Sandstrom, Pamela Effrein, and Howard D. White. 2007. The impact of cultural materialism: A bibliometric analysis of the writings of Marvin Harris.
Eugene Garfield
garfield at CODEX.CIS.UPENN.EDU
Thu Nov 29 10:07:51 EST 2007
Email address: sandstrp at ipfw.edu
Sandstrom, Pamela Effrein, and Howard D. White. 2007. The impact of
cultural materialism: A bibliometric analysis of the writings of Marvin
Harris. In Lawrence A. Kuznar and Stephen K. Sanderson (eds). Studying
societies and cultures: Marvin Harris's cultural materialism and its
legacy. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers. 20-55.
Assessing the impact of a scholar on a field of study is daunting,
especially when that scholar is as prolific and controversial as Marvin
Harris. This chapter is the first in a volume aimed at appraising the
significance of the cultural materialist research strategy to which
Harris dedicated his life. We will document Harris's publishing career
and demonstrate his influence in anthropology and cognate fields using
bibliometric techniques developed by information scientists. These
techniques are nicknamed CAMEOs, short for "Characterizations
Automatically Made and Edited Online." They make visible the authors
that Harris cited and reveal the researchers who cited him in turn.
They also suggest his topical range. By modeling the professional
interests of Harris and those interested in his work, we glimpse into
the social and intellectual structure of contemporary social and
behavioral science and trace Harris's impact within and across
disciplinary boundaries. This CAMEO portrait of Harris provides a
systematic and empirically based look at the content and breadth of
cultural materialism. It is designed to reflect the same scientific
methodological requirements that were near and dear to Harris's research
program.
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