Cultural Materialism - The Struggle for a Science of Culture

To unite natural and human history big historians must try to describe carefully how material conditions and human cultural processes relate to each other. To do this, a plausible scientific theory of human culture is needed. Marvin Harris, an anthropologist, tried, over his lifetime, to formulate such a theory.

Cultural materialism “is based on the simple premise that human life is a response to the practical problems of earthly existence.”

Harris lays this out in a scheme of infrastructure, structure, and superstructure.

1. Under infrastructure he puts modes of production (technology of subsistence, techno-environmental relationships, ecosystems, and work patterns) and modes of reproduction (demography, mating patterns, fertility, etc.).
2. Under structure he puts domestic economy (family structure, domestic division of labor, socialization and education, sex roles, etc.) and political economy (political organization, taxation, division of labor, class, hierarchy, control, war, etc.).
3. Under behavioral superstructure he puts art, music, dance, literature, rituals, sports, games, and science.

Harris rejects the notion that ideas change the world. He claims that ideas gain traction only to the extent that they fit the material conditions in which people find themselves. Mental and spiritual aspects of culture are significant, but they are not able to explain why different human populations have different sets of values, beliefs, and aesthetic standards. For Harris, the causes of human behavior patterns lie ultimately in the material conditions of the infrastructure.