Primitive War Term Paper

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Anthropology

Marvin Harris on the Cultural Materialist explanation for warfare ("Primitive War" in Cows, Pigs, Wars, & Witches)

American anthropologist Marvin Harris discusses the cultural materialist perspective of anthropology in explaining the occurrence of warfare among primitive societies in "Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches." In his exploration and study of different cultures in the world such as India, Brazil, Venezuela, among others, he emphasizes the role the structure and mode of production plays in the prevalence of warfare and the dominance of males within these societies (that is, the development of a patriarchal society).

Cultural materialism stems from Karl Marx's study of the political economies of industrial societies. Marvin Harris, following this Marxian tradition, intends to explain cultures in the world as dependent on their respective histories and economies. Cultural materialism posits that social activity is largely derived from structures within society (of which the terms "infrastructure," "structure," and "superstructure" are used to distinguish among the levels extant in a society).

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Structures determine the norms, ideas, and values held important by the society, which also largely determines the rituals and activities that they conduct in everyday life.

Another important aspect of cultural materialism is determining the mode of production in a society. In identifying the mode of production, it is essential to identify what is the basic economic resource of a society, who cultivates and produces these resources, and who controls the tools or materials in which these economic resources are produced. Evidently, identifying the mode of production also leads the researcher to identify who is in control or power in the society….....

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