Cows, Pigs, Witches Summary And Analysis

In the first chapter of Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches by Marvin Harris, Harris puts across the ideology of the Hindu culture; moreover, with their illogical beliefs and aberrant lifestyles. Culture is merely based off of different traditions and legends that have been passed down through centuries of times, some of which might not make sense to others. The example brought up was the love for the sacred cows in India. In the Hindu culture cows are seen as the divine bounty of earth and have been given a status level of spiritual being. Harris brings up issues of India’s hunger and poverty issues are caused due to the worshiping of the cows. He continues with claims: “that cow worship lowers the efficiency of agriculture,” (p.12) and “that taboo

against cow slaughter is keeping one hundred million “useless” animals alive,” (p.12) backing up his idea that “the situation is a direct result of irrational Hindu doctrines.” (p.12) The alternative to fixing the solution would be to abolish the present system and reinstate a new set of ideological relationships, creating a new ecosystem that benefits more with similar belief standards. To even consider this happening Harris must see from the perspective of having Indian cow love. Experts, unless involved with Hindu culture, won’t truly comprehend the full meaning of Indian cow love because it is something not done in many cultures like their own. Harris can be seen when he informs us the uses of dung for things like building and even a source for slow-burning fire for cooking, which is useful because moths could leave the food cooking while still being to socialize and “continue to help in the field.” (p.19) Harris believes that religion is one with the culture, even though it may fail you at time the belief is still there. Religion beliefs and ideologies have been used for and extended amount of time and is something that can’t just easily be let go. Cow love is an ideology not suited for many humans, the worship of cows and non consumption of beef is simply something I would not accommodate myself too. Harris touched on how societies create extensive rituals to avert harming the natural ecosystems they depend on, which is the cause for India’s struggles with food deficiency. The animals are solely consuming primary resources that could be benefited from the Hindu’s. The way of Hindu life is filled with practices that just seem surreal and strange to us but could potentially be a fundamental necessity to their culture.