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▪ Abstract  In this brief, autobiographical account, I trace the development of my intellectual and theoretical interests, especially as they relate to culture. How can we account for culture's being learned by individuals and yet apparently shared by members of a community? How do cultures as shared within communities change and evolve? How does what we know about languages, themselves a kind of cultural tradition, contribute to understanding culture and cultural evolution? Are processes of cultural and linguistic evolution analogous to those in the evolution of biological species and, if so, in what ways? How, also, do genetically based behavioral proclivities manifest themselves in social arenas that are structured by language and culture?

This article reviews the growth of knowledge in the four fields of anthropology. It is not an intellectual history but, rather, focuses on what I consider to have been the important developments in substantive knowledge. [Keywords: U.S. anthropology, four fields, 20th century, substantive knowledge]

Theories of Culture in Postmodern Times. Marvin Harris. Walnut Creek. CA. London, and New Delhi: Altamira Press. 1999.224 pp.