Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches

Marvin Harris answers perplexing questions about human behavior by showing that cultural practices, no matter how bizarre they may seem, stem from identifiable and intelligible sources.

He explains how societies create rituals to avoid harming their natural ecosystems, such as the Middle Eastern ban on pig products due to ecological concerns.

The book also delves into the origins of warfare as a means of population control and discusses the role of religious movements and witch hunts in historical contexts.