Harris Marvin. Cannibals and Kings: Origins of Cultures

Vintage Books, 1991. — 368 p.In this brilliant and profound study the distinguished American anthropologist Marvin Harris shows how the endless varieties of cultural behavior - often so puzzling at first glance - can be explained as adaptations to particular ecological conditions. His aim is to account for the evolution of cultural forms as Darwin accounted for the evolution of biological forms: to show how cultures adopt their characteristic forms in response to changing ecological modes.According to Harris, humans shifted from a low-carbohydrate diet largely based on hunter-gatherer sources to a high-carbohydrate diet largely based on agricultural when intensive agriculture began. Harris posits that this diet change resulted in more body fat, which for females led to earlier menarche and a smaller reduction in fertility from nursing infants, which then led to shorter periods between pregnancies.Harris also describes the state of the world in the late 19th century as one of approaching catastrophe as predicted by Malthus (Malthusian catastrophe). Harris then discusses three 20th century innovations that explain this postponement of the catastrophe: the exploitation of petroleum, reliable contraceptives, and social changes in some cultures that make smaller families more desirable.Marvin Harris (1927-2001) taught at Columbia University from 1953 and from 1963 to 1966 was Chairman of the Department of Anthropology. He has lectured by invitation at most of the major colleges and universities in the United States. In addition to field work in Brazil, Mozambique, and Ecuador on the subjects of cross-cultural aspects of race and ethinic relations, the effects of colonialism, and problems of underdevelopment seen in ecological perspective, Harris pioneered in the use of videotape techniques in the study of family life in this country.Author of several books, among them the influential Rise of Anthropological Theory: A History of Theories of Culture and the popoular undergraduate text Culture, Man and Nature: An Introduction to General Anthropology, Harris wrote frequently for Natural History magazine and was a frequent contributor to the professional journals, American Anthropologist and Crurent Anthropology. His others books inlcude Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches and Cultural Materialism.