ABSTRACT
From 1946 to 1952, Julian Steward taught at Columbia University, and then assumed a research appointment at the University of Illinois where he remained until his retirement in 1968. At Columbia, Steward taught a cohort of students who would become prominent figures in anthropology. Sidney Mintz, Elman Service, Eric Wolf, Morton Fried, Marvin Harris, Robert Murphy, and Robert Manners are among the students who incorporated aspects of Steward’s theories into their research. All were involved in the late-twentieth-century introduction of materialist or Marxist perspectives into anthropology. Virginia Kerns’ biography of Steward sheds some light on why so many of these scholars found a materialist approach appealing:
Most of the students…grew up during the Depression, and many had served in combat zones during the [Second World] war. Their life experiences had inclined them toward materialist approaches to economy and political organization. They had “no trouble understanding the compelling motivations of an empty stomach,” according to Murphy, and “they had seen authority emerge from the barrel of a gun.”1 While their powerful and visceral memories of hardship likely disposed them to view Steward’s approach as timely and relevant, the students adapted or borrowed from his theories in noticeably distinct ways.
