ABSTRACT
Marshall Sahlins main intellectual influences included Leslie White, Karl Polanyi and Julian Steward, mentors who influenced his perennial interest in the material culture, cultural economy and culture and historical change, respectively. His early career work engaged with anthropological debates of the day, but his mid-career work focused on debunking the idea of economically rational man, the progressive notion of economic history, and demonstrating that economic systems adapt to particular circumstances in culturally specific ways. Sahlins argues that the material causes must be the product of a symbolic system of meaningful values, since the general determinations of purposeful material action are always subject to the specific formulations of culture. As Sahlins positions himself within a culturalist camp, his main opponent is utility theory and specifically the presumption that culture is the product of individuals pursuing their self-interest through rational actions.
