Studying Societies and Cultures

Lawrence A. Kuznar, Stephen K. Sanderson

“A thought-provoking, stimulating volume on the past, present, and future of cultural materialism that is both laudatory of Harris' research strategy and critical of it.” —Paul Shankman, University of Colorado

• Introduction The Potentials and Challenges of Cultural Materialism; I: The Legacy of Cultural Materialism: I; 1: The Impact of Cultural Materialism; 2: The Theoretical Legacies of Cultural Materialism and Marvin Harris; II: The Epistemology of Cultural Materialism; 3: Cultural Materialism, Scientific Anthropology, Epistemology, and “Narrative Ethnographies of the Particular”; 4: Cultural Materialism, Rational Choice, and the Problem of General Ethnography; III: Applications of Cultural Materialism; 5: Materialist Particularity in Nuclear Micronesia; 6: Linking Past and Present; 7: Effects of the Physical and Social Environment on Culture; IV: The Darwinian Challenge to Cultural Materialism; 8: The Effect of Nepotism on the Evolution of Social Inequality; 9: Coevolutionary Materialism; 10: Marvin Harris, Meet Charles Darwin; V: The Legacy of Cultural Materialism: II; 11: What Role Does Population Pressure Play in the Evolutionary Dynamics of Marvin Harris?; 12: Evolutionary Materialism and Darwinian Conflict Theory; 13: When Is a Theoretical Strategy Not Cultural Materialism?