Marvin Harris 3

The unsettled period lasting from about 1968-1982 produced a flood of jeremiahs prophecizing cataclysms of one sort or another, and usually offering some kind of radical solution as well. Most of these thinkers are now justly forgotten; one author, however, deserves to be remembered. That is the late Marvin Harris, an unusual Anthropologist in his rejection of the ruling Boasian orthodoxy, as well as his interest in the present-day problems of complex (non-tribal) societies. His main book on the subject, America Now, was more interested in the present and recent past than forecasting the future ("This book is about cults, shoddy goods, and the shriking dollar"). While Harris was mistaken in prediciting that the factors which caused the chaos of the late 60s and 70s would continue into the 80s, he identified the obscure causes of social and economic disorder better than any analyst of his time. Harris also predicted that the industrialized countries of Europe and East Asia would experience similar problems as the US in the 70s, though they were about 25 years behind the curve. In this, he was mostly correct; the main question is whether the prosperity and stability of the US in the 80s and 90s represent a permanent shift, or just a temporary 'Indian Summer', as the problems identified by Harris return with a vengence.