Cultural materialism is a theoretical framework and research method for examining the
relationships between the physical and economic aspects of production and built society, social
organization and social relations, and the values, beliefs, and worldviews that predominate that
society. It is rooted in Marxist theory and is popular in anthropology, sociology, and the field of
cultural studies.
History and Overview
The theoretical perspective and research methods of cultural materialism emerged in the late
1960s and were developed more fully during the 1980s. Cultural materialism was first introduced
and popularized within the field of anthropology by Marvin Harris with his 1968 book The Rise
of Anthropological Theory. In this work, Harris built on Marx's theory of base and
superstructure to craft a theory of how culture and cultural products fit into the greater social
system. In Harris's adaptation of Marx's theory, the infrastructure of society (technology,
economic production, the built environment, etc.) influences both the structure of society (social
organization and relations) and the superstructure (the collection of ideas, values, beliefs, and
worldviews). He argued that one must take this whole system into account if one wants to
understand why cultures differ from place to place and group to group, why certain cultural
products like art and consumer goods (among others) are produced in a given place, and what
their meaning is to those who use them.
Later, Raymond Williams, a Welsh academic, further developed the theoretical paradigm and
research method, and in doing so, helped create the field of cultural studies in the 1980s.
Embracing the political nature of Marx's theory and his critical focus on power and the class
structure, Williams's cultural materialism took aim at how culture and cultural products relate to
a class-based system of domination and oppression. Williams built his theory of cultural
materialism using already existing theoretical critiques of the relationship between culture and
power, including the writings of Italian scholar Antonio Gramsci and the critical theory of the
Frankfurt School.
Williams asserted that culture itself is a productive process, meaning it is responsible for making
intangible things that exist in society, like ideas, assumptions, and social relations. The theory of
cultural materialism that he developed holds that culture as a productive process is part of the
larger process of how a class system is made and remade, and it is connected to the class-based
inequalities that pervade society. According to cultural materialism, culture and cultural products
play these roles through the promotion and justification of certain values, assumptions, and
worldviews within the mainstream and the marginalization of others that do not fit the
mainstream mold (consider the way rap music has been routinely vilified as violent by
mainstream critics, or how twerking is often framed as a sign that someone is sexually loose or
morally deficient, while ballroom dance is held up as "classy" and refined).
Many scholars who followed in Williams tradition expanded his theory of cultural materialism,
which was focused on class inequalities, to include the consideration of racial inequalities and
their connection to culture, as well as those of gender, sexuality, and nationality, among others.
Consider the historical context in which the cultural product was made.
Consider how the product fits within the greater social structure, its inequalities,
and the political power and movements within it.
But apply cultural materialism as a theoretical lens and a research method and one
sees the video in a different light. Considered in a historical context of hundreds of
years of systemic racism and inequality, and the recent pandemic of police killings
of black people, one instead sees Formation as a celebration of blackness in
response to the hate, abuse, and violence routinely heaped upon black people. One
can also see it as a completely valid and appropriate critique of police practices
that desperately need to be changed if equality is ever to be possible. Cultural
materialism is an illuminating theory.
Neoevolutionism
Leslie White developed the theory of cultural evolution, which was ignored
by most anthropologists at that time. White’s attempts to restore the
evolutionary topic started in the 1920s, when he was impressed by Morgan’s
model and logic of his evolutionary theory. White decided that whatever
problems the theory had, it could not be dismissed. His main contribution
was that he provided scientific insights to the evolution of culture. He
created a formula that measures the degree of cultural development.
As shown in his theory of cultural evolution, White believed that culture has
general laws of its own. Based on these universal principles, culture evolves
by itself. Therefore, an anthropologist’s task is to discover those principles
and explain the particular phenomena of culture. He called this approach
culturology, which attempts to define and predict cultural phenomena by
understanding general patterns of culture.