Marvin Harris

The environment shapes culture, and culture shapes the environment.

Ecology is the study of the relationships between living organisms and their environment.

Human beings are part of the natural world, not separate from it.

Sustainability is the ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Globalization is the increasing interconnectedness of the world's economies, cultures, and populations.

The future of humanity depends on our ability to understand and adapt to cultural change.

The study of anthropology can help us to build a more just and sustainable world.

Cultural materialism is not a dogma, but a research strategy that is open to revision and refinement.

The goal of science is to explain the world, not just to describe it.

The scientific method is the most reliable way to acquire knowledge about the world.

Anthropology is the broad science of humanity which studies man in the fullness of his environment.

Cultural materialism is a theoretical orientation which emphasizes the primacy of the infrastructure in the determination of cultural evolution.

The sacred cow is a myth, but the Hindu reverence for cattle is a real adaptive strategy in an overpopulated agrarian society.

Cannibalism is not a primitive savagery but a rational response to protein scarcity in certain ecological conditions.

Good to eat, good to prohibit: the logic of food taboos reveals more about ecology than morality.

Human history is the story of how we have adapted our cultures to exploit the environment more efficiently.

The rise of theory in anthropology mirrors the intellectual battles of the ages.

Pigs were taboo in the Near East not because of filth, but because they competed with humans for the same scarce resources.

Witch hunts were a mechanism for population control in medieval Europe amid famine and plague.

The infrastructure of production and reproduction determines the structure and superstructure of society.