The Cultural Ecology Of India's Sacred Cattle Summary

In The Cultural Ecology of India’s Sacred Cattle, Marvin Harris describes the inconsistencies in the beliefs concerning the relation of Bovine Cattle with India and its inhabitants. Harris provides numerous examples on beliefs to how the Hindu religion in India caused a surplus of cows that did not benefit the population economically, due to religious principles and practices. For example, he notes that a large number of cattle lived on the land, consuming or damaging three times as much fodder as they needed. Also, examples are provided of the cow population competing with the human population. Also, the old age of the cattle was noted as being useless to do their lack of reproduction. Regardless of the belief that there were too many cattle in India, there was not enough cattle for farming during droughts as needed by the farmers for plowing.

An inconsistency in this belief is also displayed with direct and indirect evidence displaying India men and bovine cattle not competing for existence. The author argues against the belief that the cattle in India were useless not because of milk production itself but because of the fact that cattle contribute to human material prosperity in more important aspects than milk production. The use of cattle dung is noted by the author as both fertilizer and as an energy source. However, the wastefulness of dung was not due to religion but because of insufficient pasturage storage appropriate for processing and collecting it. The example of dung as a belief for cattle usage in India, according to the author, also proves an inconsistency in beliefs, because dung proves use for the old and overpopulated cattle noted as being