Marvin Harris is arguably the most influential, prolific anthropological theorist of our time. This book brings together many of the strands of his work of the past two decades into a unified, contemporary statement on anthropological theory and practice. In this book, he presents his current views on the nature of culture addressing such issues as the mental/behavioral debate, emics and etics, and anthropological holism. He resoundly critiques many current theoretical trends_from sociobiology to postmodernism to Afrocentrism. And he offers a cultural materialist perspective on diverse contemporary issues such as the IQ question and the fall of communism. Harris' thought-provoking and controversial theoretical views will be required reading for all anthropologists, social theorists, and their students.

"[Harris] is an especially acute guide. . . . [He] has written an excellent book for students. Its references are wide-ranging, its arguments always succinctly stated, its sentiments critical and truth-seeking...His clear-eyed depiction of the deficiencies of the rearguard arguments of Marxists is a particular treat." - International Studies in Philosophy, Vol. Xxxv. No.2, 2003

"'Let the grinches who stole culture give it back,' demands Harris in this very readable and vigorous call for a revival of a science-oriented anthropology. . . . Harris argues that a cultural materialist research strategy is a necessary antidote to misdirections in anthropological theory such as the 'anything goes' eclecticism and antiscientific epistemology of postmodernism, as well as to the misuses of science within neo-Darwinism and other forms of biological reductionism. Familiar arguments and interpretations are revived and applied to topics such as the origins of capitalism, the demise of the Soviet Union, historical inaccuracies in Afrocentrism and other examples of 'ethnomania,' and blatant racism in Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray's The Bell Curve. The book may be welcomed for the opportunity it offers to a new generation of students to review some of the major theoretical controversies found within anthropology over the past four decades. . . . General readers, upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty." - CHOICE