An anthropologist named Marvin Harris has written extensively on food
taboos.  He considers them to be practical solutions to mundane
envirenmental problems.  Pigs need a forest envirenment to thrive: shade,
leaves to eat and hopefully some puddles.  10,000 years ago the middle east
was like this.  Early Jewish settlements have lots of pig bones.  At some
time the climate began to change in the middle east and it became more
desert like.  Pig farming became uneconomic but some farmers kept trying.
Hence the outright ban on pork.  He doesn't really explain the other
prohibitions in the old testament but perhaps hunting for ostriches was just
a poor use of a farm workers time and so the elders told everyone that from
now on we aren't allowed to eat them.  Ken
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jean Risman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2004 10:44 AM
Subject: Re: Ostrich Diet


> I think this issue has come up now because Jordan Rubin in his new book,
The
> Maker's Diet, uses biblical food standards as the basis of what's ok to
eat
> and what's now. Having grown up in a kosher home, I was always told that
> asking for the scientific explanation of why you can or cannot eat
something
> was not relevant. Spiritual rather than health reasons guided one's choice
> of food. I no longer follow a kosher diet but some members of my family
do.
> I guess its personal relevance today would be an individual thing.
>
> Jean
>