Cultural Anthropology Essay Research Paper Anthropologist Marvin free essay sample

Cultural Anthropology Essay, Research Paper Anthropologist Marvin Harris in known for his strong strong belief based on cultural philistinism. He writes widely and is celebrated for his books, which appeal to the popular multitudes. His cardinal belief is that the agencies of production and reproduction cause other facets of civilization such as organisation or art. He goes through a causal concatenation which can all be relate to the impulses to eat and reproduce. Although this is a extremely simplified manner to depict his theory of cultural philistinism most of his written work dressed ore on the manner a civilization exploits its environment, and how this creates all other facets of civilization. He explains every behaviour by puting it in the context of how it functions in society. He takes spots and pieces of civilization to make a functional whole. He believes that what integrates everything is civilization Marvin Harris earned has doctors degree at Columbia University where he taught until 1981, before traveling to the University of Florida. His first book # 8220 ; Town and Country # 8221 ; was based on fieldwork in Minas Velhas Brazil1. This book examined the consequence on a distant centre, Minas Velhas when it expanded into a regional centre. The halfway rapidly floundered when the Minas failed to keep uninterrupted nutrient production. Town and Country was an illustration of things to follow. In his research he tended to concentrate on substructure. Harris defines substructure as technological, economic, demographic and environmental activities and conditions straight related to prolonging themselves and reproduction. He bases his analysis on these thoughts. Another popular plants include # 8220 ; The Rise of Anthropological Theory, # 8221 ; which is an analysis and review of western bookmans. He feels that # 8220 ; at this peculiar minute in the development of anthropological theory critical opinions deserve precedence over polite 1s. Harris believes that a civilization # 8217 ; s singularity is non a consequence of historical particularism as Franz Boaz believed. Rather he feels that theories hold great value. Harris believes strongly in cultural philistinism. In the debut of the # 8221 ; Rise of Anthropological Theory, # 8221 ; Harris compares cultural philistinism as comparable to Charles Darwin # 8217 ; s choice. He besides explains that cultural philistinism is non idealized and evolutionary. He does non concentrate his surveies on the uniqueness of each civilization. Rather Harris wants to use the followers. # 8220 ; The principal of techno-environmental and techno-economic determinism. He holds that # 8220 ; similar engineerings applied to similar environments tend to bring forth similar agreements of labour in production and distribution, and that these in bend call forth similar sorts of societal groupings, which justify and organize their activities by agencies of similar systems of values and beliefs. Translated into a research scheme, the rule of techno-environmental, techno-economic determinism assigns precedence to the survey of the material conditions of sociocultural life, much as the rule of natural choice assigns prec edence to the survey of differential generative success2. # 8221 ; Harris identifies this place as cultural philistinism. In the debut of # 8220 ; The Rise and Anthropological Theory # 8221 ; , he states that he wants to use the cultural materialist theoretical account, and that anthropologists failure to make so has sheltered the world. Harris believes that the focal point of a cultural survey should non be that of world against the thoughts and beliefs of a civilization group. Rather he believes that there are two sets of differentiations that must be made. First there should be a differentiation between behavioural events such as gestures made by a peculiar person # 8217 ; s organic structure. Behavioral events include all the gestures made by an single # 8217 ; s organic structure and the environmental effects it produces. In add-on to behavioral there are besides rational events. These are considered to be ideas and feelings that humans experience. Harris describes the motion of the organic structure as a unit of observation. He feels that the motion of the organic structure is an of import portion of behaviour and culture3. He wanted to take an unmistakable and depersonalized ideal of civilization. He feels that linguistic communication frequently holds dual significance so he left out lingual confirmation given by sources. Harris contrived vocabulary that expressed different categories of behaviour. The smallest signifier of seeable of behaviour he called actons, accustomed action are called actonemes. An illustration of an acton e would be picking up a glass gap of the oral cavity and the liquid vanishing in the oral cavity. From these basic units more complexness follows. Such elaborate description is boring and expensive. Harris acknowledges this but feels that to be consistent and scientific cultural taxonomy is necessary. Another set of differentiations must be placed upon the different ways of sing a civilization. The first is the emic position. The emic position is that of the people who live and experience their civilization. The etic position places the perceivers as Judgess. Kenneth Pike coined etic and emic4. By utilizing the terminations of the words # 8220 ; phonic # 8221 ; and phonetics. Phonetics is the description of the address sounds that are produced by human existences. Phonemics is screening out these sounds in order to get at the differentiation. Harris applies these to civilization. Etic allows a civilization to be classified to happen meaningful construction of a peculiar civilization. # 8220 ; Etic is a classificatory, emics reflect the internal structural relationships found in specific cultural systems. # 8221 ; The bookman analyzing from the etic point of view must bring forth scientifically productive theories about the causes of sociocultural differences and similarities. When feeling, significance or aim arise the observation is no longer scientific. Harris feels that emics trade with the psychological province of the histrion and his ain position of his behaviour is clouded by their personal readings. Etic is scientific. The perceiver is removed therefore free to do an reading that may unluckily be violative to the civilizations # 8217 ; manner of life. The etic position frequently takes away the sacred nature of many ceremonials, ideals and traditions. Harris feels the bottom line is that etic and emic service a map. He believes that there are specific classs to human activity and idea. Harris does somewhat safeguard his sentiments on the value of etic being the most of import manner of survey. He claims that both etic and emics are valuable portion of civilization analysis. However there should be cognition that etic and emic lead to wholly different readings. The cosmopolitan construction of sociocultural systems pushed upon by cultural philistinism is based on predictable biological and psychological provinces of human groups5. Harris feels that there are specific classs to human activity and idea. First are the agencies of run intoing nutrient demands. This is the etic behavioural manner of production. Second is the demand to guarantee that adequate reproduction occurs to prolong the population, the etic behavioural manner of reproduction. Last there are actions taken by each society to procure order within their group and with other groups. This is called the etic of behavioural domestic life, economic systems and the etic behavioural political economic systems. Harris besides adds another etic class called behavioural superstructure. It concentrates on the value of symbolic procedures for illustration art, ritual or athletics. Harris combines these classs together. Production and reproduction are placed under the header of infrastructure6. Infrastructure includes all of the patterns used in spread outing or curtailing basic subsistence production, chiefly the production of nutrient and other types of energy within the restrictions of a specific environment. Infrastructure besides encompasses the engineering and imposts used for increasing, curtailing and keeping reproduction. Structure combines the domestic economic system and the political economic system. It includes the organisation of the production and reproduction ; trade and ingestion within a group. Above this is the larger graduated table controls placed on groups which regulate reproduction, production, trade and ingestion between different groups. This applies to small-scale sets and to big province organized groups. Behavioral superstructure is besides added. It contains art ; music, dance, literature, rites, games, and athleticss. The conseque nce is a tidy set of classs, substructure, construction and superstructure. The concluding class includes all things that fail to suit into the theoretical account. They are referred to as the mental and emic construction. Harris feels that this theoretical account should be followed. By concentrating on substructure, a big organic structure of cognition would be created with jurisprudence like generalisation. The premiss holds that alterations in substructure appear in the construction and ace construction of a society. Harris non merely applies these thoughts to the development of people throughout clip, he besides applies these Torahs to present twenty-four hours societies. The following are several illustrations of how cultural philistinism maps in both the yesteryear and the present. The concluding readings are based on his etic position of civilization. Anthropologist Noel T. Boas gives an first-class conjectural illustration of how the environment and the manner worlds exploit and adapt to it has an consequence on all of the cultural properties of a group7. A group of pre-historic worlds lived on the border of the glaciers in the Far North. A group of the tribes # 8217 ; huntsmans tracked a drove of reindeer that attempted to get away across a snowfield. A similar herd escaped from this same group of huntsmans the anterior twelvemonth when two of the huntsmans became temporarily blind from the intense blaze of the Sun reflecting off of the snow. This twelvemonth one of the groups had carved oculus masks that limited the sum of light come ining the oculus to a individual slit. The manner the slits angled up resembled that of a fox. The huntsmans tied them on and were able to run the reindeer across the snow without the blaze of the Sun forestalling them from killing the quarry. Their reindeer fed the full folk during a clip of the twelvemonth when other nutrient beginnings were scarce, safeguarding the group from near-starvation. Because the huntsmans had worn their new fox masks as a grade of victory when they returned with their meat to the small town, it was clear to the priest-doctor that that the spirit of the fox had directed them to the reindeer. From this clip on, the priest-doctor declared that he would confabulate with the spirit of the fox before each runing party left the small town. He planned a salvation ceremonial to pay court to the fox for the spring. The work forces in the original hunting party and their close male family adopted the fox as their carnal totem. This action efficaciously removed them from the wolf kin and meant that the at hand matrimony of one of the huntsmans girls to a adult male from the bear clad had to be postponed. Merely after long treatments by the seniors was it agreed upon that the fox and wolf were spiritually close, and that a member the new fox kin would be perm itted to get married a member of the bear kin, their traditional matrimony spouses. Cultural alterations result in response to environmental challenges. Culture maps as a precaution to protect persons generative and economic involvements in a society. Through societal organisation and work production the groups benefited and held the civilization together. The sharing of these common cultural traits solidified the societal bonds. Language served as the manner of go throughing information from one group to another or from coevals to coevals. This was accomplished through myth, and heroic poems. The ability to pass on information about their environment was critical to the endurance of the group. The Sacred Cows of India is a really good known survey among anthropology pupils. It serves as an illustration of the cultural materialist attack. He attempts to turn out that spiritual Torahs forbiding Hindus from eating cattles serve a intent. Harris has frequently noted that pupils are perplexed by the Hindu # 8217 ; s refusal to eat meat even in to face of poorness and starvation8. While the prohibition on eating beef seems mal adaptative and counterproductive, it is non. The cow is considered sacred in India. There are spiritual symbols that exemplify its importance. There are besides Torahs that protect the cattles from slaughter. Harris feels that substructure is what made the cow sacred. As the population of worlds increased so did the demand to protect the cow. ( In the past cattles were a portion of sacrificial rites, beef was eaten for ceremonial intents. ) By 200AD the banquets were eliminated, and merely the Lords were allowed to eat meat. By 1000AD all Hindus were banned from the ingestion of beef9. To forestall the violent death, taboos were formed, faith and jurisprudence arose to deter ingestion. By protecting the cattles Indians safeguard many facets of their being. Harris feels that by non killing the cattles there is an increased possibility of oxen being born. Oxen are of import for agricultural work. Indian cowss do non run out the system the manner Western cowss do. They eat uneatable remains of harvests, provide droppings as fertiliser and fuel for heat and cookery. Harris feels that the riddance of ingestion occurred over a long period of clip. Probably the Hindu people began to detect that the husbandmans who saved their cattles to bring forth cattles were the 1s who survived natural catastrophes. Those who merely ate beef suffered in the long tally. They were non protected from natural catastrophes. The sacredness of the cow is non merely an nescient belief that stands in the manner of advancement, but like all constructs of the sacred and their protection, this one affected the physical universe. It defines the relationships that are imported for the care of society. In ancient Europe and Asia, the chase for nutrient was the cardinal portion of their lives. For 1000s of old ages runing served as the chief beginning of nutrient. Approximately 13,000 ago planetary heating resulted in the terminal of the last ice age. The alterations in home ground such as loss of croping land resulted in an ecological calamity. The Numberss of large game animate beings such as flocculent mammoths, woolly rhinoceros and the bison decreased drastically. In add-on to these environmental alterations predation had an consequence on the population degrees of big game. The extinction of these large game animate beings concluded in the beginning of the Mesolithic period. During the Mesolithic people began to roll up protein from other beginnings such as fish, shellfish and cervid. Anthropologist Kent Flannery refers to the diverse hunting and assemblage of nutrient resources as â€Å"broad spectrum† therefore the terminal of the ice age played a portion in the extinction of big game animate beings, coercing human population to diversify the types of nutrient they ate10. Similar environmental events occurred in North and South America between 11,000-8000BC. Harris feels that these extinctions in the Americas occurred with the crisp rise of population that, and the demand to go on to keep their dietetic criterions. With the diminution of megafauna, the North and South Americans adapted with similar agencies of subsistence as in Europe and Asia. Harris feels that the Techaucan vale serves as an first-class illustration of alterations in subsistence that transpired in North America. Between 7000-5000BC the people of the Techaucan vale hunted Equus caballuss and antelope to extinction. They so moved on to jackrabbits and elephantine polo-necks, which were besides rendered extinct. By 800 BC they were to the full sedentary based on agribusiness. However the sum of Calories derived from carnal proteins decreased aggressively. This forced an intensification of agricultural and new hunting engineerings. New efficient hunting engineerings included spears, spe ar throwsters, darts and the bow and pointer. As the depletion of animate being populations continued to diminish, the primary manner of production became intensified works production. Gathering had originally been the primary agencies of obtaining workss. The intensification of farming lead to an addition of engineering. Gardening was followed by agribusiness, which relied on irrigation. Despite the intensification by utilizing hunting and agribusiness techniques there were depletions. This resulted in an overall ruin of nutritionary degrees. The Middle Eastern small towns went through a different scenario. They gathered seeds, wild barley, wheat and grasses. The seeds ripened in late spring for a three-week period. The # 8220 ; wide spectrum # 8221 ; huntsmans and gathers built their lasting abodes to let for grain storage and production. For illustration prehistoric huntsmans and aggregators known as Nuftians carved out depressions at the forepart of their stone shelters laid rock pavings and construct rock around their fireplaces. Other sites day of the month to 12,000 old ages old. The grounds shows that there was grain film editing and roasting. Harris points out that the New World sequence differs form the Old World sequence. It wasn # 8217 ; t until 5,400BP that the population of the Techaucan vale built lasting houses, yet these houses were merely used at certain times of the twelvemonth. The people still collected workss for nutrient use11. Harris believes that the different stages of agribusiness should non be attributed to diffusion. Harris says when runing and roll uping bend to agriculture it # 8217 ; s non because of thoughts, but because of cost/benefits. Agribusiness is non necessary if all demands from a few hours of runing. The ground for these two sequences is in the different sorts of workss and animate beings that existed after the depletion of the big game. In the Middle East their combinations of workss and animate beings was such that by going sedentary they elevated their consumption of workss and animate beings. Agriculture has no value if everything needed takes two hours to roll up. The countries that Middle Eastern agribusiness appeared had wild wheat, barley, peas and lentils. In add-on the country held precursors to domestication of hogs, cowss and caprine animals. The Middle Eastern populations settled in countries surrounded by Fieldss of alcoholic grains. The animate beings were forced to venture closer to the small towns as they depended on these beginnings for nutrient. Therefore the huntsmans no longer had to seek for protein beginnings they were in their back twelvemonth. Harris feels that the animate beings ate a significant sum of grain, this lead to a demand to increase the production. Harris feels that this theory demonstrates why the domestication of workss and animate beings occurred at different times. In Mesoamerica the hunter- gatherers of Techucan made usage of grains such as amaranth and maize. Their agencies of seed aggregation was labour efficient, like agribusiness, it did supply a storable excess. Yet the people from the Techuacan colonies did non put up their towns near the amaranth and maize. The domestication of animate beings in Techuacan did non co-occur with the domestication of amaranth and maize because all domesticatable animate beings became nonextant as a consequence of the clime alteration and overkill. When the people of Tehuacan wanted carnal proteins they had to be more nomadic and follow the quarry, which consisted of cervid, coney, polo-necks and other little animate beings. This explains the involuntariness to put big sums of clip and energy into lasting colonies, roasting cavities or storage installations. Hence the people postponed populating complete village life until they had exhausted even smaller animate beings long after they had domesticated many species of workss. Harris believes that the depletion of resources in the New World had effects that set them on a slower way of agricultural development. Domestication of animate beings in the Middle East allow to new engineerings such as Big Dippers increased transportation12. The # 8220 ; faunal gifts # 8221 ; of the different hemispheres had other positive effects. Village life resulted in higher quality nutrition, which increased lactation periods therefore, the spacing between offspring increased. This stands as an first-class illustration of substructure, the manner of production and reproduction. How the environment and the agencies of working it can take to different consequences in the causal concatenation of cultural philistinism. Another theory than Harris has formulated concentrated on the thought of tribal warfare. In a cross cultural survey of tribal warfare Harris defines warfare as # 8220 ; an organized signifier of inter group homicide affecting combat squads of two or more individuals, including feuding and raiding13. # 8221 ; Harris feels that warfare is a manner of modulating population size, non merely because of the deceases in conflict, but through female infanticide. Harris believes that civilizations that pattern war activities tend to prefer the birth of male childs who are the preferable warriors. He points out that aggressive folks have the advantage over less aggressive folk. In the survey by Harris found that the ratio of fourteen-year-old and under was 127 male childs to 100 misss. He feels that the spread of warfare was a consequence of the enlargement of works cultivation. With the addition of saccharides and fats in their diet, female birthrate increased and more gestations occurred. Harris feels that in civilizations where birth control methods are non available to modulate population, female infanticide occurred. Infanticide rates rise when war occurs. This illustration exemplifies how nutrient production and reproduction are related and combined under the header substructure. Harris uses cultural philistinism to depict the rise and autumn of antediluvian societies. Harmonizing to Harris the movers have been practising the same economic rhythm. Population force per unit areas result in higher production, which depletes the environment, taking to the demand for new invention of production. Harris uses the Maya of Mexico # 8217 ; s Yucatan peninsula to exemplify his theory of cultural philistinism. Many archaeologists have attempted to explicate out how ( between 300 # 8211 ; 900AD ) Maya civilizations supported themselves on merely cut and burn cultivation14. Harris shows that the economic system was more productive than one time believed. The Maya environment was less rich in resources than the environing countries yet they were able to prolong a big population. Harris # 8217 ; thoughts have frequently been criticized. By far one of the most lurid thoughts is that Aztecs turned to cannibalism for their protein intake. Harris believes that the ground the re were so many forfeits was straight related to the deficiency of domesticated animate beings, which were needed to increase nutrient. Hence the rise in population coupled with the deficiency of nutrient resulted in a gustatory sensation for cannibalism. This satisfied the populations hungriness. Harris believes that with the extremely populated centres, the dwellers were prone to nutrient crisis and dearths. Therefore human forfeit had both a spiritual intent and a material consequence. Marvin Harris feels that one issue that shines out in the ethnographic record is the demand for prestigiousness and power15. He notes that groups frequently compete for land, power and prestigiousness. The competition frequently reaches the degree of compulsion. The most extraordinary efforts at seeking position occur in British Colombia where the potlatch is practiced. The end of the potlatch was to give off and destruct every bit much wealth as possible. A powerful head for case may destruct great sums of nutrient, vesture and money in an effort to derive position and esteem from his rivals. Marvin Harris efforts to turn out that the Kwakiutl potlatch was non an irrational activity. Alternatively the activities were based on definite economic and ecological conditions. The Kwakiutal used to populate near the shore and rain forest. They sustained themselves through runing fishing and assemblage. The head of Kwakiutl had inherited power therefore felt insecure in his place. This resu lted in a demand to turn out and solidify their place as head. The aim of the potlatch was for the host head to give his challenger head and followings obscene sums of valuable gifts. The invitees would so be obligated to dominate the former host. Preparation for the potlatch required the aggregation of nutrient, teguments, covers and other ownerships. Guests were so encouraged to devour huge sums of nutrient. The invitee would besides have irrational sums of gifts. The invitee head and his followings would so plight to acquire even. There was an eternal flow of prestigiousness and valuables. Anthropologist Ruth Benedict believed that # 8220 ; The object of all Kwakiutl endeavors was to demo oneself high quality to one # 8217 ; s rivals16. # 8221 ; Harris strongly disagrees. He points out that the Kwakiutl potlatch occurs in similar signifiers in all parts of the universe. Unlike Benedict he feels that it functioned as a manner to nutrient transportation from centres of high prod uctiveness to less fortunate small towns. It had a practical intent. Competitive banqueting can be understood in an evolutionary position. Tribes frequently participate in reciprocality with their folks and other folks. The mighty potlatch heads used their followings to make the work. Although the Kwakiutl were non agricultural their manner of production was still intense. Harris feels that the potlatch functioned as a manner to escalate production. As a consequence the Kwakiutl possessed rank and were even known to hold slaves. Not merely does Marvin Harris attack civilization traits of Non Western societies of the past and present. He besides explores present twenty-four hours Western Society. In # 8220 ; Our Kind # 8221 ; he attempts to explicate the ground that Westerners go fleshy or # 8220 ; fat17 # 8243 ; . Harris feels that the ground for the high per centum of fleshy people is due to our inability to cognize when we have had plenty. As he explains natural choice has yet to choose against people who have clogged arterias. He feels that in the past those who had higher position had more available nutrient so they had abundant organic structure weight. Healthy weight was associated with being an elite. Being scraggy, holding less entree to nutrient for the hapless. Now the hapless are fleshy and the rich tend to be thin and in form. Harris feels that weight control requires instruction and proper diet. Harmonizing to Harris the hapless have less entree to proper information and deficiency the pecun iary financess to purchase healthy nutrient. He adds that nutrients high in fat and sugar are less expensive, hence more accessible to the hapless. It is true that a thin organic structure is associated with position in Western Society. . Marvin Harris is a author who is non merely known by anthropology pupils. His books appeal to the popular mass. I can decidedly see why his Hagiographas entreaty to such broad scope of people. He manages to sum up every issue, job, or quandary worlds in history, pre-history and in the present. Everything tantrums into topographic point with cultural philistinism. Unfortunately by merely concentrating on the agencies of production and reproduction, the importance of all other facets of civilization seem fiddling. In his analyses he does non give equal clip to construction and superstructure. Because he wants anthropology to be scientific he focuses on the two cosmopolitan facets of being human, the demand to eat and the demand to reproduce. Why is it okay to disregard of import facets of civilization if anthropology is a scientific discipline? Variable must ever be considered. With civilization there are an utmost sum of variables. At times an audience may experience that he is go f orthing out of import facts so that his theories fit into a orderly bundle. Possibly anthropology does non hold to be a scientific discipline to be taken earnestly. In add-on all of the analyses are based on Harris # 8217 ; etic position. His ain cultural background clouds his ain position. Who is to state which etic is right? He besides surveies Western civilizations, how is it possible for him to keep a place of etic? I suppose that he has an ability to stay nonsubjective unlike others in western civilization. Possibly anthropology does non necessitate to be a scientific discipline, is it truly a job to hold anthropology considered humanity. Since the 1970s anthropologists have divided into two major schools of idea. Those who feel anthropology is humanity and those similar Marvin Harris who feels that it is a natural scientific discipline.