- ISBN13: 9780679724681
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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…. More >>
Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture
The first three chapters were interesting. But the next two on Jesus were a surprise. He stated that the militant Jesus and his band of terrorists attacked a synagogue. Then in the final passover, they attacked Jerusalem but were captured and killed.
Since these “facts” were clearly fabricated to support the conclusion he later wanted to support about how drugs can help one see their inner self, it appears we cannot rely on any other of his “facts” because they may be just as fabricated and self-serving.
The book appears to be nothing other than fantasy fiction, not a book on cultures. So it was a complete waste of time reading.
Rating: 1 / 5
This book was suggested to me by one of my co-workers with whom I frequently debated different topics. I picked it up with slight hesistation because of differences of opinion between the two of us.
While Harris addresses several issues within this book, I often felt that he moved between cause’s too quickly. Instead of addressing one cause and demonstrating it’s impact on the myth completly, he tends to introduce the point, and then just as quickly move on to the next point with out finalizing his point.
I think I may have enjoyed the point a bit more had he followed through on his points a bit more.
The other issue I had with this book boiled down to Harris’ writing style. While reading the book, I felt as though every other sentence was “I believe”, “I will demonstrate”, “I propose”, etc. It should be understood that these are the authors points, that is why his name is on the cover. The inclusion of these phrases detracted from the reading of this book while adding nothing to the subject at hand. The book also seemed to be written as a teaching aid to a college class in the regards that at the end of the chapters, it felt as if there was no conclusion reached….almost that the book was written to introduce thoughts and to promote speculation by the readers, without taking a stance on the issues at hand.
Overall, this book had the potential to be a real page turner, but the authors questionable writing style made it almost unreadable, at least for this reader.
Rating: 1 / 5
Clear, insightful, and scientifically sound…Plenty of provocative ideas and theories.
Strongly recommended…
Rating: 5 / 5
Marvin Harris gives a survey of the various religious practices in the world. The first chapter deals with what people eat and why. Why do westerners eat beef but, is taboo in India. He also discusses witchcraft and why many people (especially women) were put to death for witchcraft. He also discusses why males are dominate in many cultures and the reasons for warfare. Marvin Harris looks at these differnt cultural traits and compares them to our culture.
Rating: 3 / 5
The book presents a sort of quaint functionalism that is wholly inadequate in its neglect of mechanisms which could bring such functions into being. It is the type of work that pisses off most biologists who insist that evolution works by individual level selection. In Harris’s wholehearted implicit acceptance of group selection, he commits a scientific blunder. On the other hand, there is good reason to consider multi-level (group) selection (see Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior for more info) as an explanation for some human characteristics. There is a beauty in Harris’s attempts to find rational explanations for social phenomena, even if he neglects the question of how such systems could evolve/emerge.
Harris tries to explain medieval European allegations of witchcraft as an elaborate system to keep the peasants scared and from uprising against the religious and secular oligarchs. He then ends the book in a sort of rampage against hippies. He makes the case that the sort of post-modern nihilism advocated by hippie and new-age movements has similar
trappings of witch-craft. That is, by becoming a disorganized mob that
just wants peace and love and tries to achieve it through personal transformation rather than interpersonal and systematic action they dispell real threats to the oligarchy. It is ironic that while Harris critiques the new-age movements for their lack of systematic and scientific thinking, he persistently forgets to say how his functional systems could develop. He presents neat ideas, but they are not quite developed into science.
Again–its major fault is a lack of mechanisms to explain itself.
Rating: 3 / 5