I'm really enjoying these essays. I wonder if you've read Marvin Harris' "Cultural Materialism." I know his approach is out of fashion, but I agree with you that ignoring material influences on how humans organize ourselves makes no sense. The Davids clearly had a narrative they wanted to tell, and found a way to make everything fit into it.
I haven't read that one yet, just his other two books. I keep looking for it at used bookstores.
That's a good way of putting it--they're telling the story they want to tell. It's frustrating though, because there's so much that gets left out in conventional retellings of history that shows up in the book, but in the process they neglect--or even contradict--so much of what their own chosen disciplines have to tell us.
I'm really enjoying these essays. I wonder if you've read Marvin Harris' "Cultural Materialism." I know his approach is out of fashion, but I agree with you that ignoring material influences on how humans organize ourselves makes no sense. The Davids clearly had a narrative they wanted to tell, and found a way to make everything fit into it.
I haven't read that one yet, just his other two books. I keep looking for it at used bookstores.
That's a good way of putting it--they're telling the story they want to tell. It's frustrating though, because there's so much that gets left out in conventional retellings of history that shows up in the book, but in the process they neglect--or even contradict--so much of what their own chosen disciplines have to tell us.