Cannibals and Kings

In this brilliant and profound study the distinguished American anthropologist Marvin Harris shows how the endless varieties of cultural behavior -- often so puzzling at first glance -- can be explained as adaptations to particular ecological conditions. His aim is to account for the evolution of cultural forms as Darwin accounted for the evolution of biological forms: to show how cultures adopt their characteristic forms in response to changing ecological modes. <p/>[A] magisterial interpretation of the rise and fall of human cultures and societies. <p/>-- Robert Lekachman Washington Post Book World <p/>Its persuasive arguments asserting the primacy of cultural rather than genetic or psychological factors in human life deserve the widest possible audience. <p/>-- Gloria Levitas The New Leader <p/>[An] original and...urgent theory about the nature of man and at the reason that human cultures take so many diverse shapes. <p/>-- The New Yorker <p/>Lively and controversial. <p/>-- I. Bernard Cohen front page The New York Times Book Review