Sahlins, Marshall (1930-2021)

American, with a PhD from Columbia University (1954), Marshall Sahlins taught anthropology at the University of Chicago. He first became ethnographically interested in the Fiji Islands and then, through his comparative and theoretical reflections, gradually contributed to many of the major debates in the discipline, including discussions in political anthropology, economic anthropology, and the question of the relationship between structure and history. His multidimensional work, which is always marked by the conviction that culture is a major determinant of human perceptions and behaviour, has had a profound impact on contemporary anthropology. Among his many books are Stone Age Economics (1972), Culture and Practical Reason (1976), The Use and Abuse of Biology. An Anthropological Critique of Sociobiology (1976), Islands of History (1985), How “Natives” Think: About Captain Cook, for Example (1995), Culture in Practice (2000), What Kinship Is – And Is Not (2012).

Keywords: History | Political anthropology | Sociobiology | Second half of the 20^th century | Concept of culture | Kinship anthropology | Economic anthropology | Structure