VI. Cultural Materialism and Cultural Ecology

Cultural Materialism is a theoretical paradigm that stresses the empirical study of socio-cultural systems within a materialist infrastructure-structure-superstructure framework. The term cultural materialism was coined by Marvin Harris in his foundational text, The Rise of Anthropological Theory in 1968. Cultural Materialism seeks to explain the organizational aspects of politics and economy and the ideological and symbolic aspects of society as a result of the combination of variables relating to the basic biological needs of society. According to Cultural Materialist theory, production and reproduction dominate and determine the other sectors of culture. Therefore, cultural materialists see things like government, religion, law, and kinship as constructs that must be beneficial to the productive and reproductive capabilities of society or else they would not exist.

Cultural Ecology is the study of human adaptations to social and physical environments. Human adaptation refers to both biological and cultural processes that enable a population to survive and reproduce within a given or changing environment.

Anthropologist Julian Steward coined the term, envisioning Cultural Ecology as a methodology for understanding how humans adapt to such a wide variety of environments. Steward's concept of cultural ecology became widespread among anthropologists and archaeologists of the mid-20th century, though they would later be critiqued for their environmental determinism. Cultural Ecology as developed by Steward is a major sub discipline of anthropology.