Marvin Harris Quotes


There are very important and practical issues raised by following this alternative route which says, let's look to material conditions, to the systems of production, to the needs that human beings have, and to competing alternative solutions to the satisfaction of those needs.


Related Quotes

Although almost a century ago, the same can now be said of many of the poorer nations of the world. Mexico, however, finally addressed many of the problems that Esquivel Obregon articulated, and Mexican development has been much more extensive.


Most pressure for political correctness comes from the center or the left. On this area however, pressure to avoid speaking of this comes from left and right. The left is concerned that by discussing the reality the poorer performing subgroups will be stigmatized and public behavior will make the situation worse. The right would prefer that there is little or no political dialogue regarding the huge differences in outcome in America where individual ability and effort seems to play such a large part of the differential. I addition, they see the making of these distinctions as the beginning of class warfare.


Marvin Harris
Marvin Harris
  • Born: August 18, 1927
  • Died: October 25, 2001
  • Nationality: American
  • Profession: Scientist

Marvin Harris was an American anthropologist. He was born in Brooklyn, New York City. A prolific writer, he was highly influential in the development of cultural materialism. In his work, he combined Karl Marx's emphasis on the forces of production with Thomas Malthus's insights on the impact of demographic factors on other parts of the sociocultural system.