Cultural materialism (anthropology)

Cultural materialism is an anthropological research orientation first introduced by Marvin Harris in his 1968 book The Rise of Anthropological Theory,[1] as a theoretical paradigm and research strategy. It is said to be the most enduring achievement of that work.[2] Harris subsequently developed a full elaboration and defense of the paradigm in his 1979 book Cultural Materialism.[3] To Harris social change is dependent of three factors: a society's infrastructure, structure, and superstructure.[4]

Harris's concept of cultural materialism was influenced by the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, as well as their theories as modified by Karl August Wittfogel and his 1957 book, Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power.[5] Yet this materialism is distinct from Marxist dialectical materialism, as well as from philosophical materialism.[6] Thomas Malthus's work encouraged Harris to consider reproduction of equal importance to production. The research strategy was also influenced by the work of earlier anthropologists including Herbert Spencer, Edward Tylor and Lewis Henry Morgan who, in the 19th century, first proposed that cultures evolved from the less complex to the more complex over time. Leslie White and Julian Steward and their theories of cultural evolution and cultural ecology were instrumental in the reemergence of evolutionist theories of culture in the 20th century and Harris took inspiration from them in formulating cultural materialism.

Epistemological principles

Cultural materialism is a scientific research strategy and as such utilizes the scientific method. Other important principles include operational definitions, Karl Popper's falsifiability, Thomas Kuhn's paradigms, and the positivism first proposed by Auguste Comte and popularized by the Vienna Circle. The primary question that arises in applying the techniques of science to understand the differences and similarities between cultures is how the research strategy "treats the relationship between what people say and think as subjects and what they say and think and do as objects of scientific inquiry".[7] In response to this cultural materialism makes a distinction between behavioral events and ideas, values, and other mental events.

It also makes the distinction between emic and etic operations. Emic operations, within cultural materialism, are ones in which the descriptions and analyses are acceptable by the native as real, meaningful, and appropriate. Etic operations are ones in which the categories and concepts used are those of the observer and are able to generate scientific theories. The research strategy prioritizes etic behavior phenomena.

Theoretical principles

Etic and behavioral infrastructure, comprising a society's relations to the environment, which includes their ethics and behavioral modes of production and reproduction (material relations).
Etic and behavioral Structure, the ethics and behavioral domestic and political economies of a society (social relations).
Etic and behavioral Superstructure, the ethics and behavioral symbolic and ideational aspects of a society, e.g. the arts, rituals, sports and games, and science (symbolic and ideational relations).
Emic and mental Superstructure, including "conscious and unconscious cognitive goals, categories, rules, plans, values, philosophies, and beliefs" (meaningful or ideological relations).[8]

Within this division of culture, cultural materialism argues for what is referred to as the principle of probabilistic infrastructural determinism. The essence of its materialist approach is that the infrastructure is in almost all circumstances the most significant force behind the evolution of a culture. Structure and superstructure are not considered "insignificant, epiphenomenal reflexes of infrastructural forces".[9] The structure and symbolic/ideational aspects act as regulating mechanisms within the system as a whole.

The research strategy predicts that it is more likely that in the long term infrastructure probabilistically determines structure, which probabilistically determines the superstructures, than otherwise. Thus, much as in earlier Marxist thought, material changes (such as in technology or environment) are seen as largely determining patterns of social organization and ideology in turn.

Disagreement with Marxism

In spite of the debt owed to the economic theories of Marx and Engels, cultural materialism rejects the Marxist dialectic which in turn was based on the theories of the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

Research

During the 1980s, Marvin Harris had a productive interchange with behavioral psychologists, most notably Sigrid Glenn, regarding interdisciplinary work. Very recently, behavioral psychologists have produced a set of basic exploratory experiments in an effort toward this end.[10] More recently young anthropologists have re-approached the work of Marvin Harris as part of a new anthropology of infrastructures.[11]

References

Harris, Marvin (2001a) [First published 1968], The Rise of Anthropological Theory: A History of Theories of Culture, Walnut Creek, California: AltaMira Press, ISBN 978-0-7591-0132-6, retrieved 10 September 2010 Paperback ISBN 0-7591-0133-7
Margolis, Maxine L (2001), "Introduction", in Marvin Harris (ed.), The Rise of Anthropological Theory: A History of Theories of Culture, 2001a (first published 1968), p. x
Harris, Marvin (2001b) [First published 1979], Cultural Materialism: the Struggle for a Science of Culture (Updated ed.), Walnut Creek, California: AltaMira Press, ISBN 978-0-7591-0134-0, retrieved 10 September 2010 Paperback ISBN 0-7591-0135-3
Frank, Elwell (2001), Harris on the Universal structure of societies, archived from the original on 2015-09-30
Harris (2001a), p. 673ff.
Moore, Jerry D (2004), "Marvin Harris: Cultural Materialism", Visions of Culture: An Introduction to Anthropological Theories and Theorists (2nd ed.), Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, pp. 203–215, ISBN 978-0-7591-0410-5, retrieved 10 September 2010 Paperback ISBN 0-7591-0411-5
Harris 2001b, p. 29
Harris 2001b, p. 54
Harris 2001b, p. 72
Ward, Todd.A.; Eastman, Raymond. & Ninness, Chris (2009), "An Experimental Analysis of Cultural Materialism: The Effects of Various Modes of Production on Resource Sharing", Behavior and Social Issues, 18: 58–80, doi:10.5210/bsi.v18i1.1950, S2CID 153865620, retrieved 10 September 2010
Dalakoglou, D. (2009), An Anthropology of Road

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[Harris2001a-1] Harris, Marvin (2001a) [First published 1968], The Rise of Anthropological Theory: A History of Theories of Culture, Walnut Creek, California: AltaMira Press, ISBN 978-0-7591-0132-6, retrieved 10 September 2010 Paperback ISBN 0-7591-0133-7

[Margolis-2] Margolis, Maxine L (2001), "Introduction", in Marvin Harris (ed.), The Rise of Anthropological Theory: A History of Theories of Culture, 2001a (first published 1968), p. x

[Harris2001b-3] Harris, Marvin (2001b) [First published 1979], Cultural Materialism: the Struggle for a Science of Culture (Updated ed.), Walnut Creek, California: AltaMira Press, ISBN 978-0-7591-0134-0, retrieved 10 September 2010 Paperback ISBN 0-7591-0135-3

[Elwel-4] Frank, Elwell (2001), Harris on the Universal structure of societies, archived from the original on 2015-09-30

[FOOTNOTEHarris2001a673ff-5] Harris (2001a), p. 673ff.

[Moore-6] Moore, Jerry D (2004), "Marvin Harris: Cultural Materialism", Visions of Culture: An Introduction to Anthropological Theories and Theorists (2nd ed.), Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, pp. 203–215, ISBN 978-0-7591-0410-5, retrieved 10 September 2010 Paperback ISBN 0-7591-0411-5

[Harris2001bp29-7] Harris 2001b, p. 29

[8] Harris 2001b, p. 54

[Harris2001bp72-9] Harris 2001b, p. 72

[Wardetal2009-10] Ward, Todd.A.; Eastman, Raymond. & Ninness, Chris (2009), "An Experimental Analysis of Cultural Materialism: The Effects of Various Modes of Production on Resource Sharing", Behavior and Social Issues, 18: 58–80, doi:10.5210/bsi.v18i1.1950, S2CID 153865620, retrieved 10 September 2010

[11] Dalakoglou, D. (2009), An Anthropology of Road

Culture
Outline
Sciences	Cultural anthropology Cultural astronomy Cultural ecology Cultural geography Cultural neuroscience Cultural studies Culturology Culture theory
Subfields	Bioculture Cross-cultural studies Cross-cultural communication Cross-cultural leadership Cross-cultural psychiatry Cross-cultural psychology Cultural analytics Cultural economics Cultural entomology Cultural history Cultural mapping Cultural mediation Cultural psychology Cultural values Culturomics Intercultural learning Intercultural relations Internet culture Philosophy of culture Popular culture studies Postcritique Semiotics of culture Sociology of culture Sound culture Theology of culture Transcultural nursing
Types	Constructed culture Dominant culture Folk culture High culture Individualistic culture Legal culture Low culture Microculture Official culture Political culture Civic Popular culture Urban Primitive culture Subculture Alternative culture list Super culture Vernacular culture Culture by location
Aspects	Acculturation Cultural appreciation Cultural appropriation Cultural area Cultural artifact Cultural baggage Cultural behavior Cultural bias Cultural capital Cross-cultural Cultural communication Cultural conflict Cultural cringe Cultural dissonance Cultural emphasis Cultural framework Cultural heritage Cultural icon Cultural identity Cultural industry Cultural invention Cultural landscape Cultural learning Cultural leveling Cultural memory Cultural pluralism Cultural practice Cultural property Cultural reproduction Cultural system Cultural technology Cultural universal Cultureme Enculturation High- and low-context cultures Interculturality Manuscript culture Material culture Non-material culture Organizational culture Print culture Protoculture Relational mobility Safety culture Technoculture Trans-cultural diffusion Transculturation Visual culture
Politics	Colonial mentality Consumer capitalism Cross cultural sensitivity Cultural assimilation Cultural attaché Cultural backwardness Cultural Bolshevism Cultural conservatism Cultural contracts Cultural deprivation Cultural diplomacy Cultural environmentalism Cultural exception Cultural feminism Cultural genocide Cultural globalization Cultural hegemony Cultural imperialism Cultural intelligence Cultural liberalism Cultural nationalism Cultural pessimism Cultural policy Cultural racism Cultural radicalism Cultural retention Cultural Revolution Cultural rights Cultural safety Cultural silence Cultural subsidy Cultural Zionism Culture change Culture minister Culture of fear Culture war Deculturalization Dominator culture Interculturalism Monoculturalism Multiculturalism Biculturalism Multiracial democracy Pluriculturalism Polyculturalism Transculturism
Religions	Buddhism Christianity Catholicism Cultural Christians Protestantism Role of Christianity in civilization Eastern Orthodoxy Mormonism Cultural Hindus Islam Cultural Muslims Judaism Sikhism
Related	Animal culture Archaeological culture Bennett scale Cannabis culture Circuit of culture Civilization Coffee culture Cross-cultural Cultural center Cultural competence Cultural critic Cultural determinism Cultural diversity Cultural evolutionism Cultural homogenization Cultural institution Cultural jet lag Cultural lag Cultural literacy Cultural mosaic Cultural movement Cultural mulatto Cultural probe Cultural relativism Culture speculation Cultural tourism Pop-culture Cultural translation Cultural turn Cultural sensibility Culture and menstruation Culture and positive psychology Culture and social cognition Culture gap Culture hero Culture industry Culture shock Culturgen Children's culture Culturalism Cyberculture Death and culture Disability culture Deaf culture Drinking culture Drug culture Eastern culture Emotions and culture Intercultural communication Intercultural competence Languaculture Living things in culture Media culture Oppositional culture Participatory culture Permission culture Rape culture Remix culture Tea culture Transformation of culture Urban culture Welfare culture Western culture Youth culture
Category Commons WikiProject Changes