>> Marvin Harris, 74, Is Dead; Professor Was Iconoclast of
Anthropologists
>>
>> The New York Times
>> October 28, 2001
>>
>> By DOUGLAS MARTIN
>>
>> Marvin Harris, an anthropologist who spent his career adding fuel to
fires
>of academic controversy, as when he theorized that the cannibalism of
the
>Aztecs was motivated by protein deprivation, died on Thursday in
>Gainesville, Fla., where he lived. He was 74.
>His daughter, Susan, said the cause was complications after hip surgery.
Dr.
>Harris, called "one of the most controversial anthropologists alive" by
>Smithsonian magazine in 1986, believed that human social life was shaped
in
>response to the practical problems of human existence. He argued
essentially
>that cultural differences did not matter much, a novel approach in a
>discipline dedicated to studying cultural differences.
>The Washington Post described him in 1983 as "a storm center in his
field."
>And the Smithsonian article said he pitted himself "against the
mainstream
>of anthropological thought."
>He even took on anthropology's godmother, Margaret Mead, though he was
uick
>to point out that in this he was hardly alone. "There's never been
anything
>other than a good deal of disquiet about her methods," he told The New
York
>Times in 1983.
>Dr. Harris, who called his approach "cultural materialism," was an
>anthropology professor at Columbia University from 1953 until 1980,
>including three years as department chairman. From 1980 until 2000, he
held
>a graduate research professorship at the University of Florida.
>But his provocative ideas, and equally provocative presentation, gave
him a
>sphere of influence greatly exceeding that of an ordinary academic. Many
of
>his 17 books were aimed at general audiences. The Hindu ban on killing
cows?
>Absolutely necessary as a strategy of human existence, Dr. Harris
contended:
>they are much more valuable for plowing fields and providing milk than
as a
>one-time steak dinner. "Westerners think that Indians would rather
starve
>than eat their cows," he
>told Psychology Today. "What they don't understand is that they will
starve
>if they do eat their cows." In Dr. Harris's view, then, a manufactured
>"divine intervention" was needed to encourage people simply to do the
>practical thing. The Jewish and Muslim bans on eating pork? Pigs eat the
>same foods as humans, he reasoned, and are expensive to keep. Sheep,
goats
>and cattle, by contrast, thrive on grass, and provide wool, milk and
labor.
>Warfare? A way of curbing population when protein gets scarce. Neckties?
A
>badge men wear to indicate they are above physical labor. Witchcraft? A
>convenient culprit for the rising protest that church and state faced
from
>the 15th century to the 17th. Dr. Harris's zest for controversy was
>suggested by the title of an article he wrote for The New York Times
>Magazine in 1977: "Why Men Dominate Women." So was his contention that
Aztec
>cannibalism sprang from a need for protein sufficiency, a view that drew
>some strong opposition. "It takes an heroic act of utilitarian faith to
>conclude that this sacrificial system was a way the Aztecs had for
getting
>more meat," Marshall Sahlins wrote in The New York Review of Books in
1978.
>Marvin Harris was born in Brooklyn. Growing up in New York City in the
>1930's, he wanted to understand the millions of strangers around him. He
>would stare at the windows of apartment buildings, wondering about the
>figures behind them. He graduated from Columbia, then earned his
doctorate
>there. As a young professor, he was critical of the university's
>administration and a strong supporter of student protests of the 1960's.
>David B. Truman, vice president and provost, accused him of
"authoritarian
>madness." Though his studies took him throughout the world, from Brazil
to
>Mozambique to India, he kept his own country in his anthropological
sights.
>In "The Anthropology of a Changing Culture" (Simon & Schuster, 1981), he
>railed against home- grown outrages he perceived, from appliances that
did
>not work to bloated government bureaucracies.
>In The New York Times Book Review, Robert Lekachman called the book --
which
>was rereleased in 1987 under the author's original title, "Why Nothing
>Works: The Anthropology of Daily Life" -- a "remarkably concise, angry
>outcry at the current condition of America."
>His other books included "Cannibals and Kings" (Random House, 1977) and
>"Culture, People and Nature," which became a widely used anthropology
>textbook.
>In addition to his daughter, who lives in the San Francisco area, he is
>survived by his wife, Madeline.
>>
>> Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
>


--

"If 50 million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
--Anatole France

Fred Anapol, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology
Director, Center for Forensic Science
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
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