Introduction
Marvin Harris is an American representative of the cultural anthropology. He is a supporter of cultural relativism and developer of cultural materialism. On the basis of the expeditions to Brazil and the USA, he researched the primitive cultures, traditional ethnic psychology, and the influence of the permanent customs on the culture of the nowadays peoples.
Harris examines the primitive cultures and modern civilization as a form of human adaptation in the environment. The book “Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches” deals with the problem of the religious determination of culture. The title hints at the most known mysterious beliefs of the different religious groups. The most significant section for us is about Christian belief in the Messiah. The point of the work is to explain the significance of the Biblical stories for the culture of contemporary US society.
The factors of formation of the culture of contemporary US society
Harris’ cultural materialism is orientated towards the complex, systematic research of the methods, structures and results of the interaction between people and natural environment. It is found on the predictable ties between physical and social characteristics of the joint life and activity of people and their realization in culture.
On the basis of the human physical requirements there can be distinguished four levels of human organization. The first level is the infrastructure of industrial production and human reproduction. The second level concerns the organization of domestic and political economy. The next level forms the superstructure of social relationships. And the last level is a mental or intellectual organization. Each level determines the next one.
Harris explains the people actions by their tie with the social and ecological environment. He claims that the Messiah complex is a way to subdue peoples of different traditions, and to provide the common system of values. People have a tendency to subordinate their beliefs to the natural and social conditions on which they depend. Harris says people worked out the system of the population control in order to prevent the nature from the harmful influence of humans.
“In most primitive societies, warfare is an effective means of population control because intense, recurring intergroup combat places a premium upon rearing male rather than female infants” (Harris, 1974, p. 159). But Harris claims that humans have to fight because “they lack alternative solutions to certain problems” (p. 160). The religious norms were applied and consolidated as they became the alternative way of control.
Christianity brought regularity to life through the precise instructions of behavior and the way of life. The Messiah becomes the example for imitation. The book refers to Jews who didn’t adopt Christ as their Messiah. They follow the Old Testament prophets in the fulfillment of the Law, and they warfare against the Roman church. The contemporary Americans adopt Christ as the personal savior and Messiah for non-Jews and this fact determines the norms of this society.
Conclusion
The anti-American movement today, according to Harris, can be explained by the Islamists’ efforts to take under control the distant culture. Those efforts are directed not at the fight with Americans, but it is a protest against Christian world at all. It can be regarded as a kind of retaliation for the defeat in Middle Age war. The book contains the explanation of the significance of the knowledge of other societies and their beliefs. This knowledge helps people to prevent the mistakes of past.
Reference
Harris, Marvin. (1974). Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches: The Riddles of Culture. New York: Random House.