Our Kind: Who We Are, Where We Came From, Where We Are Going [Paperback]

Marvin Harris (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0060919906 | ISBN-13: 978-0060919900 | Publication Date: September 26, 1990

Writing with the same wit, humor, and style of his earlier bestsellers, noted anthropologist Marvin Harris traces our roots and views our destiny.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cultural anthropologist Harris ponders infanticide, dietary preferences, the worldwide sugar binge, incest avoidance, humans' addiction to orgasm, racism and much else. PW called this an "encyclopedic, consistently engaging survey of human evolution and culture."
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Our Kind (meaning the human species), another of anthropologist Harris's popularizing works, is a compendium of short essays (or musings) on an incredibly wide range of topics from fossil humans to yuppies. The book, which begins, "IN THE BEGINNING was the foot," is written in a chatty, urbane style. Harris fears that we too easily are learning to live with the threat of nuclear annihilation and that we will not survive even the near future " . . . unless we transcend the state's insatiable demands for sovereignty and hegemony." He also warns that "we must rid ourselves of the notion that we are an innately aggressive species for whom war is inevitable." Unless Harris meant to write a reminiscence of aspects of human existence, he might have made these remarks more effectively in a less eclectic work. Serious readers will find the right-up-to-date bibliography useful. For public libraries with an audience for Harris's works.
- Joan W. Gartland, Detroit P.L.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (September 26, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060919906
• ISBN-13: 978-0060919900
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cultural materialism for the layperson, September 28, 2005

By 

H. Keith Hamm - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Our Kind: Who We Are, Where We Came From, Where We Are Going (Paperback)

Marvin Harris, who fought for a scientific explanation of human thought and behavior against postmodernist obscurantism and other attempts at explaining humans, brought together in this book all of his various theories about human cultures. From his contention that cannibalism occured in Aztec religion because of a lack of other protein sources in the Valley of Mexico to his basic theory of probabilistic infrastructural determinism he was always controversial.

This is an excellent book to read if you have ever wanted to study anthropology but couldnt get past the thick description of the current postmodern/interpretationist approaches. Harris harkens back to an evolutionary approach to anthropology and thoroughly explains many of the mysteries of human culture with the clearest empirical science.

He begins with human evolution, brings us through hunting and gathering into agricultural chiefdoms, the first states and into the hyperindustrial globalized present with clear concise descriptions. Harris was a masterful writer and always brings humor into the driest and (sometimes) strangest cultural phenomena. This book is a great bedside companion because of the short chapters, but you are going to have to struggle to put it down so it might keep you up rather than put you to sleep.

Also, this is basically a lay persons version of the textbooks Harris helped write with Orna Johnson. If you want to get the same information with charts and pictures (but without much of the humor) I highly recommend either Culture, People, Nature or Cultural Anthropology.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything you've always wanted to know about the human race, July 24, 2005

By 

Naseberry (Brussels, Belgium) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Our Kind: Who We Are, Where We Came From, Where We Are Going (Paperback)

Marvin Harris was a brilliant anthropologist - he died a few years ago - and this book sets out, in the language of normal people, the state of knowledge (to the time of writing) on the subject of humankind: what exactly we are, how we came to be like this, and even more interestingly from my point of view, WHY. The book is divided into very short chapters, little jewels of concision, beautifully and entertainingly written. Basically, the book takes theories which would be dry as dust in someone else's prose and makes them come alive with relevance to each and every one of us. A fascinating read.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Makes up for a good reason why to ignore the exams to come, April 1, 1999

By 

Daniel Mietchen "idee" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Our Kind: Who We Are, Where We Came From, Where We Are Going (Paperback)

When I saw the English version of the book for the first time I simply ignored it because the front cover made me think it were just another try to explain lonely houswives in golden words how the world works. But some weeks later my eye caught a front cover showing the faces of people from "Menschen". In German, this means "humans" as well as "people/crowds", and this book attracted me to sit down in the book store and read. Back home, I forgot about the exams that I had to prepare for, and simply continued to read. Why? Well, Harris really gets your mind back to work by provoking arguments when explaining the origins of human brain and language, of war, priests, sexual roles, or states in just a few pages each. Especially funny was how he presented the seemingly endless chain of examples from the Eastern highlands of Papua-Newguinea (and to discuss it with a friend who grew up there), like husbands arrowing the thighs of their wives shortly after marriage, just to demonstrate who is going to rule in the future. Apart from the fun we had, the book also made us rethink some of the issues presented there although, naturally, we could not agree with all he stated