diff --git a/var/spack/packages/libxml2/package.py b/var/spack/packages/libxml2/package.py
index df311bfaba..5d84fad22d 100644
--- a/var/spack/packages/libxml2/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/packages/libxml2/package.py
@@ -9,13 +9,20 @@ class Libxml2(Package):
 
     version('2.9.2', '9e6a9aca9d155737868b3dc5fd82f788')
 
-    extends('python')
+    variant('python', default=False, description='Enable Python support')
+
+    extends('python', when='+python')
     depends_on('zlib')
     depends_on('xz')
 
     def install(self, spec, prefix):
-        configure("--prefix=%s" % prefix, 
-                  "--with-python=%s" % spec['python'].prefix)
+        if '+python' in spec:
+            python_arg = "--with-python=%s" % spec['python'].prefix
+        else:
+            python_arg = "--without-python"
+
+        configure("--prefix=%s" % prefix,
+                  python_arg)
 
         make()
         make("install")
diff --git a/var/spack/packages/paraview/package.py b/var/spack/packages/paraview/package.py
index 447376a376..b0893237e9 100644
--- a/var/spack/packages/paraview/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/packages/paraview/package.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ class Paraview(Package):
     depends_on('jpeg')
     depends_on('libpng')
     depends_on('libtiff')
-    #depends_on('libxml2') # drags in python
+    depends_on('libxml2')
     depends_on('netcdf')
     #depends_on('protobuf') # version mismatches?
     #depends_on('sqlite') # external version not supported
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ def nfeature_to_bool(feature):
                 '-DVTK_USER_SYSTEM_FREETYPE:BOOL=ON',
                 '-DVTK_USER_SYSTEM_HDF5:BOOL=ON',
                 '-DVTK_USER_SYSTEM_JPEG:BOOL=ON',
-                #'-DVTK_USER_SYSTEM_LIBXML2:BOOL=ON',
+                '-DVTK_USER_SYSTEM_LIBXML2:BOOL=ON',
                 '-DVTK_USER_SYSTEM_NETCDF:BOOL=ON',
                 '-DVTK_USER_SYSTEM_TIFF:BOOL=ON',
                 '-DVTK_USER_SYSTEM_ZLIB:BOOL=ON',