Discover the biography of Marvin Harris, one of the most innovative figures in contemporary anthropology. This American researcher and academic is the main representative of the current called “cultural materialism”.
It is a type of neomarxism, in which material conditions are addressed as a determining factor in the way peoples are and transformed.
- For Marvin Harris.
- It is the material conditions of societies that determine the sociocultural thinking and customs of different human groups; these conditions include modes and means of production.
- Forms of distribution.
- Commerce.
- Etc.
“We need to get rid of the idea that we are an aggressive species by nature who don’t know how to avoid war. The idea that there are higher and lower races and that hierarchical divisions are the result of natural selection, more than a long process of cultural evolution, also lacks a scientific basis. -Marvin Harris-
Marvin Harris’s perspective and thesis were highly controversial, but they were not lacking in solidity. His approach to anthropology has political consequences, and most of the resulting discussions.
In any case, no one doubts the great relevance of their contributions in the anthropological field.
Marvin Harris was born on August 18, 1927, in New York City, United States; died on October 25, 2001 in Gainesville, Florida, at the age of 74; in 1948 he graduated from Columbia College with a bachelor of arts degree.
He then studied anthropology at Columbia University, the same institution where he later worked as a teacher for 27 years.
In his initial training, he was a student of great intellectuals of the time, such as Julian Steward and Alfred Kroeber, and received lessons from Skinner’s students, which was instrumental in his conception of experimental work in anthropology.
In 1953, he received his doctorate from Columbia University and his last work was on several communities in Brazil.
Marvin Harris studied extensively in Brazil between 1950 and 1951, in 1953–54 he was a research assistant at the National Institute of Educational Studies in Rio de Janeiro, then traveled to Mozambique, where he conducted several researches in the Thonga area. Community.
This period significantly changed his vision of anthropology and led him to be enchanted by cultural materialism.
In 1960, he conducted more field studies, this time in Ecuador’s Chimborazo region, then conducted research in Bahia, Brazil, between 1962 and 1965.
His last major adventure as a field anthropologist took place in India in 1976, when he conducted studies on the use of protein resources under the supervision of the National Safety Foundation.
As mentioned above, Harris was the founder and principal representative of the current of cultural materialism in anthropology. Some of Marvin Harris’s contributions are “Cannibals and Kings,” “Good to Eat?”And Cows, pigs, wars and witches.
He was an excellent promoter of anthropological theories and, as a result, gained great popularity around the world.
His perspective is based on the idea that anthropological research should focus primarily on the study of the material living conditions of different societies.
Thanks to this approach and his hard work, he has managed to draw several interesting conclusions, especially with regard to the taboos of war and food.
According to Harris, cows have become sacred in India for reasons strictly related to production, in ancient times society relied on them to pull the plows, as the basis of the economy was agriculture, so consumption of their meat was forbidden and became a sacred animal.
Thus, beliefs and religion itself derive from these material facts. Of course, we only use a small brushstroke of the aspects present in your studies, because there is so much more.
Marvin Harris argued that the material costs and benefits are what give rise to different beliefs, so the whole cultural reality is explained through the analysis of the material conditions under which a society develops.
Marvin Harris’ biography theories continue to be debated, and his books are also mandatory consultations in the field of anthropology.