THE NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARIES SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2001 Y A23 Marvin Harris, 74, Is Dead; Professor Was Iconoclast of Anthropologists By DOUGLAS MARTIN to studying cultural differences aimed at general audiences. Witchcraft? A convenient culprit young professor, he was critical of Marvin Harris, an anthropologist The Washington Post described The Hindu ban on killing cows? for the rising protest that church and the university's administration and a who spent his career adding fuel to him in 1983 as "a storm center in his Absolutely necessary as a strategy state faced from the 15th century to strong supporter of student protests the fires of academic controversy, as field." And the Smithsonian article of human existence, Dr. Harris con- the 17th. of the 1960's. David B. Truman, vice when he theorized that the cannibal- said he pitted himself "against the tended: they are much more valu- Dr. Harris's zest for controversy president and provost, accused him ism of the Aztecs was motivated by mainstream of anthropological able for plowing fields and providing was suggested by the title of an arti- of "authoritarian madness." protein deprivation, died on Thurs- thought. milk than as a one-time steak dinner. cle he wrote for The New York Though his studies took him day in Gainesville, Fla., where he He even took on anthropology's "Westerners think that Indians Times Magazine in 1977: "Why Men throughout the world, from Brazil to lived He was 74. godmother, Margaret Mead, though would rather starve than eat their Dominate Women." So was his con- Mozambique to India, he kept his His daughter, Susan, said the he was quick to point out that in this cows," he told Psychology Today. tention that Aztec cannibalism own country in his anthropological cause was complications after hip he was hardly alone. "There's never "What they don't understand is that sprang from a need for protein suffi- sights. In "The Anthropology of a surgery. been anything other than a good deal they will starve if they do eat their ciency, a view that drew some strong Changing Culture" (Simon & Schus- Dr. Harris, called "one of the most of disquiet about her methods," he cows.' opposition. "It takes an heroic act of ter, 1981), he railed against home- controversial anthropologists alive' told The New York Times in 1983. In Dr. Harris's view. then, a manu- utilitarian faith to conclude that this grown outrages he perceived, from by Smithsonian magazine in 1986, Dr. Harris, who called his ap- factured "divine intervention" was sacrificial system was a way the appliances that did not work to bloat- believed that human social life was proach "cultural materialism," was needed to encourage people simply Aztecs had for getting more meat," ed government bureaucracies. shaped in response to the practical an anthropology professor at Colum- to do the practical thing. Marshall Sahlins wrote in The New In The New York Times Book Re- problems of human existence He bia University from 1953 until 1980, The Jewish and Muslim bans on York Review of Books in 1978. view, Robert Lekachman called the argued essentially that cultural dif- including three years as department eating pork? Pigs eat the same foods Marvin Harris was born in Brook- book - which was rereleased in 1987 University of Florida ferences did not matter much, a nov- chairman From 1980 until 2000, he as humans, he reasoned, and are lyn. Growing up in New York City in under the author's original title, Marvin Harris el approach in a discipline dedicated held a graduate research professor- expensive to keep. Sheep, goats and the 1930's, he wanted to understand "Why Nothing Works: The Anthro- ship at the University of Florida. cattle, by contrast, thrive on grass, the millions of strangers around him. pology of Daily Life" - a "remark- But his provocative ideas, and and provide wool, milk and labor. He would stare at the windows of ably concise, angry outcry at the ture," which became a widely used equally provocative presentation, Warfare? A way of curbing popu- apartment buildings, wondering current condition of America." anthropology textbook More obituaries appear gave him a sphere of influence great- lation when protein gets scarce. about the figures behind them. He His other books included "Canni- In addition to his daughter, who on the preceding page. ly exceeding that of an ordinary aca- Neckties? A badge men wear to indi- graduated from Columbia, then bals and Kings" (Random House, lives in the San Francisco area, he is demic. Many of his 17 books were cate they are above physical labor. earned-his doctorate there. As a 1977) and "Culture, People and Na- survived by his wife, Madeline