17 Facts About Marvin Harris

Marvin Harris became a regular fixture at the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association, where he would subject scholars to intense questioning from the floor, podium, or bar.

Marvin Harris is considered a generalist, who had an interest in the global processes that account for human origins and the evolution of human cultures.

Marvin Harris was an avid reader who loved to spend hours at the race track and he eventually developed a complex mathematical betting system that was successful enough to provide support for his wife, Madelyn, and him during his years of graduate school.

Marvin Harris integrated Malthus' population theory into his research strategy as a major determinant factor in sociocultural evolution, which contrasted with Marx's rejection of population as a causal element.

Marvin Harris made a critical distinction between emic and etic, which he refined considerably since its exposition in The Rise of Anthropological Theory.

Marvin Harris had asserted that both are in fact necessary for an explanation of human thought and behavior.

Marvin Harris became well known for formulating a materialist explanation for the treatment of cattle in religion in Indian culture.

Marvin Harris invoked the human quest for animal protein to explain Yanomamo warfare, contradicting ethnographer Napoleon Chagnon's sociobiological explanation involving innate male human aggressiveness.

Several other publications by Marvin Harris examine the cultural and material roots of dietary traditions in many cultures, including Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture ; Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture and his co-edited volume, Food and Evolution: Toward a Theory of Human Food Habits.

Marvin Harris could be an acerbic critic of other theories and frequently received return fire.

Marvin Harris received both his MA and PhD degrees from Columbia University, the former in 1949 and the latter in 1953.

Marvin Harris performed fieldwork in Brazil and Portuguese-speaking Africa before joining the faculty at Columbia.

Marvin Harris eventually became chairman of the anthropology department at Columbia.

Marvin Harris next joined the University of Florida anthropology department in 1981 and retired in 2000, becoming the Anthropology Graduate Research Professor Emeritus.

Marvin Harris served as the Chair of the General Anthropology Division of the American Anthropological Association.

Marvin Harris's research spanned the topics of race, evolution, and culture.

Marvin Harris often focused on Latin America and Brazil, but focused on the Islas de la Bahia, Ecuador, Mozambique, and India.