Harris Marvin

Harris Marvin was an anthropologist that born in New York (USA) in 1927. He studied in Erasmus Hall High School, and years after he served in the army of USA, since 1945 until 1947. He studied in Columbia's University , and should be noted that he was also interested in architecture and carpentry. His most important contribution to anthropology is a theory called "cultural materialism", and for this reason i take hat off to him. Cultural materialism explain us that material conditions, (humans artefacts or something from the nature) and particular climates are fundamental influences in the progresive creation of any human culture. He had a historic opportunity (1956-57') to study natives that have worked by a very hard way, in Mozambique, in the period that this country was a colony belong to Portugal. This experience was the seed of his world view like a human person, and for his general view about anthropological discipline. Some experts of other disciplenes that influenced to Marvin were Karl Marx, Skinner and Julian Steward, and from the anthropology, Franz Boas. He died in 2001, when he was 74 years old