Date: Sat, 01 Jun 1996 22:34:05 +0000
Subject: social theory


Jukka, please do write a few lines on social theory some time.  I'd like 
to spend more time on your recent posts soon, as this talk of idealism 
in some theories or approaches, as opposed to materialist view, ties in 
with Marvin Harris I am reading lately.  

Harris talks in terms of "research strategies" within anthropology, and 
reviews several of the most common and influential varieties of 
anthropologies, in his book _Cultural Materialism: the struggle for a 
science of culture_ 1979.  These include dialectical materialism, 
structuralism [Levi-Strauss and others], psychological and cognitive 
idealism, eclecticism and obscurantism.  A lot of it is anti-materialist 
and anti-science, which he rips up pretty well.

Harris of course finds his own cultural materialism to be a more 
productive approach, as his strategy emphasizes and looks at 
infrastructural effects upon the superstructure first, and holds that 
these effects are generally stronger than the other way 'round.

Later,
Lisa


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