Sandstrom, Pamela Effrein, and Howard D. White. 2007. The impact of cultural materialism: A bibliometric analysis of the writings of Marvin Harris.

[Eugene Garfield]

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.