Why Does Marvin Harris Suggest That the Hindu Belief in the Sacred

question 43

Multiple Choice

Why does Marvin Harris suggest that the Hindu belief in the sacred cow is adaptive?

• A) It is economically wiser to use the labor and products of the cows than to eat them.
• B) The cows carry a dangerous parasite that makes their meat unsafe for consumption.
• C) Seeing the sacred cows every day serves as a reminder to follow the teachings of their faith.
• D) Not everyone can afford to eat meat, so it reduces inequality if the cows are forbidden to everyone.

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Definitions:

Statistical Inference

The process of drawing conclusions about population parameters based on a sample taken from the population.

Binomial Distribution

A probability distribution that summarizes the likelihood that a value will take one of two independent states under a given number of observations.

Uniform Distribution

A type of probability distribution where all outcomes are equally likely; in a continuous uniform distribution, any value within a specified range is equally likely to occur.

Standard Normal Variable

A random variable that has a normal distribution with a mean of zero and a standard deviation of one.