This is the best book on bull cults since Jack Randolph Conrad's THE HORN AND THE SWORD, 1957 (though Conrad's book is still well worth reading). There is a slight problem with the author's admitted rejection of religion (which is what he's mostly writing about), and his faith-based reliance on Karl Jung's archetypes to explain everything. While Rice pulls together a wonderful narrative of the powerful influence of the bull cult in ancient, and not-so-ancient, cultures, he deliberately stops his investigations in Eastern Iran. Had he but gone a bit further east into India's still living bull cults he could have found far more in-depth explanations for many of his topics. Oddly, he makes no mention at all of Alain Danielou's wonderfully written books like SHIVA AND DIONYSUS (packed with bull cult data), WHILE THE GODS PLAY, SHIVA AND THE PRIMORDIAL TRADITION, and THE MYTHS AND GODS OF INDIA (which all deal with bull cults in an immediate way). This book is certainly worth the price, but it really needs to be read along with some of Danielou's work. Also, the author couldn't restrain his politically correct urge to wail about the abysmal cruelty of the Spanish bullfight. The whole point of the bull cult was/is to move away from the sterilized urban life that is consuming the natural world and return to the wild vigor of nature where humans live in harmony with other species. This is where Danielou's writing really shines forth.