Sacred For a Reason
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0A lot of folks here in the good ol’ United States of Fast Food Hamburgers & Grillin’ don’t really understand why the people of India let all those delicious animals roam around free and clear. “Surely someone, somewhere has a grill?” they ask to anyone willing to listen. Well, now you know why.
Why would you ever hurt such wonderful creatures so willing to give us the milk we need to make sweet tasty ice cream!? Why, I ask you?
The proper response is to let those glorious bastards lay about in the middle of roads and just say thanks. Thanks, cows. Thank you for this ice cream…also all the cheese, raw milk, and like a bazillion other things we can do with that stuff. But yeah, mostly the ice cream.
Now, I’m not really an expert on India or the religions of the area, but I have been trying to do some reading on things like this (and maybe one day I’ll be well enough and wealthy enough to actually go and talk to people!). So if I get anything wrong here feel free to correct me!
One of the interesting facets of the culture that I’ve always wondered about is the sacred cow. I’ve heard and read all sorts of things about it, from Hindu people outright worshiping cows as gods to cows simply being animals that are viewed as taboo and not to be eaten. It’s pretty clear to me now that like most things in Hinduism, it’s more complicated than all that.
The cow is clearly a very spiritual animal to many Indian people and one that is seen as a kind of representation of divinity. The cow gives its milk and service to mankind and asks for nothing in return. There are some texts and individuals that liken the cow to a mother for having these qualities. In the Mahabharata one figure states that cows are the ultimate representation of sacrifice, for without cows, there would be no clarified butter or ghee with which to make sacrifices. There are even rituals and prayers dedicated to cows for the sake of their spiritual qualities.
But the cow is more than just a focus for spiritual needs. See, today’s comic is actually somewhat true. Cows are very practical animals around the world, but particularly in India. To have a cow is to have a friend that can help plow fields or do other work and cows give up their milk for more than just spiritual sacrifice. All kinds of products can be made from milk and these gentle animals give it up freely. It is because of this, as well as for their spiritual benefits, that cows are not to be killed or harmed in Hindu culture.
It’s very interesting to see this interaction of the spiritual and practical as well as the gradual evolution of beliefs regarding our bovine companions in India over the great span of time that Hinduism has existed. It’s a very different view than we have here in the United States where cows (and many other animals) are generally seen as inferior creatures with nothing better to do than give us their bodies for meat. While I may not, personally, subscribe to the spiritual beliefs, it’s kind of refreshing to see a worldview that has paused and examined something as seemingly mundane as the cow and seen fit to respect and elevate its purpose and life.
It is very easy to fall into the mental trap where everything is taken for granted, particularly when many of us have such easy access to food and the necessities of life. Sometimes, though, it’s good to stop and ponder what we do and how we treat not only ourselves but also each other and the creatures and plants we share this earth with, however silly that may seem in our consumer culture.
Because personally, I don’t know what I’d do without cows. It’s officially summer and all I know is that I need some goddamn ice cream.
Thanks cows. For reals.
Moo.
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Reminds me of how when you go to Jamaica, it’s frigging goats everywhere. Explain that one.
Goats are just too smart and escaped so frequently that all the Jamaicans just gave up trying to keep them penned and are gradually integrating them into society. The newfound freedom is accompanied by a rise in numbers as they are suddenly free to reproduce at their own discretion, and no better way to celebrate freedom than with goat sex.
…If you’re a goat, I mean.
…Not to target anyone’s sexual preferences.
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…I think I’ll stop there.
I get the part about the ice-cream. I don’t get though, why not have an additional steak as well
Sorry, dedicated carnivore, though I know it’s not too nice for the poor things. Try organic as often as possible and money allows.
The comic is basically an abridged version of a chapter in Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches: The Riddles of Culture. by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Harris Just dig it an keep it up with the “as often a possible”.
Dried cow dung is fuel. So if you’d like a hot meal, cows can help there, too! Farming cows for food would probably wreak havok on the ecology of a densely populated country like India anyway – just google ‘rainforest beef’ to find out what it does to sparsely populated ones.
Amen
Well, it seems to be a selective thing. Pigs are consumed almost entirely, its fat and skin is used in many ways, not to mention pigs were used for anatomical study in the old days because their organs are very similar to human organs. Even today pigs are used in medical research. Apart from being delicious animals, pretty much pigs enabled the advance of medicine and, as far as I recall, nobody considers pigs to be sacred. Far from it, they are considered to be filthy animals. That sucks.
Another reason for the cow being sacred is because in Indian, the oxen were the main beat of burden. An ox is a castrated bull, so uncastrated bulls were in small numbers. These bulls would need to be studded out to as many cows as possible and because of this, it didn’t make sense to kill a cow that could end up making you many more oxen.
What’s kind of sad is that cows are slowly losing that sacred status, as tastes and demand for beef are on the rise throughout India.
It’s easy to get why cows are magical animals. They turn grass into steak.
But aren’t most Indians vegan?
I don’t think so, maybe vegetarian, but I do think they have a lot of cow products. One cow can feed a family! Work, milk, calves (for selling to get stuff that the cow can’t produce directly)
One thing that I don’t get with humans, why the heck do you all insist on drinking milk after going to solid food? Also, I’m very curious as to what was going through the mind of the first human to try getting and drinking milk. (cow’s and other dairy livestock)… I can understand if it was like “Oh I can feed my young on other animal’s milk if I can’t produce enough” (though not producing enough doesn’t happen often, unless you’ve got twins, and if you do, all the good luck to you, a liter is a fun mess, but at least for wolf packs, all the females help nurse and raise the young… don’t see how you humans manage to do it with out much help!)…anyways enough of a ramble!
(I could go on about culture and also you humans meddling with Nature, breeding animals (and plants) to suit your needs, instead of conforming to what Nature already had… but I don’t quite feel like ranting about that last bit, and while human culture intrigues me, not being human, I don’t understand a lot of your cultural practices.)…
Anyways, good to see you’re back K, hope that you’re doing and feeling better.
~Best Wishes.
“instead of conforming to what Nature already had”
Death and bees?
’cause we are egoistic assholes who do just what pleases us for the moment, maybe? This being the way animals act most of the time would of course be absolutely natural. And now: Monstertrucks! YEEEEAAAAHHH!!!!!
I have heard that some of the sacred status of cows is being lost in India and people have started to eat them. I was sad.