Marvin Harris, 74, an anthropologist who espoused a number of controversial theories about the evolution of human cultures, among them the idea that Aztecs practiced ritualistic human sacrifice and cannibalism because they needed animal protein, died Oct. 25 in Gainesville, Fla., after hip surgery.
Dr. Harris wrote 17 books detailing his observations about the global processes that account for human origins. He taught cultural anthropology at Columbia University and the University of Florida. He was also chairman of the general anthropology division of the American Anthropological Association.
Dr. Harris, who was born in Brooklyn, developed a guiding philosophy that human habits develop to fill basic needs in the most economical way. He called his theory "cultural materialism" and used the phrase as the title of a book published in 1979.
"Westerners think that Indians would rather starve than eat their cows. What they don't understand is that they will starve if they do eat their cows," he once told Psychology Today. "During droughts and famines in India, farmers who succumb to the temptation to kill their cows seal their [own] doom; for when the rains come they will be unable to plow their fields."
Other theories espoused by Dr. Harris:
� Jews and Muslims ban eating pork because pigs eat the same food as humans and provide nothing in return but bacon and ham, while sheep, goats and cattle eat grass but provide wool, milk and labor as well as protein.
� The Yanomamo of the South American rain forest wage war because overhunting produces food shortages.
� Dogs are considered unfit to eat in North America and areas where they are needed to hunt other animals supplying abundant protein, but are delicacies in countries that have little game or other edible animals.
� Over the centuries, horses have been good to eat or bad to eat, depending on the need for them as beasts of burden and modes of travel.
� Appliances and other machines break because manufacturing executives today worry more about the bottom line and finding a better job than about product quality.
Other anthropologists and observers had almost as many opinions about Dr. Harris as he had about why people behave as they do. Smithsonian magazine called him "one of the most controversial anthropologists alive." The Washington Post described him as "a storm center in his field," and the Los Angeles Times accused him of "overgeneralized assumptions."
Yet reviewers found his book-length theories "witty and cogent," "such fun to read" and "marvelously readable" and considered him "sure of his ground and articulate."
Dr. Harris earned his bachelor's degree and doctorate from Columbia University and taught there from 1952 to 1980, serving as chairman of its Anthropology Department for three years. For the past two decades, he was a graduate research professor at the University of Florida.
In 1971, Dr. Harris published "Culture, People and Nature: An Introduction to General Anthropology," which is widely used as an anthropology textbook.
But most of his books were aimed at mainstream audiences. They often had titles as intriguing as the theories they documented: "Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches," "Cannibals and Kings," "Good to Eat," "The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig." In his 1981 book, "America Now: Why Nothing Works," the anthropologist recommended radically decentralizing the economy.
He is survived by his wife and daughter.
