Chandra Thapar, an anthropologist, made a study of foreign cultures which had customs similar to those of his native India . He became interested in one culture that regarded an animal as holy, much as the people of India honor the cow. The things he discovered are of interest to those that study the cultures of other times nd places.

The Tribe Dr. Thapar studied is called the Asu and is found on the American continent north of the Tarahumara of Mexico. Though it seems to be a highly developed society of its type, its people take interest in the care and feeding of the rac, an animal much like the bull in size and strength. In the Asu tribe, it is almost a duty to own at least one rac. Anyone who does not have at least one rac has no respect among the members of the community because he is tTo show off their wealth and importance, some tribal members even own herds of racs.

The rac breed is not very healthy and usually does not live more than five to seven years. Each family spends a lot of money each year to keep the rac healthy. If a rac gets sick, there are experts trained in selecting charms to cure the rac, but these experts demand costly gifts whenever a tribesman must treat his sick rac.

At the age of sixteen, in Asu communities, many youths undergo a ceremony in which the rac plays an important role. This ceremony teaches the youth how to care for the rac and after the ceremony, the youth is allowed to keep a rac.

Although the rac may be used as a "beast of burden" , performing hard work for the tribe, it has many habits which other cultures might consider harmful to the community. Firstly, the number of racs is increasing at a very fast rate, yet the Asu tribesman have done nothing to slow down the rac population. Because of the growing number of racs, the Asu must build more and more paths for the rac to travel on. This is particularly important since the rac has a habit of racing against other racs at high speed, and therefore special areas must be set aside for the rac to use. The cost of smoothing the earth is too expensive for one tribesman to undertake; so each tribesmen in the community must pay a yearly tax to build new paths and to fix up old paths. There are so many paths needed that some people must move their homes so that the rac paths will be as straight as possible, which will keep the animals from hurting themselves.

Dr. Thapar said that unlike the cow, which many people in his country believe is holy, the waste product of the rac cannot be used either as fertilizer or fuel. In fact, the waste product of the rac is dirty and totally useless. Worst of all, the rac sometimes goes wild, running over anything standing in its way. much like a charging cattle. The rac kills thousands of tribesmen each year.

Despite the high cost of keeping the animal, the damage it does to land and people, the Asu still think the rac is needed for the survival of their culture.