Marshall D. Sahlins, Groundbreaking Anthropologist, Dies at 90
His work focused on the way cultures shape, and are shaped by, individuals — a framework he demonstrated through his passionate political activism.
Marshall D. Sahlins in an undated photo. He was renowned as both an anthropologist and a political activist.Credit...Ulf Andersen/Getty Images
April 10, 2021, 2:30 p.m. ET
Marshall D. Sahlins, a brilliant and witty anthropologist who, starting in the 1970s, explored how individuals shape and are shaped by their cultures — a point he had already put in practice a decade earlier as the inventor of the “teach-in” against the Vietnam War — died on Monday at his home in Chicago. He was 90.