Holy Cow! The Apotheosis of Zebu, or Why the Cow Is Sacred in Hinduism

Abstract

This essay revisits a debate that took place in the social sciences over the sacred-cow controversy for the purpose of ecological musing. The debate was stimulated largely by Marvin Harris, whose cultural materialist position reduced the symbolism of the cow in Hinduism to a set of irrational beliefs. His alternative was to see the cow's sacredness in terms of a calculus of calories. Needless to say, his work led to criticism from both anthropologists and humanists. In the first part of the paper, I trace the history of the controversy, then move on to consider the cow herself from a Hindu point of view. Finally, I conclude with some theoretical remarks about the need for scholars of religion to be sensitive to both texts and contexts by blurring the theoretical boundaries between the fields of religion and anthropology.

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