This book challenges those who argue that we can change the world by changing the way people think. Harris shows that no matter how bizarre a people's behavior may seem, it always stems from concrete social and economic conditions.

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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!

52 of 57 found the following review helpful:

An Insightful and Entertaining Analysis of CulturesApr 10, 1999
By Peter A. Farrell
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.

14 of 14 found the following review helpful:

Slaying the Sacred CowsJul 06, 2000

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.

13 of 15 found the following review helpful:

An easy read of some deep subjectsJun 14, 2000
By Mark Forkheim
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.

7 of 7 found the following review helpful:

An excellent, interesting, well-written, informative work.Nov 30, 1998

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.

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