Christian and not, it is really interesting.
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"...[w]hy some people believe in Messiahs while others believe in witches." This really defines the book (so far). Why one culture does one thing and another a different one. I would rate this book a 10-star on the first chapter alone. In it the author explains why, in detail, in practical terms - that of the national economy, food production, and appropriate technology, just why cows are sacred in India. Genius to have worked it all out.
I do want to write a review because I think everyone should read the book, and I need to find a way to explain why, how everyone who reads will be enriched in their understanding of the world.
______________
Phenomenal! The last 10-star book of the year probably. The chapter on the historical Jesus from extant sources rather than gospels written many decades after Jesus' demise placing him as a historical figure and a reason for why he is called the messiah is brilliant. It's not going to please anyone who would denigrate or ignore all facts to maintain their unquestioning faith, but for those both Christian and not, it is really interesting.
____________________________________
"...[w]hy some people believe in Messiahs while others believe in witches." This really defines the book (so far). Why one culture does one thing and another a different one. I would rate this book a 10-star on the first chapter alone. In it the author explains why, in detail, in practical terms - that of the national economy, food production, and appropriate technology, just why cows are sacred in India. Genius to have worked it all out.
June 20, 2009
Why do Jews and Muslims refuse to eat pork? Why were thousands of witches burned at the stake during late medieval Europe? These and other riddles are explored by famous anthropologist Marvin Harris, and his conclusions are simple: people act within social and ecological contexts that make their actions meaningful. Put another way: cultural ideas and practices that seem strange to us may actually be vital and necessary to the people of those cultures.
Harris is especially good at explaining how societies create elaborate rituals to avoid harming the natural ecosystems they depend on, which clarifies the Middle Eastern ban on pig products. It turns out the chubby animals compete with humans for the same foods. Raising them in large numbers would place great strain a land made fragile by thousands of years of deforestation and desertification. Better to ban them entirely and not risk further ecological damage.
This logic is then extended to elucidate why the institution of warfare probably first arose in areas where it's difficult to feed large numbers of people. In Harris' words, "In most primitive societies, warfare is an effective means of population control because intense, recurring intergroup combat places a premium upon rearing male rather than female infants." Since the rate of population growth depends on the number of healthy women, privileging males by making their larger bodies necessary for combat is a way of reducing the pressure to "eat the forest." Not that male supremacy and violence is the BEST way to reduce population, just that it's one ritual societies have adapted to meet that goal.
This discussion of patriarchy leads to an exploration of class. The emergence of "big men", chiefs, and finally the State is explained as a cascading distortion of the original principles of reciprocity into the rule of redistribution. "Big men" work harder than anyone in their tribe to provide a large feast for their community - with the only goal being prestige. Chiefs similarly pursue prestige, and plan great feasts to show off their managerial skills, but they themselves harvest little food. Finally "we end up with state-level societies ruled over by hereditary kings who perform no basic industrial or agricultural labor and who keep the most and best of everything for themselves." At the root of this construction of inequality is the impetus to make people work harder to create larger surpluses so that greater social rewards can be given out to show off the leader's generosity. But only at the State or Imperial level is this hierarchy enforced not by prestige but by force of arms, to stop the poor and working classes from revolting and sharing the fruits of their labor.
The most provocative sections of the book deal with revolutionary movements that fought for this liberation, within the context of the religious wars of Biblical Judea and Late Medieval Europe.
First, Harris tackles the Messiah complex by showing that Jews around the time of Jesus waged near-constant guerrilla warfare against their Roman rulers and oppressors. Perhaps half a million people died, in probably hundreds of Jewish uprisings, all led by religious insurgents called Messiahs. Whether Jesus was one of these revolutionary warriors is disputed, but Harris argues that the "peaceful messiah" idea only gained prominence later during Roman backlash, as a way to distinguish between the "harmless" Christians and the rebellious Jews. Later on, when Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire, its emphasis shifted once more to be compatible with evangelizing the largest military on Earth as it colonized the Mediterranean and killed insurgents.
Christianity would come full circle and provide the ideological backing for revolutionary movements against the dominant social order of Europe during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. At the time feudalism was in crisis and huge peasant movements like the Anabaptists, led by messiah-like zealots, were gaining large followings against their noble and clergy overlords. These Christian messiahs called for breaking up large land estates and providing for the poor masses, suffering from unnecessary poverty and disease. The threatened defenders of Church and State needed some kind of distraction to be cooked up to divide the population, while authorizing to executions of revolutionary leaders (who were mostly female).
Witchcraft fit the bill nicely. With the Pope's approval, the accusation, torture, and execution of hundreds of thousands of "witches" effectively disrupted the enormous peasant movements and brought legitimacy to the forces of law and order. Harris explains, "The clergy and nobility emerged as the great protectors of mankind against an enemy who was omnipresent but difficult to detect. Here at last was a reason to pay tithes and obey the tax collector."
If this crackdown on an invented evil parallels the spectre of "terrorism" today and the war on anti-American Islamist movements, then perhaps Marvin Harris' effort to explain the seemingly insoluble mysteries of distant cultures can also come full circle to help us make sense of our own society. If Washington is the new Rome, then who are the new messiahs? Or, in a secular sense, who are the people concerned for the poor majority that suffers unnecessarily in our own time?
Harris is especially good at explaining how societies create elaborate rituals to avoid harming the natural ecosystems they depend on, which clarifies the Middle Eastern ban on pig products. It turns out the chubby animals compete with humans for the same foods. Raising them in large numbers would place great strain a land made fragile by thousands of years of deforestation and desertification. Better to ban them entirely and not risk further ecological damage.
This logic is then extended to elucidate why the institution of warfare probably first arose in areas where it's difficult to feed large numbers of people. In Harris' words, "In most primitive societies, warfare is an effective means of population control because intense, recurring intergroup combat places a premium upon rearing male rather than female infants." Since the rate of population growth depends on the number of healthy women, privileging males by making their larger bodies necessary for combat is a way of reducing the pressure to "eat the forest." Not that male supremacy and violence is the BEST way to reduce population, just that it's one ritual societies have adapted to meet that goal.
This discussion of patriarchy leads to an exploration of class. The emergence of "big men", chiefs, and finally the State is explained as a cascading distortion of the original principles of reciprocity into the rule of redistribution. "Big men" work harder than anyone in their tribe to provide a large feast for their community - with the only goal being prestige. Chiefs similarly pursue prestige, and plan great feasts to show off their managerial skills, but they themselves harvest little food. Finally "we end up with state-level societies ruled over by hereditary kings who perform no basic industrial or agricultural labor and who keep the most and best of everything for themselves." At the root of this construction of inequality is the impetus to make people work harder to create larger surpluses so that greater social rewards can be given out to show off the leader's generosity. But only at the State or Imperial level is this hierarchy enforced not by prestige but by force of arms, to stop the poor and working classes from revolting and sharing the fruits of their labor.
The most provocative sections of the book deal with revolutionary movements that fought for this liberation, within the context of the religious wars of Biblical Judea and Late Medieval Europe.
First, Harris tackles the Messiah complex by showing that Jews around the time of Jesus waged near-constant guerrilla warfare against their Roman rulers and oppressors. Perhaps half a million people died, in probably hundreds of Jewish uprisings, all led by religious insurgents called Messiahs. Whether Jesus was one of these revolutionary warriors is disputed, but Harris argues that the "peaceful messiah" idea only gained prominence later during Roman backlash, as a way to distinguish between the "harmless" Christians and the rebellious Jews. Later on, when Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire, its emphasis shifted once more to be compatible with evangelizing the largest military on Earth as it colonized the Mediterranean and killed insurgents.
Christianity would come full circle and provide the ideological backing for revolutionary movements against the dominant social order of Europe during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. At the time feudalism was in crisis and huge peasant movements like the Anabaptists, led by messiah-like zealots, were gaining large followings against their noble and clergy overlords. These Christian messiahs called for breaking up large land estates and providing for the poor masses, suffering from unnecessary poverty and disease. The threatened defenders of Church and State needed some kind of distraction to be cooked up to divide the population, while authorizing to executions of revolutionary leaders (who were mostly female).
Witchcraft fit the bill nicely. With the Pope's approval, the accusation, torture, and execution of hundreds of thousands of "witches" effectively disrupted the enormous peasant movements and brought legitimacy to the forces of law and order. Harris explains, "The clergy and nobility emerged as the great protectors of mankind against an enemy who was omnipresent but difficult to detect. Here at last was a reason to pay tithes and obey the tax collector."
If this crackdown on an invented evil parallels the spectre of "terrorism" today and the war on anti-American Islamist movements, then perhaps Marvin Harris' effort to explain the seemingly insoluble mysteries of distant cultures can also come full circle to help us make sense of our own society. If Washington is the new Rome, then who are the new messiahs? Or, in a secular sense, who are the people concerned for the poor majority that suffers unnecessarily in our own time?
November 8, 2008
Marvin Harris intends to apply scientific theory to some of the great cultural riddles of the world. Why do Hindus love cows? Why do Jews hate pigs? Unfortunately, like an evolutionary biologist trying to explain why humans have pinky toes, he comes across as making up just-so stories. The theories are plausible, but that doesn't make them accurate. The truth in a just-so story is always in what it tells us about the storyteller. In this case, he's a 1970s academic.
One more thing: Since I'm not an expert on all matter historical, I usually factcheck history books by spot-checking the stuff I do know. If Marvin Harris's account of the religious landscape of first century Palestine is any indication, then his historical research was pretty shoddy. His "proof" that Jesus was really a warrior messiah is abysmally threadbare -- four verses from the Gospels, two of which he apparently doesn't realize are parallel synoptic accounts.
I'm giving this book three stars because it kept me entertained, and gave some interesting ideas to chew on. However, I wouldn't go to it as a foundation for my philosophy or anthropology.
One more thing: Since I'm not an expert on all matter historical, I usually factcheck history books by spot-checking the stuff I do know. If Marvin Harris's account of the religious landscape of first century Palestine is any indication, then his historical research was pretty shoddy. His "proof" that Jesus was really a warrior messiah is abysmally threadbare -- four verses from the Gospels, two of which he apparently doesn't realize are parallel synoptic accounts.
I'm giving this book three stars because it kept me entertained, and gave some interesting ideas to chew on. However, I wouldn't go to it as a foundation for my philosophy or anthropology.
November 10, 2017
الكتاب بشكل ما يوضح فكرة أننا نجهل أمورا كثيرة وأن تلك الأمور قد ترتبط بشبكة من الأسباب والنتائج بعيدة تماما عن تلك التي نتخيلها..الكتاب يقدم وجهة نظر قد تقنعنا أحيانا وقد لا تفعل ليكبر السؤال أكثر وربما هنا تحديدا تكمن أهمية الكتاب أن نطرح الأسئلة.
January 26, 2019
Daha iyi bir tercümeyi hak eden bir kitap.
December 10, 2010
Civilizations, even the most advanced among them, are invariably strewn with mythologies, folklore, and recherche taboo. While the contemporary United States would itself provide enough material for a multi-volume study of this kind, Marvin Harris focuses mostly on pre-scientific and pre-literate peoples to answer questions like: Why do Hindus not eat cows, while Jews avoid pork instead? How do you explain the concept of the Messiah? Why was the belief in witches in medieval Europe so prevalent, and why were people so afraid of them? These bald facts have received many anthropological and sociological explanations in the past, including the one that suggests that they are simply irreducible and, therefore, unable to be analyzed. But Harris, a Marxist by conviction, necessarily must see a materialistic explanation. He looks for answers to these questions in the everyday lives and concerns of the people that entertain these beliefs. Because of this, his answers, in most instances, seem to have some bit more explanatory force than those that have preceded him.
According to Harris, the reason why we see Hindu “cow love” (his words, not mine) as odd is because we live in a very fundamentally different position with respect to cows in our day-to-day postindustrial lives. No matter the exigencies or problems in the lives of the market or our family, we can always go to the grocery story and purchase milk, butter, and meat all from a cow. However, Hindus (and he is mostly talking about Indian Hindus here) have acquired the need for an adaptive resilience in its agricultural order that we have long since shed our need for. Hundreds of millions of Indian peasants who have only one cow know that animal as the only source of milk to make it through a dry season. And if they are lucky enough to make it, it is the only thing that can pull a plow once it is time to plant or harvest crops. In short, because of the way their economy is localized around the family unit instead of our food-industrial complex, they place a different value on the cow.
Another topic Harris considers is the first-century Palestinian Judaism with its concomitant messianism. The history of this period, mainly through Josephus’ two reliable books “Jewish Antiquities” and “Bellum Judaicum,” informs us that Jesus was not unique in having the mantle of the Messiah. Between 40 B. C. and 73 A. D., Harris mentions Athrongaeus, Theudas, an “anonymous scoundrel” executed by Felix, a Jewish Egyptian “false prophet,” and Manahem. Josephus was so used to this political apocalypticism that there are even more of these figures that he does not even bother to name. A long line of Jews fashioned themselves as restorers of the Jewish state and wished to free it from the caprice of Roman satraps, with Jesus and John the Baptist being the two whose names have survived the ravages of history.
Harris’ explanation of witchcraft is appealingly commonsensical. During the early middle ages, witchcraft was not especially looked highly upon, but was never considered heretical. Over time, the Church found that they could use these beliefs to scapegoat hailstorms, outbreaks of disease, crop failure, and other ominous signs, therefore stopping people before they reached the heterodox conclusion that God might be involved in all of these negative circumstances, too. Instead of the Catholic Church wishing to root witches out of society, they used the common folkloric beliefs in sorcery to the Church’s advantage. By co-opting sorcery as a heresy, the Church was able to blame the evils of society on its more marginal, “lower” members, while at the same time seeming to want to keep both the Church and society pure. Two birds with one stone!
I can certainly appreciate the broad appeal a book like this has for non-specialists and non-scholars. That having been said, if I could change one thing about this book, it would be that Harris had taken a less flippant approach and more fully fleshed out his sources, or had a full bibliography. Off-the-cuff expressions like “cow love” and “pig hate” really tend to draw away from the authority that Harris has proven through his other work he rightly deserves.
According to Harris, the reason why we see Hindu “cow love” (his words, not mine) as odd is because we live in a very fundamentally different position with respect to cows in our day-to-day postindustrial lives. No matter the exigencies or problems in the lives of the market or our family, we can always go to the grocery story and purchase milk, butter, and meat all from a cow. However, Hindus (and he is mostly talking about Indian Hindus here) have acquired the need for an adaptive resilience in its agricultural order that we have long since shed our need for. Hundreds of millions of Indian peasants who have only one cow know that animal as the only source of milk to make it through a dry season. And if they are lucky enough to make it, it is the only thing that can pull a plow once it is time to plant or harvest crops. In short, because of the way their economy is localized around the family unit instead of our food-industrial complex, they place a different value on the cow.
Another topic Harris considers is the first-century Palestinian Judaism with its concomitant messianism. The history of this period, mainly through Josephus’ two reliable books “Jewish Antiquities” and “Bellum Judaicum,” informs us that Jesus was not unique in having the mantle of the Messiah. Between 40 B. C. and 73 A. D., Harris mentions Athrongaeus, Theudas, an “anonymous scoundrel” executed by Felix, a Jewish Egyptian “false prophet,” and Manahem. Josephus was so used to this political apocalypticism that there are even more of these figures that he does not even bother to name. A long line of Jews fashioned themselves as restorers of the Jewish state and wished to free it from the caprice of Roman satraps, with Jesus and John the Baptist being the two whose names have survived the ravages of history.
Harris’ explanation of witchcraft is appealingly commonsensical. During the early middle ages, witchcraft was not especially looked highly upon, but was never considered heretical. Over time, the Church found that they could use these beliefs to scapegoat hailstorms, outbreaks of disease, crop failure, and other ominous signs, therefore stopping people before they reached the heterodox conclusion that God might be involved in all of these negative circumstances, too. Instead of the Catholic Church wishing to root witches out of society, they used the common folkloric beliefs in sorcery to the Church’s advantage. By co-opting sorcery as a heresy, the Church was able to blame the evils of society on its more marginal, “lower” members, while at the same time seeming to want to keep both the Church and society pure. Two birds with one stone!
I can certainly appreciate the broad appeal a book like this has for non-specialists and non-scholars. That having been said, if I could change one thing about this book, it would be that Harris had taken a less flippant approach and more fully fleshed out his sources, or had a full bibliography. Off-the-cuff expressions like “cow love” and “pig hate” really tend to draw away from the authority that Harris has proven through his other work he rightly deserves.
January 13, 2019
....هذا الكتاب تحفة، بدون مبالغة
أن تقرأ عن ثقافات غريبة، لماذا يقدس البعض الخنازير ويمقتها البعض الآخر؟ ولماذا تفتعل الحروب البدائية؟ وما بالك في تفسيرات جديدة لا تستند على تفسيرات فرويد التقليدية. ماذا عن شعوب اليانومامو غريبي الأطوار؟ ما تفسير ثقافة المنقذ المخلص في كلّ الثقافات؟ وما الحاجة لها؟ ما السحر؟ القديم منه والحديث؟
وما رأيك أن تجد جميع هذه الأجوبة بأسلوب يجمع بين الانثروبولوجيا وعلم النفس والاجتماع والتاريخ؟ بعد أن قرأت هذا الكتاب زاد إيماني بفكرة أن الوعي العميق في ثقافات المجتمعات. ذلك الوعي المربك المرتبك، قادر على تعبئة الحركات الجماهيرية بصورة أغرب إلى الخيال
أن تقرأ عن ثقافات غريبة، لماذا يقدس البعض الخنازير ويمقتها البعض الآخر؟ ولماذا تفتعل الحروب البدائية؟ وما بالك في تفسيرات جديدة لا تستند على تفسيرات فرويد التقليدية. ماذا عن شعوب اليانومامو غريبي الأطوار؟ ما تفسير ثقافة المنقذ المخلص في كلّ الثقافات؟ وما الحاجة لها؟ ما السحر؟ القديم منه والحديث؟
وما رأيك أن تجد جميع هذه الأجوبة بأسلوب يجمع بين الانثروبولوجيا وعلم النفس والاجتماع والتاريخ؟ بعد أن قرأت هذا الكتاب زاد إيماني بفكرة أن الوعي العميق في ثقافات المجتمعات. ذلك الوعي المربك المرتبك، قادر على تعبئة الحركات الجماهيرية بصورة أغرب إلى الخيال
July 8, 2019
Sebenarnya tertarik membaca buku ini karena sapi dan babi, mengapa sebagian kebudayaan mengharamkannya dan sebagian yang lain memperbolehkan memakannya. Lepas dari unsur keagamaan yang tak harusnya diganggu gugat, telaah antropologi yang disajikan di sini cukup menarik dan secara teori, cukup logis untuk diterima. Mungkiiiin. Dan uud. Ujung-ujungnya faktor ekonomislah yang menjadi dasar teori-teori ini.
Beberapa tema selanjutnya tidak terlalu mencuri perhatianku. Jika subjudul buku ini adalah menjawab teka-teki kebudayaan, yhaa... aku gak pernah mempertanyakan perang suku maring ataupun budaya biadab suku yanomamo kok. Sebagai pengetahuan juga... uhm yah, whatever. Tapi dua paragraf terakhirnya menarik. Rangkuman tentang perang, seks, pengendalian populasi, chauvinisme dan anatomi manusia.
Risalah tentang potlach dan kargo produk industrialisme - modern vs primitif, sedikit menarik saat dibaca, lalu lewat begitu saja.
Pembahasan kelahiran kristianitas di sini, menurut pandanganku, imhhho, lebih mengemukakan motif lain dari Yesus, sebagai citra kaum yahudi di bawah penguasaan romawi, selain bawaan keilahiannya. Sedikit banyak tampak berusaha "memanusiakan" dan membawa faktor-faktor perlawanan dan usaha militerisme.
Tukang sihir. Menurutku bagian ini lebih berlama-lama membahas proses penyiksaan penyihir oleh para inkusitor daripada menjawab pertanyaan tentang hari sabbat maupun alasan pemusnahan para wanita tertuduh penyihir. Memang sih, pada bagian akhir, teka-teki budaya ini akhirnya terjawab (dan jawabannya menarik serta cukup komprehensif), tapi aku kan ngeri duluan bawa pasal-pasal penyiksaannya.
Secara keseluruhan, buku ini menuntut kesabaran untuk membacanya. Runtutan pemikiran dan penuturannya bukanlah yang sangat mudah diikuti. Bagian awal babnya sering terasa melenceng bercerita ke sana-sini untuk menunjukan gambaran besar idenya sebelum akhirnya menuju inti masalah, tapi teori-teori yang akhirnya dikemukakan cukup logis dan memaut perhatian, menggoda untuk dipikirkan lebih lanjut.
Edisi Bahasa Indonesianya ini diterjemahkan dengan apik. Kalimatnya mengalir lancar dan tanpa typo (ada sih satu yg bukan typo di h.26-headnote 😁). Penamaan tokoh-tokoh sejarah dan kitab suci di bab Para Juru Selamat dan 2 bab selanjutnya juga sangat baik, konsisten dan familier dengan yang biasanya digunakan. Top dah. Covernya juga cantik, bersih, sayang tidak ada satupun bagian kepala si tukang sihir yang tergambar lengkap, huihihihi....
Beberapa tema selanjutnya tidak terlalu mencuri perhatianku. Jika subjudul buku ini adalah menjawab teka-teki kebudayaan, yhaa... aku gak pernah mempertanyakan perang suku maring ataupun budaya biadab suku yanomamo kok. Sebagai pengetahuan juga... uhm yah, whatever. Tapi dua paragraf terakhirnya menarik. Rangkuman tentang perang, seks, pengendalian populasi, chauvinisme dan anatomi manusia.
... guna membuat seks menjadi imbalan atas keberanian, salah satu jenis kelamin harus diajarkan untuk menjadi pengecut.
Risalah tentang potlach dan kargo produk industrialisme - modern vs primitif, sedikit menarik saat dibaca, lalu lewat begitu saja.
Pembahasan kelahiran kristianitas di sini, menurut pandanganku, imhhho, lebih mengemukakan motif lain dari Yesus, sebagai citra kaum yahudi di bawah penguasaan romawi, selain bawaan keilahiannya. Sedikit banyak tampak berusaha "memanusiakan" dan membawa faktor-faktor perlawanan dan usaha militerisme.
Tukang sihir. Menurutku bagian ini lebih berlama-lama membahas proses penyiksaan penyihir oleh para inkusitor daripada menjawab pertanyaan tentang hari sabbat maupun alasan pemusnahan para wanita tertuduh penyihir. Memang sih, pada bagian akhir, teka-teki budaya ini akhirnya terjawab (dan jawabannya menarik serta cukup komprehensif), tapi aku kan ngeri duluan bawa pasal-pasal penyiksaannya.
Secara keseluruhan, buku ini menuntut kesabaran untuk membacanya. Runtutan pemikiran dan penuturannya bukanlah yang sangat mudah diikuti. Bagian awal babnya sering terasa melenceng bercerita ke sana-sini untuk menunjukan gambaran besar idenya sebelum akhirnya menuju inti masalah, tapi teori-teori yang akhirnya dikemukakan cukup logis dan memaut perhatian, menggoda untuk dipikirkan lebih lanjut.
Edisi Bahasa Indonesianya ini diterjemahkan dengan apik. Kalimatnya mengalir lancar dan tanpa typo (ada sih satu yg bukan typo di h.26-headnote 😁). Penamaan tokoh-tokoh sejarah dan kitab suci di bab Para Juru Selamat dan 2 bab selanjutnya juga sangat baik, konsisten dan familier dengan yang biasanya digunakan. Top dah. Covernya juga cantik, bersih, sayang tidak ada satupun bagian kepala si tukang sihir yang tergambar lengkap, huihihihi....
February 8, 2022
Un libro muy interesante que se acerca desde la antropología a diferentes cuestiones de la historia de la humanidad como el origen de la guerra, las brujas, los tabús para comer determinados animales o el mesianismo. Vacas, cerdos, guerras y brujas es un ensayo ameno que sirve de entrada perfecta a la obra de Marvin Harris. Quizá alguna de las hipótesis no sea del todo convincente o está desfasada pero el resultado global es muy sugerente.
June 15, 2019
Hal yang paling menjadi nilai jual buku ini ialah mampu memberikan penjelasan-penjelasan rasional terhadap praktik budaya maupun religi yang sudah kita anggap sebagai "taken for granted" akibat penjelasan spiritual.
Fakta lain setelah membaca buku ini adalah bahwa buku ini secara garis besar membicarakan tema budaya, namun bisa juga buku ini dikatakan sebagai buku psikologi yang cukup berpengaruh mengenai modus operandi aktivitas manusia: rasio vs moral.
Dan, kesemuanya itu dielaborasi dengan tampilan desain yang sangat memakui. Saya harus apresiasi itu.
Fakta lain setelah membaca buku ini adalah bahwa buku ini secara garis besar membicarakan tema budaya, namun bisa juga buku ini dikatakan sebagai buku psikologi yang cukup berpengaruh mengenai modus operandi aktivitas manusia: rasio vs moral.
Dan, kesemuanya itu dielaborasi dengan tampilan desain yang sangat memakui. Saya harus apresiasi itu.
July 22, 2024
Unexpectedly turned out to be one of the most though-provoking and fascinating cultural studies I've ever read. Everyone should have a few horizon-wideners on their book list -- this should be one of them.
[2024 edit] Anyone reviewing this book with the pointed eye of a 21st century academic should be reminded that this book was first written and published in 1974, when research was significantly more difficult and tedious -- when it relied on card catalogs, access to both public and private libraries, books made of ink and paper, handwritten notes, possibly even a typewriter.
Have some of Harris' theories been disproven by religious, cultural, and anthropological scholars in the 50 years since this has been written? Are there word and phrase choices here that may have been acceptable in mid-1970s Western culture, but are absolutely inappropriate now? OBVIOUSLY YES.
If you're looking for a carefully worded deep dive into many-faceted aspects of global cultural norms, picked through and edited down with a fine-toothed comb created solely by the technological advancements in both research and publishing, this is not the book for you. I'm sure that book exists somewhere, there are probably a dozen of them or more, and some of them might be very good. But that is not this book.
However, if you're new to anthropology and how anthropologists view humans both current and historical, this book is for you. If you've ever questioned how someone can read a religious text through the eyes of a historian, this book is for you. Or if you've ever wondered where anthropology BEGINS, where educated guesses in the context in which they are created are all we have to work with, this book still stands as an excellent primer in how -- and why -- humans should not automatically disregard, eschew, or deride other human behaviors simply because we do not understand them. It is a good study on why "othering" is simultaneously a natural human trait AND a knowledge- and connection-limiting practice. 50 years later, it continues to show that curiosity for the Why is often far more important than simply knowing the What.
[2024 edit] Anyone reviewing this book with the pointed eye of a 21st century academic should be reminded that this book was first written and published in 1974, when research was significantly more difficult and tedious -- when it relied on card catalogs, access to both public and private libraries, books made of ink and paper, handwritten notes, possibly even a typewriter.
Have some of Harris' theories been disproven by religious, cultural, and anthropological scholars in the 50 years since this has been written? Are there word and phrase choices here that may have been acceptable in mid-1970s Western culture, but are absolutely inappropriate now? OBVIOUSLY YES.
If you're looking for a carefully worded deep dive into many-faceted aspects of global cultural norms, picked through and edited down with a fine-toothed comb created solely by the technological advancements in both research and publishing, this is not the book for you. I'm sure that book exists somewhere, there are probably a dozen of them or more, and some of them might be very good. But that is not this book.
However, if you're new to anthropology and how anthropologists view humans both current and historical, this book is for you. If you've ever questioned how someone can read a religious text through the eyes of a historian, this book is for you. Or if you've ever wondered where anthropology BEGINS, where educated guesses in the context in which they are created are all we have to work with, this book still stands as an excellent primer in how -- and why -- humans should not automatically disregard, eschew, or deride other human behaviors simply because we do not understand them. It is a good study on why "othering" is simultaneously a natural human trait AND a knowledge- and connection-limiting practice. 50 years later, it continues to show that curiosity for the Why is often far more important than simply knowing the What.
February 1, 2021
يريد الكاتب تفسير بعض الظواهر المسلم بها في التاريخ بكونها خرافات أو تعصبات من العقل البشري، كتاب يستحق القراءة رغم إنه في لغته كانت تخاطب أناس يعلمون بالفعل عن بعض الأمور التي يناقشها الكاتب
July 29, 2018
مقدسات ومحرمات وحروب: ألغاز الثقافة
3،5/5
3،5/5
January 5, 2021
I learned so much from this book. Next time, I'll think twice before I condemn some foreign cultural practice as inane or irrational. Harris shows how some of the most outlandish cultural phenomena are rooted in very powerful material causes and may provide all sorts of invisible material benefits to society. Harris also offers a very interesting and meticulously constructed back-story for Jesus of Nazareth, a story according to which he is not the peaceful figure he has been made out to be by the early Churchmen. And for the witch hunts to be a devious divide et impera strategy by the Catholic Church, who would have thought?
July 30, 2020
Kao što sam istakao ranije, u poglavlju o potlaču, sistemi ugleda ne stvaraju se vibracijama iz spoljašnjeg prostora. Ljudi se uče svesti o takmičarskom potrošaštvu zato što ih na to nagone neodoljivo moćne političke i ekonomske sile. Te se sile mogu preinačiti jedino praktičnim aktivnostima, koje nastoje da promene svest tek menjajući materijalne uslove svesti. Bezazlena revolucionarna talasanja na nivou svesti, na koja poziva kontrakultura, nisu ni nova ni revolucionarna. Hrišćanstvo dve hiljade godina pokušava da napravi revoluciju putem svesti. Ko će poreći da je hrišćanska svest mogla promeniti svet? Pa ipak, dogodilo se da je svet promenio hrišćansku svest. Kad bi svi usvojili miroljubivi, netakmičarski stil života, pun ljubavi i velikodušnosti, mogli bismo imati nešto bolje od kontrakulture - imali bismo Carstvo božje...
Mudro filozofiranje kako je siromaštvo, na kraju krajeva, samo stanje duha, oduvek je predstavljalo izvor utehe za one koji nisu siromašni. U tom smislu, kontrakultura zapravo nudi tradicionalni prezir hrišćanskih teoretičara prema ovozemaljskom imetku, u neznatno izmenjenom vidu. Jednako tradicionalno i uklopljivo u suštinu konzervativne politike jeste jamstvo da se ništa neće dogoditi silom....
Mudro filozofiranje kako je siromaštvo, na kraju krajeva, samo stanje duha, oduvek je predstavljalo izvor utehe za one koji nisu siromašni. U tom smislu, kontrakultura zapravo nudi tradicionalni prezir hrišćanskih teoretičara prema ovozemaljskom imetku, u neznatno izmenjenom vidu. Jednako tradicionalno i uklopljivo u suštinu konzervativne politike jeste jamstvo da se ništa neće dogoditi silom....
June 12, 2007
Cows are inefficiently raised and devoured in the United States, while in India, people would rather go hungry than eat cow flesh. In the Jewish and Moslem tradition, pigs are unclean and cannot be consumed; while in others, gargantuan pig feasts are more holy than the Thanksgiving turkey. Is this just part of the inexplicable side of human nature, or are there understandable reasons for these cultural curiosities? Harris shows that these bizarre displays of cultural variety play an important and understandable role in the cultures’ environments.
January 18, 2018
ABURRIDA CUADRATURA DEL CÍRCULO
Dice Marvin Harris, en las primeras líneas de su libro, que “trata de las causas de estilos de vida aparentemente irracionales e inexplicables” y crea en el lector la falsa expectativa de que el autor será, verdaderamente, capaz de desvelar semejantes misterios. Bien pronto, se viene abajo el horizonte de expectativas creado, pues tras un enorme aparato teórico y práctico, en donde se levantan un sin fin de teorías avaladas por estudios y observaciones, resulta que el objetivo del libro, aclarar esos enigmas, queda disuelto en la parafernalia y el lector compone un gesto de decepción y escepticismo puesto que no termina de comprender lo que ha leído y, lo que es peor, para qué y el porqué lo ha leído.
Vayamos por partes: en primer lugar, el capítulo titulado La Madre Vaca, creo que es un claro ejemplo de esas falsas expectativas que provoca el libro en sus lectores. La verdad es que uno se relame ante el planteamiento inicial de que alguien, al fin, vaya a ser capaz de explicarle a uno los motivos por los cuales las vacas sean sagradas en la India, de que aunque sus habitantes se mueran de hambre no se las coman, y otros tópicos de ese estilo relacionados con el culto: es cierto, la ignorancia que hemos desarrollado como lectores ante ciertos aspectos de la vida se basa en la incomprensión de ciertos tópicos de otras culturas, como el hecho de que los occidentales o europeos no podamos entender cómo se puede comer perro o termitas, aunque este sea otro asunto, que por cierto insinúa varias veces el libro, pero que tampoco trata con la profundidad que sería deseable.
De entre las mayores decepciones del libro, el capítulo dedicado a la vaca en la India ha sido una de las mayores, dado que yo albergaba, junto al relacionado con el cerdo y por otros motivos particulares, un interés especial. Si partimos de la equiparación de la Vaca (con mayúsculas) a nuestra Virgen María, está claro que las expectativas en obtener una explicación lógica y plausible se han difuminado. Después, Harris, despliega toda una retórica que le lleva a dar vueltas en círculo sobre el culto a las vacas y cómo se refleja eso en el día a día de la gente –sin duda, interesante-, pero que no aclara el porqué de los motivos, lo que está esperando saber el lector –o al menos lo que estaba esperando conocer yo-. Porque no me vale con saber que la vaca “es el símbolo de todo lo que está vivo”, como una aclaración al problema. Luego, ya entramos en las libras, en la producción de mantequilla, en la función económica, en que hay pocos bueyes en relación a las vacas, en el “ecosistema”, en la importancia de los excrementos del ganado vacuno, en la agricultura mecanizada y en toda una serie de lugares comunes que, si bien pueden aportar una visión de conjunto, a mi no me terminan de aclarar el porqué, en la India, no se comen a las vacas.
Un par de referencias a Gandhi y su amor por las vacas y una conclusión peregrina, antisistema y antiglobalización, ecológica y fuera de lugar (“de hecho, el calor y humo inútiles provocados durante un solo día de embotellamientos de tráfico en Estados Unidos despilfarran mucha más energía que todas las vacas de la India durante un año”) por lo que tiene de redundante e incluso de hipócrita y oportunista (¿la vaca sagrada interpretada como el automóvil de hoy es acaso una conclusión de calado antropológico?), pone el desilusionante colofón a este capítulo del que, sin duda, esperaba mucho más.
Por semejantes líneas argumentales discurre el segundo apartado, Porcofilia y Porcofobia, del que también, y dada mi intensa convivencia con la comunidad judía durante años –sin yo pertenecer a ella, pero como un mero observador que muchas veces no acertaba a comprender lo que veía- despertaba en mi un gran interés. Por ello, la afirmación inicial de que tanto un extremo como otro (el odio o el amor desmesurado por el cerdo) interpretada como un supuesto de “hábito alimenticio irracional”, ya despierta en el lector español, país en donde se vive una auténtico culto al cerdo, ciertas reservas. Nuevamente, “el enigma del cerdo”, tal y como sucedió antes con la incógnita de la vaca, no será realmente despejado. Y además, para hablar de los fanáticos de los cerdos no era necesario recurrir a exóticas civilizaciones de Nueva Guinea, Melanesia y el Sur del Pacífico, tan sólo habría que fijarse en Guijuelo, por mencionar algún lugar de nuestra geografía patria.
Los motivos de la condena hebraica y coránica a los cerdos se entronca con motivos anteriores al Renacimiento, se intenta equiparar la supuesta suciedad de los cerdos con la de las vacas señalando que pese a ello, estas últimas son sagradas en la India (volviendo a no aclarar esos motivos por los cuales son sagradas y a los que se dedicó un fuego de salvas en el capítulo anterior), y termina amparándose en algunas de las teorías medicas de Maimónides. Es una lástima que Harris no especifique que Maimónides era cordobés, y por ende, durante un tiempo establecido en un país donde los cristianos tenían autentica pasión por el cerdo y donde el hecho diferenciador cultural sería eso, el rechazo musulmán al cerdo… pero bueno, esto es sólo una teoría mía. Discípulo de Averroes, esgrimió en su Guía de la Buena Salud diversas prácticas para favorecer la digestión; algunos preceptos de Maimónides (por otro lado una figura clave del pensamiento de la época con su Guía de Perplejos), nos indican que, sobre algunas cuestiones médicas, su conocimiento era extraordinariamente medieval y habría que pensarse el citarlo de forma ejemplar en ese campo, por muy médico que fuera en la corte de Saladino.
El ántrax, la posibilidad de que el cerdo trasmita la tuberculosis –olvidándonos de la triquinosis- el nomadismo hebreo, los chascarrillos acerca de expresiones como “sudar como un cerdo” que bien poco aportan a la solución del enigma, contribuyen, una vez más, a sacar la cabeza caliente y los pies fríos, sin solución posible al misterio y con la impresión de que Harris está elaborando una especie de encaje de bolillos argumental sustentado en nada.
En este sentido, particularmente irritante resulta el capítulo titulado La Guerra Primitiva, una reflexión sobre la irracionalidad del conflicto edulcorada con unas indigestas fórmulas de Rappaport y unas cuantas referencias a los maring y los yanomamo. Sin necesidad de recurrir a esto, Todorov y Sebald obtienen unas conclusiones mucho más relevantes y sustanciosas en sus ensayos, privados de tanto academicismo.
Para mí, el capítulo más interesante del libro es El Potlach, una buena reflexión sobre “el impulso de prestigio” de los aborígenes de la isla de Vancouver, toda una exposición de los motivos humanos del orgullo, el agradecimiento, el desagradecimiento, el estatus y la envidia, sazonados con algunas anécdotas francamente ilustrativas como la del buey, y una leccioncita sobre la “reciprocidad” de enorme interés.
No querría acabar esta reflexión sobre el libro sin hacer referencia a los capítulos dedicados a las brujas, ubicados al final. Si bien resultan quizás de lo más entretenido (y por cierto me sorprendió encontrar entre las citas y en la bibliografía final a un historiador como Hugh Trevor-Roper, que yo exclusivamente conocía por sus estudios sobre el nazismo), en muchas ocasiones caen en lo anecdótico y en lo más sórdido de la persecución a la que fueron sometidas. Si bien eso también ocurre en el clásico de Caro Baroja sobre las brujas (por cierto citado por Harris entre la bibliografía final), creo que en el libro del español hayamos mucha mayor información y reflexión acerca de cómo se persiguió, y porqué, a las brujas. Aunque ni siquiera sé si era este semejante objetivo de Harris.
En conclusión, Marvin Harris se propone darnos unas explicaciones a una serie de enigmas (desde los alimenticios, pasando por los religiosos, para alcanzar los culturales) que ni de lejos alcanza a explicar. Amparado, o más bien debería decir parapetado, en un estilo alambicado y aburrido (cuya parte de mérito no niego a su traductor Juan Oliver Sánchez Fernandez), Harris nos convence de que va a ser capaz de demostrar la cuadratura del círculo antropológico y, lamentablemente, al final de la lectura, sólo él parece creerse el haberlo conseguido. Y tampoco es que lo haga con mucha fe si nos atenemos a ese exordio final, a modo de epílogo, con el que nos penaliza.
El libro, que pretende pasar por serio y riguroso, es un tostón la mayoría de las veces, pero no tan dañino como el de Barley, aunque no explique ni aclare absolutamente nada de lo que promete en su personal cuadratura del círculo pedante y aburrida.
Dice Marvin Harris, en las primeras líneas de su libro, que “trata de las causas de estilos de vida aparentemente irracionales e inexplicables” y crea en el lector la falsa expectativa de que el autor será, verdaderamente, capaz de desvelar semejantes misterios. Bien pronto, se viene abajo el horizonte de expectativas creado, pues tras un enorme aparato teórico y práctico, en donde se levantan un sin fin de teorías avaladas por estudios y observaciones, resulta que el objetivo del libro, aclarar esos enigmas, queda disuelto en la parafernalia y el lector compone un gesto de decepción y escepticismo puesto que no termina de comprender lo que ha leído y, lo que es peor, para qué y el porqué lo ha leído.
Vayamos por partes: en primer lugar, el capítulo titulado La Madre Vaca, creo que es un claro ejemplo de esas falsas expectativas que provoca el libro en sus lectores. La verdad es que uno se relame ante el planteamiento inicial de que alguien, al fin, vaya a ser capaz de explicarle a uno los motivos por los cuales las vacas sean sagradas en la India, de que aunque sus habitantes se mueran de hambre no se las coman, y otros tópicos de ese estilo relacionados con el culto: es cierto, la ignorancia que hemos desarrollado como lectores ante ciertos aspectos de la vida se basa en la incomprensión de ciertos tópicos de otras culturas, como el hecho de que los occidentales o europeos no podamos entender cómo se puede comer perro o termitas, aunque este sea otro asunto, que por cierto insinúa varias veces el libro, pero que tampoco trata con la profundidad que sería deseable.
De entre las mayores decepciones del libro, el capítulo dedicado a la vaca en la India ha sido una de las mayores, dado que yo albergaba, junto al relacionado con el cerdo y por otros motivos particulares, un interés especial. Si partimos de la equiparación de la Vaca (con mayúsculas) a nuestra Virgen María, está claro que las expectativas en obtener una explicación lógica y plausible se han difuminado. Después, Harris, despliega toda una retórica que le lleva a dar vueltas en círculo sobre el culto a las vacas y cómo se refleja eso en el día a día de la gente –sin duda, interesante-, pero que no aclara el porqué de los motivos, lo que está esperando saber el lector –o al menos lo que estaba esperando conocer yo-. Porque no me vale con saber que la vaca “es el símbolo de todo lo que está vivo”, como una aclaración al problema. Luego, ya entramos en las libras, en la producción de mantequilla, en la función económica, en que hay pocos bueyes en relación a las vacas, en el “ecosistema”, en la importancia de los excrementos del ganado vacuno, en la agricultura mecanizada y en toda una serie de lugares comunes que, si bien pueden aportar una visión de conjunto, a mi no me terminan de aclarar el porqué, en la India, no se comen a las vacas.
Un par de referencias a Gandhi y su amor por las vacas y una conclusión peregrina, antisistema y antiglobalización, ecológica y fuera de lugar (“de hecho, el calor y humo inútiles provocados durante un solo día de embotellamientos de tráfico en Estados Unidos despilfarran mucha más energía que todas las vacas de la India durante un año”) por lo que tiene de redundante e incluso de hipócrita y oportunista (¿la vaca sagrada interpretada como el automóvil de hoy es acaso una conclusión de calado antropológico?), pone el desilusionante colofón a este capítulo del que, sin duda, esperaba mucho más.
Por semejantes líneas argumentales discurre el segundo apartado, Porcofilia y Porcofobia, del que también, y dada mi intensa convivencia con la comunidad judía durante años –sin yo pertenecer a ella, pero como un mero observador que muchas veces no acertaba a comprender lo que veía- despertaba en mi un gran interés. Por ello, la afirmación inicial de que tanto un extremo como otro (el odio o el amor desmesurado por el cerdo) interpretada como un supuesto de “hábito alimenticio irracional”, ya despierta en el lector español, país en donde se vive una auténtico culto al cerdo, ciertas reservas. Nuevamente, “el enigma del cerdo”, tal y como sucedió antes con la incógnita de la vaca, no será realmente despejado. Y además, para hablar de los fanáticos de los cerdos no era necesario recurrir a exóticas civilizaciones de Nueva Guinea, Melanesia y el Sur del Pacífico, tan sólo habría que fijarse en Guijuelo, por mencionar algún lugar de nuestra geografía patria.
Los motivos de la condena hebraica y coránica a los cerdos se entronca con motivos anteriores al Renacimiento, se intenta equiparar la supuesta suciedad de los cerdos con la de las vacas señalando que pese a ello, estas últimas son sagradas en la India (volviendo a no aclarar esos motivos por los cuales son sagradas y a los que se dedicó un fuego de salvas en el capítulo anterior), y termina amparándose en algunas de las teorías medicas de Maimónides. Es una lástima que Harris no especifique que Maimónides era cordobés, y por ende, durante un tiempo establecido en un país donde los cristianos tenían autentica pasión por el cerdo y donde el hecho diferenciador cultural sería eso, el rechazo musulmán al cerdo… pero bueno, esto es sólo una teoría mía. Discípulo de Averroes, esgrimió en su Guía de la Buena Salud diversas prácticas para favorecer la digestión; algunos preceptos de Maimónides (por otro lado una figura clave del pensamiento de la época con su Guía de Perplejos), nos indican que, sobre algunas cuestiones médicas, su conocimiento era extraordinariamente medieval y habría que pensarse el citarlo de forma ejemplar en ese campo, por muy médico que fuera en la corte de Saladino.
El ántrax, la posibilidad de que el cerdo trasmita la tuberculosis –olvidándonos de la triquinosis- el nomadismo hebreo, los chascarrillos acerca de expresiones como “sudar como un cerdo” que bien poco aportan a la solución del enigma, contribuyen, una vez más, a sacar la cabeza caliente y los pies fríos, sin solución posible al misterio y con la impresión de que Harris está elaborando una especie de encaje de bolillos argumental sustentado en nada.
En este sentido, particularmente irritante resulta el capítulo titulado La Guerra Primitiva, una reflexión sobre la irracionalidad del conflicto edulcorada con unas indigestas fórmulas de Rappaport y unas cuantas referencias a los maring y los yanomamo. Sin necesidad de recurrir a esto, Todorov y Sebald obtienen unas conclusiones mucho más relevantes y sustanciosas en sus ensayos, privados de tanto academicismo.
Para mí, el capítulo más interesante del libro es El Potlach, una buena reflexión sobre “el impulso de prestigio” de los aborígenes de la isla de Vancouver, toda una exposición de los motivos humanos del orgullo, el agradecimiento, el desagradecimiento, el estatus y la envidia, sazonados con algunas anécdotas francamente ilustrativas como la del buey, y una leccioncita sobre la “reciprocidad” de enorme interés.
No querría acabar esta reflexión sobre el libro sin hacer referencia a los capítulos dedicados a las brujas, ubicados al final. Si bien resultan quizás de lo más entretenido (y por cierto me sorprendió encontrar entre las citas y en la bibliografía final a un historiador como Hugh Trevor-Roper, que yo exclusivamente conocía por sus estudios sobre el nazismo), en muchas ocasiones caen en lo anecdótico y en lo más sórdido de la persecución a la que fueron sometidas. Si bien eso también ocurre en el clásico de Caro Baroja sobre las brujas (por cierto citado por Harris entre la bibliografía final), creo que en el libro del español hayamos mucha mayor información y reflexión acerca de cómo se persiguió, y porqué, a las brujas. Aunque ni siquiera sé si era este semejante objetivo de Harris.
En conclusión, Marvin Harris se propone darnos unas explicaciones a una serie de enigmas (desde los alimenticios, pasando por los religiosos, para alcanzar los culturales) que ni de lejos alcanza a explicar. Amparado, o más bien debería decir parapetado, en un estilo alambicado y aburrido (cuya parte de mérito no niego a su traductor Juan Oliver Sánchez Fernandez), Harris nos convence de que va a ser capaz de demostrar la cuadratura del círculo antropológico y, lamentablemente, al final de la lectura, sólo él parece creerse el haberlo conseguido. Y tampoco es que lo haga con mucha fe si nos atenemos a ese exordio final, a modo de epílogo, con el que nos penaliza.
El libro, que pretende pasar por serio y riguroso, es un tostón la mayoría de las veces, pero no tan dañino como el de Barley, aunque no explique ni aclare absolutamente nada de lo que promete en su personal cuadratura del círculo pedante y aburrida.
August 1, 2020
Not sure what to think of this book overall, but I give it points for some out-of-the-box thinking, and several insights mixed in with some of the boredom.
It started out really promising, with a look at why India's sacred cow makes sense. He tells that story in a way that shows eating cows would be a bad idea for them at that time. He then goes into why he thinks the Semitic people don't eat pigs, and that made perfect sense. I always thought it had to do with health reasons if you don't cook the meat well, but other meat is also dangerous if you don't cook it. But in those days, the people were nomadic, and sheep were well-suited to a nomadic lifestyle, but pigs would be competing with humans for food. Also, as far as cleanliness of pigs, they do well as long as the temperatures are not too hot, but when it gets hot, they will roll around in their own poop to keep cool. I guess the deserts were too warm for them.
Then he tells about places where pigs were loved, and people had events where they ate as much as they could. They would save up for years to get a surplus, then eat most of them all at once. This is where the book started getting a bit strange and hard to follow.
He then went into the religious goings on from BC to AD, then on to witches. But he began to lose credibility when he got to modern times, and talked about the 60s counterculture, which he seemed to think was really stupid. Also, he seemed to place a lot of importance of Carlos Castañeda's books about Don Juan, whereas I think most of us just thought it was an interesting book on a different culture that also used psychedelics, but we didn't take it seriously. The author seemed to think otherwise.
He starts off the section with this explanation:
"Freak out" with Jesus? Buddha? Mao? I don't know about that.
I lived through those times, and I guess there were people like that (still are), but I never saw this as a predominant quality of the whole movement. Perhaps I missed it.
Anyway, after reading this part, I began to have second thoughts about the validity of some of his other facts and opinions.
It started out really promising, with a look at why India's sacred cow makes sense. He tells that story in a way that shows eating cows would be a bad idea for them at that time. He then goes into why he thinks the Semitic people don't eat pigs, and that made perfect sense. I always thought it had to do with health reasons if you don't cook the meat well, but other meat is also dangerous if you don't cook it. But in those days, the people were nomadic, and sheep were well-suited to a nomadic lifestyle, but pigs would be competing with humans for food. Also, as far as cleanliness of pigs, they do well as long as the temperatures are not too hot, but when it gets hot, they will roll around in their own poop to keep cool. I guess the deserts were too warm for them.
Then he tells about places where pigs were loved, and people had events where they ate as much as they could. They would save up for years to get a surplus, then eat most of them all at once. This is where the book started getting a bit strange and hard to follow.
He then went into the religious goings on from BC to AD, then on to witches. But he began to lose credibility when he got to modern times, and talked about the 60s counterculture, which he seemed to think was really stupid. Also, he seemed to place a lot of importance of Carlos Castañeda's books about Don Juan, whereas I think most of us just thought it was an interesting book on a different culture that also used psychedelics, but we didn't take it seriously. The author seemed to think otherwise.
He starts off the section with this explanation:
A central aspect of counter-culture is the belief that consciousness controls history. People are what goes on in their minds; to make them better, all you have to do is give them better ideas. Objective conditions count for little. The entire world is to be altered as a result of a “revolution in consciousness.” All we need do to stop crime, end poverty, beautify cities, eliminate war, live in peace and harmony with ourselves and nature, is to open our minds to Consciousness III. “Consciousness is prior to structure … The whole corporate state rests on nothing but consciousness.”
In the counter-culture, consciousness is stimulated and made aware of its untapped potential. Counter-culture people take journeys—“head trips”—to broaden their minds. They use pot, LSD, or mushrooms “to get their heads together.” They rap, encounter, or chant in order to “freak out” with Jesus, Buddha, Mao Tse-tung.
"Freak out" with Jesus? Buddha? Mao? I don't know about that.
I lived through those times, and I guess there were people like that (still are), but I never saw this as a predominant quality of the whole movement. Perhaps I missed it.
Anyway, after reading this part, I began to have second thoughts about the validity of some of his other facts and opinions.
May 11, 2020
Saya tahu buku ini penting, tapi kenapa tak lebih dari dua bab yang saya pahami. Itu pun masih dengan mengambang. Buku ini secara garis besar membahas rasionalisasi atas fenomena yang kadang dianggap mistis bahkan transedental.
Mungkin saya saja yang kurang pinter memahami bahasa Marvin Harris.
Mungkin saya saja yang kurang pinter memahami bahasa Marvin Harris.
March 9, 2024
Akıcı bir şekilde ilerleyen, sorulara cevap niteliğinde bir antropoloji kitabı. Özellikle cadılarla ilgili kısım ve günümüzde yine yeniden bu tip doğaüstü zırvalara inanmaların artması ile bir tür cadılığın dönüşüne çıkartması güzeldi. O yıllarda masum insanları katleden üst sınıf ve din adamları, hiç bir şey olmamış gibi devam ettiler. Şimdilerde de yine aynı şekilde kendi dogmalarını diretenler, yine masum insanların ellerinde en değerli şey olan yaşam haklarını almaya devam ediyorlar.
Bir diğer güzel karşılaşma ise, Castenada ile olan idi. Yıllar önce okuduğum kitaptaki şaman Don Juan yine kimin uçup kimin uçmadığını soruyordu. Marvin Harris ise bu soruya çok net cevabını veriyor. O yıllarda da bu saçmalıklara gülüp geçmiştim ve alabileceğim gerçek bir öğreti varsa onu almaya çalışmıştım. Demek doğrusunu yapmışım.
Bir diğer güzel karşılaşma ise, Castenada ile olan idi. Yıllar önce okuduğum kitaptaki şaman Don Juan yine kimin uçup kimin uçmadığını soruyordu. Marvin Harris ise bu soruya çok net cevabını veriyor. O yıllarda da bu saçmalıklara gülüp geçmiştim ve alabileceğim gerçek bir öğreti varsa onu almaya çalışmıştım. Demek doğrusunu yapmışım.
April 5, 2014
One of my favorite quotes regarding culture comes from an ecclesiastical leader named David R. Stone. He said:
"Our culture tends to determine what foods we like, how we dress, what constitutes polite behavior, what sports we should follow, what our taste in music should be, the importance of education, and our attitudes toward honesty. It also influences men as to the importance of recreation or religion, influences women about the priority of career or childbearing, and has a powerful effect on how we approach procreation and moral issues. All too often, we are like puppets on a string, as our culture determines what is 'cool.'"
I am fascinated by culture, the own I am a part of and the various ones around the world and throughout history. Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches by Marvin Harris is a book written just for me. All of the books I have read that have dealt with culture in one way or another, whether that be The Hero with a Thousand Faces or People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture, has had enough interesting things to say that I felt they were worth reading, even if I didn't agree with some portions of them. Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches falls in that same category--interesting, thoughtful, sometimes right, and sometimes wrong, in my opinion.
Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches selectively explains, but the author purposefully mentions his intent is not to explain everything, a few cultural attributes that existed in the world at different periods of time and attempts to give a reasonable and rational reason for their being a part of the culture. Harris does this with a fine academic mind and from a secular perspective. More often than thought, I was able to follow the author's reasoning and understand, at least, the conclusions he came to and how he got there. At other times, such as his explanation of the true character and history of Jesus Christ, left me scratching my head. I have read the New Testament four times, and I was highly skeptical of some of Harris's interpretations and conjectures. There is plenty here to discuss and debate.
The book ends with a commentary on the culture of Harris's time, which was several decades ago, that took some of the momentum away from the book since it was so topical for the time it was written but no so much today. I enjoyed Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches because it gave me plenty to think about. It also proved to me, once again, how much we don't know as opposed to how much we do. Culture is deviously complicated, but Marvin Harris's attempt to explain it is interesting enough to be read.
http://thethousanderclub.blogspot.com/
"Our culture tends to determine what foods we like, how we dress, what constitutes polite behavior, what sports we should follow, what our taste in music should be, the importance of education, and our attitudes toward honesty. It also influences men as to the importance of recreation or religion, influences women about the priority of career or childbearing, and has a powerful effect on how we approach procreation and moral issues. All too often, we are like puppets on a string, as our culture determines what is 'cool.'"
I am fascinated by culture, the own I am a part of and the various ones around the world and throughout history. Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches by Marvin Harris is a book written just for me. All of the books I have read that have dealt with culture in one way or another, whether that be The Hero with a Thousand Faces or People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture, has had enough interesting things to say that I felt they were worth reading, even if I didn't agree with some portions of them. Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches falls in that same category--interesting, thoughtful, sometimes right, and sometimes wrong, in my opinion.
Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches selectively explains, but the author purposefully mentions his intent is not to explain everything, a few cultural attributes that existed in the world at different periods of time and attempts to give a reasonable and rational reason for their being a part of the culture. Harris does this with a fine academic mind and from a secular perspective. More often than thought, I was able to follow the author's reasoning and understand, at least, the conclusions he came to and how he got there. At other times, such as his explanation of the true character and history of Jesus Christ, left me scratching my head. I have read the New Testament four times, and I was highly skeptical of some of Harris's interpretations and conjectures. There is plenty here to discuss and debate.
The book ends with a commentary on the culture of Harris's time, which was several decades ago, that took some of the momentum away from the book since it was so topical for the time it was written but no so much today. I enjoyed Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches because it gave me plenty to think about. It also proved to me, once again, how much we don't know as opposed to how much we do. Culture is deviously complicated, but Marvin Harris's attempt to explain it is interesting enough to be read.
http://thethousanderclub.blogspot.com/
July 8, 2015
Today, while lamenting the sidelining of fiction in favor of informational texts to the exclusion of just about anything else in English classes with a friend, I mentioned that no one had ever learned to love to read by reading a textbook. However, I had to immediately correct myself by adding "except for Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches and The Day the Universe Changed: How Galileo's Telescope Changed the Truth."
I read Marvin Harris' scintillating book in 1978. Although an accessible paperback designed for a general readership, Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches provided a fabulous text for my sociology class on how abstruse actions by other cultures are not quite so inexplicable once you understand the culture. Despite being first published in 1978, it's as fresh as it was when the late Harris, then a professor at Columbia University, released it. While Westerners like to lord it over the unthinking wogs, Harris provides examples on how facile that attitude can be. For example, protecting cows and letting them wander makes sense in an impoverished India where bovines provide street cleaning by eating compostable garbage, their dung makes cheap cement, and their milk will always be available since the temptation to slaughter them for their meat is checked.
But the book isn't a stern polemic; rather, Harris presents the material in a charming and often humorous manner. Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches proves as riveting as a whodunit or one of the new YA adventure tales. The reader will forget s/he's reading what was for many years a sociology and anthropology text and instead think s/he's stumbled on a travelogue crossed with The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights.
I read Marvin Harris' scintillating book in 1978. Although an accessible paperback designed for a general readership, Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches provided a fabulous text for my sociology class on how abstruse actions by other cultures are not quite so inexplicable once you understand the culture. Despite being first published in 1978, it's as fresh as it was when the late Harris, then a professor at Columbia University, released it. While Westerners like to lord it over the unthinking wogs, Harris provides examples on how facile that attitude can be. For example, protecting cows and letting them wander makes sense in an impoverished India where bovines provide street cleaning by eating compostable garbage, their dung makes cheap cement, and their milk will always be available since the temptation to slaughter them for their meat is checked.
But the book isn't a stern polemic; rather, Harris presents the material in a charming and often humorous manner. Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches proves as riveting as a whodunit or one of the new YA adventure tales. The reader will forget s/he's reading what was for many years a sociology and anthropology text and instead think s/he's stumbled on a travelogue crossed with The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights.
November 6, 2021
This book was originally published in the early seventies. The author, an academic anthropologist, was apparently upset by the behavior of his undergraduate students during the sixties, by the 'counter culture', and spends two concluding chapters in criticism. His own background, though not explicitly stated, leans towards economic materialism, hard-nosed Marxism as it were. This approach is demonstrated in his explanations of pig-loving vs. pig-hating (Moslems, Jews) cultures, cargo cultism, potlach behaviors, patriarchy, witch-hunting and other social phenomena generally regarded as mysteriously irrational, if not self-defeating. Naturally, his explanations show the sense behind the behaviors and offer examples of a method of analysis with real explanatory power. I found the book to be well written, provocative and entertaining.
September 28, 2007
This book is required reading for my Political Science 101 class, and for once a professor has managed to select an interesting book.
This is an interesting look at some of the cultural riddles that tend to mystify Westerners - like Cow Love in India, Pig Hate in the Middle East, Cargo Cults, etc. Harris explains how these seemingly ridiculous (to us) behaviors are actually perfectly sensible and successful adaption strategies. A short and pleasant read, well researched and written. I highly recommend this to anyone who has an interest in cultural adaptation strategies or just cultures in general.
This is an interesting look at some of the cultural riddles that tend to mystify Westerners - like Cow Love in India, Pig Hate in the Middle East, Cargo Cults, etc. Harris explains how these seemingly ridiculous (to us) behaviors are actually perfectly sensible and successful adaption strategies. A short and pleasant read, well researched and written. I highly recommend this to anyone who has an interest in cultural adaptation strategies or just cultures in general.
July 2, 2016
All those religious traditions that seem utterly stupid, confounding, and sometimes surprising as well as the events in history such as 'witchcraft' whose root causes we generally don't know, is the main topic of this book. What a book such a motivation makes!
I won't give any spoilers but I want to say, if such a strong ambition to search for truth doesn't deserve respect, then I don't what does. After so many years, I've yet to come across such a book, and I keep on seeing Marvin Harris as a modern Sherlock Holmes on a grand scale. Grand in its efforts on a both geographical and temporal scale.
I won't give any spoilers but I want to say, if such a strong ambition to search for truth doesn't deserve respect, then I don't what does. After so many years, I've yet to come across such a book, and I keep on seeing Marvin Harris as a modern Sherlock Holmes on a grand scale. Grand in its efforts on a both geographical and temporal scale.
September 28, 2023
كتاب جيد، لكنني وجدته أقل من توقعاتي بكثير، ولم يضف إليّ الكثير. فصلان من الكتاب فقط هما اللذان أثارا اهتمامي أكثر من سائر الفصول. أولهما هو الفصل الذي ناقش فيه ثقافة "المخلص" عند اليهود، والفصل الثاني هو الذي ناقش فيه بعض الأمور من تاريخ المسيحية وطبيعتها.
June 5, 2019
The never ending questions occurred in our society daily lives, from traditions to urban legends maybe. But instead of shushing people to question why, it is a good idea to talk about them. They're part of what making the societies anyway.
Interesting book, opening further questions but well maybe we will find the answers one day. Or never.
Interesting book, opening further questions but well maybe we will find the answers one day. Or never.
Read
December 16, 2020oh I thought I already wrote this
March 20, 2021
كتاب جيد.. يجيب بأدوات أنثروبولوجية ماركسية بالأساس على أسئلة من نوع:
لماذا يقدس الهندوس البقر؟
لماذا لا يأكل المسلمون الخنزير؟
وأخرى شبيهة..
لماذا يقدس الهندوس البقر؟
لماذا لا يأكل المسلمون الخنزير؟
وأخرى شبيهة..
September 24, 2020
Es un libro divulgativo y entretenido porque se hablan de varias épocas y culturas. Está bien para introducir ciertos conceptos y temas que trabajan las antropologas... Pero algunas partes están anticuadas o son profundamente criticables o son panfleteo puro y duro del pensamiento de Harris que muchas veces vienen de una mala lectura suya. Planfleto no solo de su sistema materialista, por mi que haga con ello toda la propaganda que quiera, pero el último cap y el epílogo funciona a modo de ensayo politico que sinceramente, a parte de un analisis regulero, su posición y sus valores morales precisamente me parecen despreciables. No ser "relativista" (de lo cual hace un mal analisis en muchos textos suyos porque el relativismo cultural en antropologia no es el moral) no significa que seas tan jodidamente beligerante y arrogante.
El resto del libro está entretenido por lo menos y con cierto interés si se empieza en esto. Se pueden leer los capitulos sueltos en realidad, más o menos todos se pueden ir entendiendo yo creo, por si solo queréis ojear lo que son los Potlatch por ejemplo
El resto del libro está entretenido por lo menos y con cierto interés si se empieza en esto. Se pueden leer los capitulos sueltos en realidad, más o menos todos se pueden ir entendiendo yo creo, por si solo queréis ojear lo que son los Potlatch por ejemplo
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