Cultural Materialism Quiz

Anthropological research orientation:

• Cultural materialism is an anthropological research orientation introduced by Marvin Harris in his book The Rise of Anthropological Theory and developed in Cultural Materialism.
• Social change is dependent on a society's infrastructure, structure, and superstructure according to Harris.
• Cultural materialism is influenced by Marx, Engels, Wittfogel, and Malthus, among others.
• It is a scientific research strategy that utilizes the scientific method and principles such as falsifiability, paradigms, and positivism.
• Cultural materialism distinguishes between behavioral events and ideas, values, and other mental events.
• It prioritizes etic behavior phenomena and makes a distinction between emic and etic operations.
• Probabilistic infrastructural determinism is a key principle of cultural materialism, arguing that infrastructure is the most significant force behind the evolution of a culture.
• Structure and superstructure are not considered insignificant, epiphenomenal reflexes of infrastructural forces.
• Material changes determine patterns of social organization and ideology in turn.
• Cultural materialism rejects the Marxist dialectic.
• Harris had a productive interchange with behavioral psychologists, and young anthropologists have recently re-approached his work as part of a new anthropology of infrastructures.