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Loading... Cultural Materialism (edition 1980)by Marvin Harris (Author)
Work InformationCultural Materialism by Marvin Harris
   No current Talk conversations about this book.  ex_ottoyuhr | Jan 23, 2014 |  no reviews | add a review
The best known, most often cited history of anthropological theory is finally available in paperback! First published in 1968, Harris's book has been cited in over 1,000 works and is one of the key documents explaining cultural materialism, the theory associated with Harris's work. This updated edition includes the complete 1968 text plus a new introduction by the author, which discusses the impact of the book and highlights some of the major trends in anthropological theory since its original publication. RAT, as it is affectionately known to three decades of graduate students, comprehensively traces the history of anthropology and anthropological theory, culminating in a strong argument for the use of a scientific, behaviorally-based, ethic approach to the understanding of human culture known as cultural materialism No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)306Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Culture and InstitutionsLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.03)
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Wikipedia in English (4)
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The problem with this book is, it's a good introduction to Harris' thought which is about a hundred pages long, followed by 200+ pages of excoriation and ridicule directed at just about everyone else who has ever postulated a theory of anthropology. Some of his take-downs are entertaining, but all are a bit unedifying, and it felt like most of the energy Harris put into this book, he invested in academic warfare with his rivals, not in expressing and refining his theory itself.
This is a shame. Harris' theory is that behaviors and beliefs are adaptations to a society's conditions. It sometimes doesn't work (he misses the semiotic core of Jewish dietary law, for example), and it can easily put the cart before the horse or degenerate into a parody of itself ("libertarianism for collective minds", a friend of mine called it), but it helps you look at things from an unexpected angle, and can reveal insights that one would miss completely without it.
And every once in a while, his theory clicks very well with otherwise-inexplicable phenomena; if his theory about the Maring and their periodic feasts (in /Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches/) isn't a classic of the genre, it really ought to be. (