Marvin Harris 

1927-2002

The foundation of Harris's theory of cultural materialism (CM) is that a society's mode of production (technology and work patterns, especially in regard to food) and mode of reproduction (population level and growth) in interaction with the natural environment has profound effects on sociocultural stability and change. Societies are systems, Harris asserts, and widespread social practices and beliefs must be compatible with the infrastructures of society (the modes of production and reproduction and their interaction with the environment). The infrastructure represents the ways in which a society regulates both the type and amount of resources needed to sustain a society. I believe Marvin Harris to be the most outstanding social scientist of his generation. Like the founders of the discipline (and unlike most social scientists of the day) he relates his analysis to the larger social system. His theory of cultural materialism is a ecological-evolutionary social theory very much influenced by T. Robert Malthus.

Marvin Harris' Cultural Materialism

Recommended Reading:

Cultural Materialism by Jon Marcoux

Essays:

On your next exam you will be asked to demonstrate that you have read and mastered the course material. You should take the time now to answer the following essay questions to create your study guide for that exam. Address the questions fully and completely in your own words and voice. Prepare your answers now. 

1. What is the role of the elite in sociocultural stability and change?

2. How does Harris explain the domestication of plants and animals in human prehistory?

1. What is the principle of the priority of the infrastructure?

2. Why is the infrastructure given such importance in Cultural Materialism?

3. What are feedback processes?

4. In what ways is cultural materialism a systems theory?

5. What are the two primary constraints on human societies?

6. Through what practices can sociocultural systems modify the these constraints?

7. What are the limits on human food production?

8. Why did Harris change from "infrastructural determinism" to "primacy of the infrastructure"?

9. What is negative feedback?

10. In general, what sorts of sociocultural change are most likely to be swiftly and widely adopted?

11. Describe the selection process for responsible for the evolution of sociocultural systems.

12. What are the four basic biological/psychological needs or constants of human beings?

13. What is the role of elites within cultural materialism?

14. Why do societies tend to intensification?

15. Where in his universal structure does Harris place Marx's relations of production?

16. How has industrialization transformed capitalism?

17. What role does the mental superstructure play in cultural materialism?

18. Why was the New World much slower in its domestication of plants and animals?

19. According to Harris, what are the distinctive features of capitalism?

Bibliography:

Harris, M. (1981). America Now: The Anthropology of a Changing Culture. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Harris, M. (1977). Cannibals and Kings: The Origins of Cultures. New York: Vintage Books.

Harris, M. (1974). Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches: The Riddles of Culture. New York: Vintage Books.

Harris, M. (1979). Cultural Materialism: The Struggle for a Science of Culturre. New York: Random House.

Harris, M. (1971). Culture, Man, and Nature: An Introduction to General Anthropology. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company.

Harris, M. (1989). Our Kind: Who We Are, Where We Came From, and Where We Are Going. New York: HarperCollins.

Harris, M. (1968). The Rise of Anthropological Theory. New York: Crowell.

Harris, M. (1998). Theories of Culture in Postmodern Times. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.