Cultural Materialism

Marvin Harris A cultural

anthropologist, is responsible for the most systematic statement of cultural materialist principles.

Proponent of Cultural Materialism.

Cultural Materialism Explains cultural similarities and

differences as well as models for cultural change within a societal framework.

A scientific research strategy that prioritizes material, behavioral and etic processes in the explanation of the evolution of human socio-cultural systems. 

Consist of three distinct levels: Infrastructure, structure and superstructure.

Assumptions Cultural Materialism is based on two

key assumptions about societies. First, the various parts of society are interrelated. When one part of society changes, other parts must also change.

The second assumption of CM is that the foundation of the socio-cultural system is the environment.

Three distinct levels

Infrastructure Promotes the idea that

infrastructure, consisting of “material realities” such as technological, economic and reproductive (demographic) factors mold and influence the other two aspects of culture. 

The material infrastructure consists of the technology and social practices by which a society fits in to its environment.

It is through the infrastructure that society manipulates its environment by modifying the amount and type of resources needed.

Infrastructural Component

Technology (mode of production)

Population (mode of reproduction)

The modes of production and reproduction are attempts to strike a balance between population level and the consumption of energy from a finite environment.

Mode of Production- Consists of behaviors aimed at

satisfying requirements for subsistence.

- Technology and the practices employed for expanding or limiting basic subsistence production, especially the production of food and other forms of energy.

Technology of subsistence Technological-environmental

relationships

Examples: Hunting and Gathering Horticulture Pastoral Agrarian Industrial Hyper-industrial

Mode of reproduction- Consisting of behaviors

aimed at controlling destructive increases or decreases in population size.

- Technology and the practices employed for expanding, limiting and maintaining population size.

examples Demography Mating patterns Fertility, natality, mortality Nurturance of infant Medicine Contraception, abortion,

infanticide

Structural- This component of socio-cultural

systems consists of the organized patterns of social life carried out among the members of a society.

- Each society must maintain secure and orderly relationships among its people, its constituent groups, and with neighboring societies. Political Economy Domestic Economy

Political Economy- These groups and organizations

perform the functions of regulating production, reproduction, exchange, and consumption within and between groups and socio-cultural systems.

- These groups may be large or small, but their members tend to interact without any emotional commitment to one another.

Examples Political organizations, factions,

military, Corporations, Division of labor,

police,Education, media, taxation, urban,

rural hierarchies, war, class, caste,Service and welfare organizations,Professional and labor

organizations.

Cultural economyConsists of a small

number of people who interact on an intimate basis. They perform many functions, such as regulating reproduction, basic production, socialization, education, and enforcing domestic discipline.

ExamplesFamily structure, domestic division

of labor, education, age and sex roles,

Community, domestic discipline, hierarchies, sanctions,

Voluntary organizations, Friendship Networks,Some religious groups.

Superstructure - “Superstructure” sector consists of

ideological and symbolic aspects of society such as religion. 

- Given the importance of symbolic processes.Behavioral Superstructure Mental Superstructure

Behavioral SuperstructureThe Behavioral Superstructure

includes recreations activities, art, sports, empirical knowledge, folklore, and other aesthetic products.

Examples:• Art, music, dance, literature• Rituals, advertising, • Sports, games, hobbies,• Science

MentalSuperstructure

The mental superstructure involves the patterned ways in which the members of a society think, conceptualize, and evaluate their behavior.

Examples: Myths, aesthetic standards and

philosophies, ideologies, religion

• Therefore, cultural materialists believe that technological and economic aspects play the primary role in shaping a society.

• Cultural materialism aims to understand the effects of technological, economic and demographic factors on molding societal structure and superstructure through strictly scientific methods.