The Rise of Anthropological Theory: A History of Theories of Culture

816 Pages·1968·28 MB·English

by  Marvin Harris

The Rise of
A History of Theories of Culture
Thomas Y. Crowell Company
N ·E W Y 0 R K ESTABLISHED 1834
Anthropological Theory
Marvin Harris
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Copyright © 1968 by Thomas Y. Crowell Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved. Except for use in a review, the reproduction or
utilization of this work in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, and in any information storage and retrieval system is
forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
L.C. Card 68-17392
ISBN o·69o·7o322-8 (Text)
o·69o·70323·6 (Trade)
Designed by Judith Woracek Barry. Manufactured in the United States
of America.
First Printing, May, 1968
Second Printing, May, 1969
Third Printing, August, 1970
Fourth Printing, April, 1971
Acknowledgments are gratefully made to the following authors and publishers
who have granted permission to use selections from copyrighted pub·
lications.
BOAS, F., Race, Language and Culture (New York: The Macmillan Company,
1940). Copyright © 1940 by Franz Boas.
DUBOIS, c., ed., Lowie's Selected Papers in Anthropology (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1960·).
DURKHEIM, t., The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, trans. J. W. Swain
(London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1915).
DURKHEIM, F.., The Rules of Sociological Method, trans. S. Solovay and J. Mueller
(Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1938). Copyright © 1938 by George
Catlin.
FORDE, c. D., Habitat, Economy and Society (London: Methuen & Company, Ltd.;
New York: E.P. Dutton, Inc., 1934).
KROEBER, A., The Nature of Culture (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1952). Copyright © 1952 by The University of Chicago Press.
LEVI-STRAuss, c., Totemism, trans. R. Needham (Boston: Beacon Press, 1963).
Copyright © 1962 by Presses Universitaires de France; translation copy
right © 1963 by Beacon Press.
LOW IE, R., History of Ethnological Theory (New York: Farrar and Rinehart,
1937).
MURDOCK, G. P., Social Structure (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1949).
Copyright © 1949 by The Macmillan Company.
PIKE, K., With Heart and Mind (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub
lishing Company, 1962).
RADCLIFFE-BROWN, A. R., Structure and Function in Primitive Society (London:
Cohen and West Ltd.; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1952).
SAPIR, E., "Review of W. H. R. Rivers 'Instinct and the Unconscious: A Contribu
tion to a Biological Theory of Psycho-Neurosis,' " ed. D. Mandelbaum,
Selected Writings of Edward Sapir (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1949 ) .
STEWARD, J., "The Economic and Social Basis of Primitive Bands," ed. R. Lowie,
Essays in Anthropology Presented to A. L. Kroeber (Berkeley: Univer
sity of California Press, 1936).
STEWARD, J., and F. SELTZER, "Function and Configuration in Archaeology,''
American Antiquity, IV ( 1938), 4-10.
SUMNER, w. G., and A. c. KELLER, The Science of Society (New Haven: Yale Uni
versity Press, 192 7).
TYLOR, E. B., Primitive Culture (New York: Harper Torch books, 1958).

Acknowledgments
When an author has completed his book, it would seem a simple task
to thank those who have helped him in its preparation. In actuality
the task is not an easy one at all. Apart from all the advice and assist
ance received from colleagues, I am indebted in many ways to those
men and women whose ideas and conclusions are the subject of this
book. It was their writings and research that helped shape and define
the discipline of anthropology; and though I disagree with many of
their formulations, this book is in a sense a result of these disagree
ments.
It is not possible to name all those who have helped in the prepara
tion of this volume, but I would like to single out those who made
specific suggestions for the improvement of the manuscript. I bene
fited especially from the contributions of Elman Service, Robert
Carneiro, Morton Fried, Harvey Pitkin, Eric R. Wolf, Robert Cum
ming, Victor Barnouw, Abraham Rosman, Robert Murphy, Nan
Pendrell, Alexander Alland, Michael Harner, William Willis, Alexan
der Lesser, and Barbara Price.
I should also like to thank my students and associates for their
help and encouragement, especially Rolf Knight, Richard Davis, and
Adrian DeWind for their invaluable assistance in all matters pertain
ing to references and the bibliography, and to Amelia Hess and
Esther Modell for their general patience and fortitude.

Contents
l Introduction
1
2 Enlightenment 8
3 Reaction and Recovery: The Early Nineteenth
Century 53
4 Rise of Racial Determinism 8o
5 Spencerism
108
6 Evolutionism: Methods
142
7 The Evolutionists: Results
180
8 Dialectical Materialism
217
Contents
9 Historical Particularism: Boas 2 50
10 The Boas ian Milieu 90
2
11 The Ethnographic Basis of Particularism 301
12 Kroeber 319
13 Lowie 343
14 Diffusion ism 3 7 3
15 Culture and Personality: Pre-Freudian 393
16 Culture and Personality: Freudian 422
17 Culture and Personality: New Directions 449
18 French Structuralism 464
19 British Social Anthropology 514
20 Emics, Etics, and the New Ethnography s68
21 Statistical Survey and the Nomothetic
Revival 6os
22 Cultural Materialism: General Evolution 643
23 Cultural Materialism: Cultural Ecology 654
Bibliography 688
Index 765