Marvin Harris

Marvin Harris – Life, Ideas, and Influence

Marvin Harris (1927–2001) was a leading American anthropologist, the principal theorist of cultural materialism. Learn about his life, theoretical contributions, notable works and quotes, critiques, and legacy.

Introduction

Marvin Harris was one of the most provocative and influential figures in 20th-century anthropology. Born August 18, 1927, and passing away October 25, 2001, he championed a materialist approach to culture—cultural materialism—arguing that the material conditions of production and reproduction fundamentally shape social systems. His work brought fresh explanations to seemingly irrational cultural practices like food taboos, warfare, and religious rituals. Though often controversial, Harris left a rich legacy of theory, public engagement, and bold intellectual challenge.

Early Life and Education

Marvin Harris was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1927. Columbia University, where he earned both his MA (1949) and PhD (1953) in anthropology.

His early fieldwork included research in Brazil and Mozambique, which began shifting his interest from descriptive anthropology toward more theoretical, materialist explanations.

He taught for many years at Columbia University before moving in 1981 to the University of Florida, where he remained until his retirement in 2000.

Theoretical Contributions

Cultural Materialism

Harris is best known as the chief architect of cultural materialism, a theoretical framework that explains cultural phenomena primarily in terms of material conditions: technology, environment, subsistence, demographics.

He divided culture into three nested levels:

1. Infrastructure — production, reproduction, population, environment

2. Structure — social organization, politics, domestic relations

3. Superstructure — ideas, beliefs, ideology, religious systems

In Harris’ view, infrastructure exerts the strongest causal force; structural and superstructural aspects must adapt to ensure viability under material constraints.

This meant that seemingly irrational or symbolic practices (religious taboos, rituals) often have a hidden material logic when judged in light of resource scarcity, environmental pressures, or demographic stresses.

Applications: Food Taboos, Warfare, Religious Practice

Harris gained wide attention for applying cultural materialism to explain puzzling practices — for example:

• Food taboos: He argued that the prohibition against eating pork in some societies (e.g. Middle East) makes sense under environmental/ecological constraints (pigs poorly adapted to arid climates, competing resource needs).

• Sacred cow in India: Rather than seeing it purely as religious devotion, Harris argued that cows are more valuable alive (milk, dung, draft) than as meat in many Indian contexts, so religious taboo helps preserve them.

• Cannibalism and protein shortage: In Cannibals and Kings, he offered a provocative interpretation of human cannibalism in some societies as linked to protein scarcity and constraints in raising livestock.

By treating cultural norms as adaptive responses to material constraints, Harris challenged explanations that rely primarily on ideology, symbolism, or “cultural meaning.”

Critique of Postmodernism & Defense of Scientific Anthropology

Later in his career, Harris criticized postmodern and relativist trends. In Theories of Culture in Postmodern Times, he argued that skepticism about objective truth and science had damaging political implications.

Major Works

Some of Harris's influential books include:

• The Rise of Anthropological Theory: A History of Theories of Culture (1968) — his survey and critique of anthropological theory.

• Cultural Materialism: The Struggle for a Science of Culture (1979) — his full statement of the framework.

• Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture (1974) — a widely read popular introduction to materialist explanations of cultural oddities.

• Cannibals and Kings: The Origins of Cultures (1977) — essays exploring macrohistorical patterns.

• Why Nothing Works: The Anthropology of Daily Life (1981) — applying materialist reasoning to contemporary U.S. society.

• Our Kind: Who We Are, Where We Came From, Where We Are Going (1990) — a broad synthesis of human evolution, culture, and future trajectories.

His writings straddled academic and popular audiences, making bold claims to provoke debate.

Personality, Impact & Controversies

Harris had a reputation as an intellectual provocateur. He was known for questioning colleagues vigorously in conferences, engaging debates both inside and outside academic anthropology.

While many praised his explanatory ambition, critics accused him of overgeneralization, reductionism, and environmental determinism — arguments that he sometimes downplayed in favor of probabilistic causality rather than strict mechanistic determinism.

Despite critiques, his influence shaped a generation of anthropologists interested in ecological, material, and structural approaches to culture.

Notable Quotes

Here are a few memorable statements attributed to Marvin Harris:

• “I don’t see how you can write anything of value if you don’t offend someone.”

• “Hindus and Westerners alike see in the meat-eating taboos of India a triumph of morals over appetite. This is a dangerous misrepresentation of cultural processes.”

• “In many ways the rise of the state was the descent of the world from freedom to slavery.”

• “The commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ does not say it’s O.K. to kill some people and not others.”

• “Every theory presented as a scientific concept is just that; it's a theory … open to being challenged and to being proven incorrect.”

These reflect his willingness to confront ideology and challenge complacency in scholarship.

Legacy

Marvin Harris’s significance lies not merely in a single theory, but in reframing how many anthropologists think about culture. His contributions include:

• Reshaping theory: Cultural materialism remains a reference point in debates about structure, ecology, and causality in anthropology.

• Bridging theory and public discourse: His books reached wider audiences, bringing anthropological reasoning to lay readers interested in culture, religion, and everyday life.

• Provoking debate: Even when critics challenged him, his work forced interlocutors to clarify assumptions about culture, material constraint, and meaning.

• Encouraging pluralism in methods: Harris did not reject symbolic or interpretive approaches outright, but insisted they be grounded in materialist plausibility.

His legacy continues in contemporary environmental anthropology, political ecology, and in theorists who seek to link cultural practice with material constraints.