There's plenty of biological evidence that it goes back a heckuva lot further than that.

From About.com who references Achaya, K. T. (2002), A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food, Oxford University Press, ISBN 019565868X.

"Literature on Lord Krishna, one of the Hinduism's most important figures who is believed to have lived 5000 years ago, depict him as a cowherd. He is often described as bala-gopala, "the child who protects the cows." Another of Krishna's names, Govinda, means "one who brings satisfaction to the cows." Other scriptures identify the cow as the "mother" of all civilization, its milk nurturing the population. The gift of a cow is applauded as the highest kind of gift."

"The export trade in Indian leather is worth about $1.7 billion and India's export share of the leather market has been on the increase. Germany is the largest importer of Indian leather (19%) followed by the UK (17%)."


"It used to be illegal in India to kill a member of the genus Bos, but now, many slaughterhouses operate in big cities like Mumbai or Kolkata. While there are approximately 3,600 slaughterhouses operating legally in India, there are estimated to be over 30,000 illegal slaughterhouses. The efforts to close them down have so far been largely unsuccessful."

I guess I just don't understand whether sacrificing cows is GOOD or BAD according to Hinduism. I claim ignorance so if anyone can enlighten me I would appreciate it.

An interesting theory. How does this extend to homosexual behavior in creatures that have no such structured living?

Care to cite an example? I'd never heard or read about these instances.

No doubt. You want to talk about culture and diet? While you might think the encouragement of vegetarianism in some cultures is "faulty" and will lead to their downfall, I think you need to look no further than to see decades of shunning it in this country and supporting the consumption of the foods we eat isn't exactly doing us a lot of good, either. Anthropologists have examined this and most agree that people in the US are eating themselves to death thanks to the values we underline and enforce. Everyone here is eating perfectly well. Would you consider this faulty?

You could probably replace "tribal" with any situation where it might be helpful to have a higher population, but less sexual competition.

One rarely hears about the practices of dead cultures because... they're dead. But there are tons of 'em -- more cultures gone than currently exist, I would expect.

Sometimes it's obvious. There was a school of thought that believed that no living things should be eaten *including* plants. After a generation, that school of thought no longer existed. You know, like duh.

I'm trying to find better clearer documented examples... I know they exist. A lot of cultures died off by being weak and thus conquered, and the weakness is not considered a mistake. A lot of them were just abandoned.

It's not the "shunning" of vegetarianism that causes the overconsumption of other foods. I'm absolutely certain that certain food practices in our culture are basically faulty, but overconsumption/production is IMO less of a mistake than throwing good food overboard when you are underproducing to begin with.

And this culture's mistakes do not mean that other cultures don't make mistakes.

So they're drowning a cow....no I don't like it, no I wouldn't watch it and no I definitely wouldn't participate in it, but we kill thousands of animals daily for food. And I bet this cow has had a hell of a better life than many animals we breed for food, seeing as she has been worshipped etc. The method of killing the animal is not what we are used to and is probably much more drawn out and inhumane that killing it with a bolt gun, but even by those standards, not all animals get the 'First Class bolt gun treatment'. Plus people drown puppies all the time....

Maybe that's why they still have to rope on it? Bovine drowns...sacrifice completed. Haul it aboard, meat to Mc Ashok's and leather to Germany. Why? There are a lot of foods you don't need, but why not eat all of them?
We have omnivore capability, like bears, so why not take advantage of that, to enjoy the variety and personal efficiency? :confused:

I'm on a diet...stop tempting me....

Excuse me...I meant to add, "in moderation." :blush:

Hey, I'm not gonna go all soapbox on you, I'm not that kind of vegetarian... as long as you're not trying to force me to eat meat, I wont tell you not to. Dont encourage me.

I was just wondering.
I've had veggie promoters tell me meat is unhealthy, unethical, a sin, economically inviable and several more.....usually only one or two reasons per person, though.
I'm not going to tell you what to eat. :headshake

I know, and thats why I'm not gonna tell you what not to eat.