"In America, what do they do to someone who murders a cow?" Some thirty years ago, as an anthropologist visiting the village of Nimkhera, in central India, I faced this loaded question. A local farmer, Sidha Singh, stood accused of murdering his calf. He had whacked it with a stick to drive it out of his granary, and it had died shortly thereafter. A council of village elders had convened to consider the case. Fortunately, my interrogator, an earnest Hindu youth, knew nothing of the flagrant U.S. trade in hamburgers and T-bone steaks. "Oh," I said, "in my country, murderers are sent to jail." My young friend nodded approvingly.
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