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Quote by Marvin Harris

“I don't see how you can write anything of value if you don't offend someone.”

Quote by Marvin Harris

Author

Marvin Harris, born on August 18, 1927, and died on October 25, 2001, was a renowned American anthropologist. His research focused on cultural anthropology, the origins of agriculture, and human ecology, which had a profound impact on the development of modern anthropology. more

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“Hindus and Westerners alike see in the meat-eating taboos of India a triumph of morals over appetite. This is a dangerous misrepresentation of cultural processes. Hindu vegetarianism was a victory not of spirit over matter but of reproductive over productive forces.”

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“I don't know of any cases where as a result of religious precepts a population have found themselves enjoying less food than they would have if they didn't follow this particular religion.”

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Author:Marvin Harris

“But with the Industrial Revolution and introduction of various industrial techniques for purifying sugar, we have a situation in which what we are consuming is not good nutritionally or ecologically.”

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“Culture or civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”

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“Yes, metaphor. That's how the whole fabric of mental interconnections holds together. Metaphor is right at the bottom of being alive.”

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“The pathology is to want control, not that you ever get it, because of course you never do.”

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“Members of weakly religious families get, of course, no religious training from any source outside the family.”

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“It is to the Riddle of the Sphinx that I have devoted fifty years of professional life as an anthropologist.”

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