lpetrich
Contributor
Why do some people believe that cows are too good to eat, and some other people believe that pigs are too bad to eat?
The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig - Google Books by anthropologist Marvin Harris.
He proposes that the difference is in how much value they have when alive.
Domestic bovines have a lot of value when alive. They can be milked, they can carry loads, and they can pull plows and wagons. Eating one would deprive one of what that animal would contribute while alive, and I've seen speculation that the notion of cows as holy animals was invented to convince people to keep them alive.
Pigs don't have any such value when alive. Marvin Harris argues that they are an ecological nuisance in semidesert climates, wallowing in whatever water they can find. So in such places, one can dispense with pigs, and then justify doing so by saying how bad they are.
The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig - Google Books by anthropologist Marvin Harris.
He proposes that the difference is in how much value they have when alive.
Domestic bovines have a lot of value when alive. They can be milked, they can carry loads, and they can pull plows and wagons. Eating one would deprive one of what that animal would contribute while alive, and I've seen speculation that the notion of cows as holy animals was invented to convince people to keep them alive.
Pigs don't have any such value when alive. Marvin Harris argues that they are an ecological nuisance in semidesert climates, wallowing in whatever water they can find. So in such places, one can dispense with pigs, and then justify doing so by saying how bad they are.