Analysis Of Cultural Materialism From The Perspective Of Harris’s Emics And Etics

Marvin Harris(1927-2001)is a Marxist cultural anthropologist and the initiator and advocate of the American "Cultural Materialism" research paradigm.In the way of cultural anthropology,Harris paid attention to the significance of field investigation to cultural research and the significance of cultural materiality and practice,forming the study of "Cultural Materialism" with cultural anthropology characteristics.In 1968,he first proposed "Cultural Materialism" in his book "The Rise of Anthropological Theory",and in his 1979 book "Cultural Materialism",he elaborated on the "Cultural Materialism",which he called "scientific research strategies".These two works made Harris rise to fame in the field of western anthropology.He held high the banner of cultural materialism and thoroughly criticized the idealism of cultural research,and became a leading figure in the field of western Marxist cultural anthropology.This paper tries to step from the theory adopted by Harris in his interpretation of "Cultural Materialism",in order to clarify the theory source of thought,the core view and value significance,and Williams from the perspective of cultural research explain the idea of "Cultural Materialism" similarities and differences,and shows from the cultural anthropology of "Cultural Materialism" unique.The main part of this article consists of three parts.The first part reviews and sorts out the three theoretical sources of cultural materialism from the perspective of Harris.From the perspective of its ideological content,Harris ’cultural materialism mainly has two sources,one is to inherit the basic principles of historical materialism,and put forward new insights on population issues;the other is to absorb and develop parts of cultural anthropology,including Taylor’s cultural definition,Steward’s cultural ecology and White’s technical determinism.From the perspective of its research method,it mainly draws lessons from the theory of "emics and etics" in linguistics,and advocates a comprehensive understanding of social culture from the perspective of combining emics research and etics research.The second part explores the main contents of Harris cultural materialism,including the epistemology and theoretical principles of cultural materialism.Based on the orientation of cultural materialism,how to understand the emics and etics theory and the theory of the logic and the principle of cultural materialism from the theory and perspective of the origin and development of capitalism.The third part makes a dialectical understanding and evaluation of its thoughts.Firstly,the cultural materialism of Harris and Williams should dialectically evaluate the cultural materialism from the perspective of Harris,including the inheritance of the basic spirit of Marxism,the deepening and development of historical materialism,and the deficiencies and theoretical limitations,and finally summarize the inspirations and references of this thought.The purpose of this paper is twofold.First,on the basis of the Cultural Materialism in the general sense proposed by Williams,we should study how Harris interprets the cultural materialism with the cognitive method formed by the theory of subject and guest position.The second is to deepen and enrich the understanding of the theoretical connotation of "Cultural Materialism" based on the comprehensive study of Cultural Materialism from the perspective of Harris’ s emics and etics.