Cannibals and Kings (1977, ISBN 0-394-40765-2 ) is a book written by anthropologist Marvin Harris. [1] The book presents a systematic discussion of ideas about the reasons for a culture making a transition by stages from egalitarian hunter-gatherer to hierarchically based states as population density increases.
According to Harris, humans shifted from a low-carbohydrate diet largely based on hunter-gatherer sources to a high-carbohydrate diet largely based on agricultural when intensive agriculture began. Harris posits that this diet change resulted in more body fat, which for females led to earlier menarche and smaller reduction in fertility from nursing infants, which then led to shorter periods between pregnancies.
Harris also describes the state of the world in the late 19th century as one of approaching catastrophe as predicted by Malthus (Malthusian catastrophe). Harris then discusses three 20th century innovations that explain this postponement of the catastrophe: the exploitation of petroleum, reliable contraceptives, and social changes in some cultures that make smaller families more desirable.
Cannibals and Kings discusses the development of pork as a taboo food in ancient Israelite society. Harris argues that while cattle, sheep, and many other domesticated animals consume grass, pigs are poor grazers and compete with humans for grain. In addition, pigs produce only meat, compared with cattle and goats, which also provide milk, transport, and labor.
This led to pigs being reviled, and he argues this gave rise to the pig as a non-kosher food in the Old Testament. He briefly discusses the other Jewish food taboos. Harris notes that pigs were also taboo in Ancient Egypt and continue to be forbidden by Islam, suggesting that environmental rather than cultural factors were responsible for putting this food animal off-limits.
Harris also discusses the cow as a sacred animal and taboo food in Hindu culture. Unlike the Middle Eastern civilizations, India had developed very productive forms of agriculture, requiring heavy labor. The high population densities and the periodic droughts rendered animal husbandry for food purposes impractical, and slowly led to the ending of animal sacrifice. Cattle remained an important species because it provided farm labor.
Desperation incurred during periods of drought might lead to the temptation to slaughter and eat the work animals for short-term survival; this would damage long-term prospects by destroying the means of production. Harris argues that this situation led to the evolution of the cow as a taboo food and its worship as a sacred creature in India.
Harris examines the concept of the hydraulic empire, ancient civilizations such as China, Persia, and Egypt that were reliant on water for agriculture. The necessity of labor-intensive projects such as irrigation, canals, and flood control dikes led to the development of strong, centralized, and despotic states to mobilize the needed manpower for construction. Despite foreign conquest or change of government, the nature of such states would remain essentially unchanged because of the unchanging need to mobilize human labor.
Because European agriculture relied upon rainfall and not irrigation, Harris argues, European rulers under feudalism were unable to effectively monopolize power and restrict the rising power of towns. The growth of towns and cities, from a combination of population growth and urban migration, would lead to early forms of market economies.
Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, management, production, nutrition, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starting with the Neolithic Revolution when animals were first domesticated, from around 13,000 BC onwards, predating farming of the first crops. By the time of early civilisations such as ancient Egypt, cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs were being raised on farms.
There are varying beliefs about cattle in societies and religions.
Agriculture in Mesoamerica dates to the Archaic period of Mesoamerican chronology. At the beginning of the Archaic period, the Early Hunters of the late Pleistocene era led nomadic lifestyles, relying on hunting and gathering for sustenance. However, the nomadic lifestyle that dominated the late Pleistocene and the early Archaic slowly transitioned into a more sedentary lifestyle as the hunter gatherer micro-bands in the region began to cultivate wild plants. The cultivation of these plants provided security to the Mesoamericans, allowing them to increase surplus of "starvation foods" near seasonal camps; this surplus could be utilized when hunting was bad, during times of drought, and when resources were low. The cultivation of plants could have been started purposefully, or by accident. The former could have been done by bringing a wild plant closer to a camp site, or to a frequented area, so it was easier access and collect. The latter could have happened as certain plant seeds were eaten and not fully digested, causing these plants to grow wherever human habitation would take them.
The Neolithic Revolution, also known as the First Agricultural Revolution, was the wide-scale transition of many human cultures during the Neolithic period in Afro-Eurasia from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, making an increasingly large population possible. These settled communities permitted humans to observe and experiment with plants, learning how they grew and developed. This new knowledge led to the domestication of plants into crops.
Marvin Harris was an American anthropologist. He was born in Brooklyn, New York City. A prolific writer, he was highly influential in the development of cultural materialism and environmental determinism. In his work, he combined Karl Marx's emphasis on the forces of production with Thomas Malthus's insights on the impact of demographic factors on other parts of the sociocultural system.
There are different systems of feeding cattle in animal husbandry. For pastured animals, grass is usually the forage that composes the majority of their diet. In turn, this grass-fed approach is known for producing meat with distinct flavor profiles. Cattle reared in feedlots are fed hay supplemented with grain, soy and other ingredients to increase the energy density of the feed. The debate is whether cattle should be raised on fodder primarily composed of grass or a concentrate. The issue is complicated by the political interests and confusion between labels such as "free range", "organic", or "natural". Cattle raised on a primarily foraged diet are termed grass-fed or pasture-raised; for example meat or milk may be called grass-fed beef or pasture-raised dairy. The term "pasture-raised" can lead to confusion with the term "free range", which does not describe exactly what the animals eat.
Soil fertility refers to the ability of soil to sustain agricultural plant growth, i.e. to provide plant habitat and result in sustained and consistent yields of high quality. It also refers to the soil's ability to supply plant/crop nutrients in the right quantities and qualities over a sustained period of time. A fertile soil has the following properties:
Some people do not eat various specific foods and beverages in conformity with various religious, cultural, legal or other societal prohibitions. Many of these prohibitions constitute taboos. Many food taboos and other prohibitions forbid the meat of a particular animal, including mammals, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, fish, molluscs, crustaceans and insects, which may relate to a disgust response being more often associated with meats than plant-based foods. Some prohibitions are specific to a particular part or excretion of an animal, while others forgo the consumption of plants or fungi.
Pork is a food taboo among Jews, Muslims, and some Christian denominations. Swine were prohibited in ancient Syria and Phoenicia, and the pig and its flesh represented a taboo observed, Strabo noted, at Comana in Pontus. A lost poem of Hermesianax, reported centuries later by the traveller Pausanias, reported an etiological myth of Attis destroyed by a supernatural boar to account for the fact that "in consequence of these events the Galatians who inhabit Pessinous do not touch pork". In Abrahamic religions, eating pig flesh is clearly forbidden by Jewish (kashrut), Islamic (halal) and Adventist dietary laws.
Ancient Maya cuisine was varied and extensive. Many different types of resources were consumed, including maritime, flora, and faunal material, and food was obtained or produced through strategies such as hunting, foraging, and large-scale agricultural production. Plant domestication concentrated upon several core foods, the most important of which was maize.
This is a two-part chronological list of the works of anthropologist Marvin Harris. The first list contains his scholarly articles; the second contains his books.
Agriculture in Saskatchewan is the production of various food, feed, or fiber commodities to fulfill domestic and international human and animal sustenance needs. The newest agricultural economy to be developed in renewable biofuel production or agricultural biomass which is marketed as ethanol or biodiesel. Plant cultivation and livestock production have abandoned subsistence agricultural practices in favor of intensive technological farming resulting in cash crops which contribute to the economy of Saskatchewan. The particular commodity produced is dependent upon its particular biogeography or ecozone of Geography of Saskatchewan. Agricultural techniques and activities have evolved over the years. The first nation nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle and the early immigrant ox and plow farmer proving up on his quarter section of land in no way resemble the present farmer operating huge amounts of land or livestock with their attendant technological mechanization. Challenges to the future of Saskatchewan agriculture include developing sustainable water management strategies for a cyclical drought prone climate in south western Saskatchewan, updating dryland farming techniques, stabilizing organic definitions or protocols and the decision to grow, or not to grow genetically modified foods. Domestically and internationally, some commodities have faced increased scrutiny from disease and the ensuing marketing issues.
Intensive animal farming, industrial livestock production, and macro-farms, also known as factory farming, is a type of intensive agriculture, specifically an approach to animal husbandry designed to maximize production while minimizing costs. To achieve this, agribusinesses keep livestock such as cattle, poultry, and fish at high stocking densities, at large scale, and using modern machinery, biotechnology, and global trade. The main products of this industry are meat, milk and eggs for human consumption. There are issues regarding whether intensive animal farming is sustainable in the social long-run given its costs in resources. Analysts also raise issues about its ethics.
Diet in Hinduism signifies the diverse traditions found across the Indian subcontinent. Hindu scriptures promote a vegetarian dietary ideal based on the concept of ahimsa—non-violence and compassion towards all beings. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 44% of Hindus say they are vegetarian.
The cow protection movement is a predominantly Indian religious and political movement aiming to protect cows, whose slaughter has been broadly opposed by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Zoroastrians and Sikhs. While the opposition to slaughter of animals, including cows, has extensive and ancient roots in Indian history, the term refers to modern movements dating back to colonial era British India. The earliest such activism is traceable to Namdhari (Kooka) Sikhs of Punjab who opposed cow slaughter in the 1860s. The movement became popular in the 1880s and thereafter, attracting the support from the Arya Samaj founder Swami Dayananda Saraswati in the late 19th century, and from Mahatma Gandhi in the early 20th century.
Farm water, also known as agricultural water, is water committed for use in the production of food and fibre and collecting for further resources. In the US, some 80% of the fresh water withdrawn from rivers and groundwater is used to produce food and other agricultural products. Farm water may include water used in the irrigation of crops or the watering of livestock. Its study is called agricultural hydrology.
The Lima culture was an indigenous civilization which existed in modern-day Lima, Peru during the Early Intermediate Period, extending from roughly 100 to 650. This pre-Incan culture, which overlaps with surrounding Paracas, Moche, and Nasca civilizations, was located in the desert coastal strip of Peru in the Chillon, Rimac and Lurin River valleys. It can be difficult to differentiate the Lima culture from surrounding cultures due to both its physical proximity to other, and better documented cultures, in Coastal Peru, and because it is chronologically very close, if not over lapped, by these other cultures as well. These factors all help contribute to the obscurity of the Lima culture, of which much information is still left to be learned.
Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting in order to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals who are raised for consumption, and sometimes used to refer solely to farmed ruminants, such as cattle, sheep, and goats. Horses are considered livestock in the United States. The USDA classifies pork, veal, beef, and lamb (mutton) as livestock, and all livestock as red meat. Poultry and fish are not included in the category. The latter is likely due to the fact that fish products are not governed by the USDA, but by the FDA.
Cattle slaughter in India, especially cow slaughter, is controversial because of cattle's status as endeared and respected living beings to adherents of Dharmic religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. Also, many of the Zoroastrians/Parsis living in India stopped eating beef out of respect, as it is sacred for the people of Dharmic religions; while it is an acceptable source of meat in Abrahamic religions like Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Cow slaughter has been shunned for a number of reasons, specifically because of cow's association with Lord Krishna in Hinduism, and because cattle have been an integral part of rural livelihoods as an economic necessity. Cattle slaughter has also been opposed by various Indian religions because of the ethical principle of Ahimsa (non-violence) and the belief in the unity of all life. Legislation against cattle slaughter is in place throughout most states and territories of India.
Carnism is a concept used in discussions of humanity's relation to other animals, defined as a prevailing ideology in which people support the use and consumption of animal products, especially meat. Carnism is presented as a dominant belief system supported by a variety of defense mechanisms and mostly unchallenged assumptions. The term carnism was coined by social psychologist and author Melanie Joy in 2001 and popularized by her book Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows (2009).