Cultural Materialism Essay - 521 Words - StudyMode.
Cultural Materialism Essay. 1733 Words 7 Pages. Tammy Oruwariye Anthropology 235 April 27, 2013 Cultural Materialism: A strategy of thought There are number of theories throughout the field of anthropology that helped establish new ways of thinking about culture. Cultural materialism is one of these theories. It is an effective strategy that helped many anthropologists “(understand) the.
In recent years the left has transformed traditional approaches to literature and culture. Critical movements such as Cultural Materialism and New Historicism have succeeded to the point where they now constitute the new academic order. Scott Wilson explains and demonstrates the power of these modes of critical enquiry and explores their limitations.
The chapter on Cultural Materialism in Salzmann explains the intellectual relationship between anthropology and political economy, especially Marxist thinking (P. C. Salzman 49-66). He uses the example of India’s sacred cows to demonstrate how religious rules support good long term ecological behavior. These worshipped cows seem to be poorly cared for and skinny, but are actually productive.
The paper advocates cultural materialism as an explicit macro theory to provide direction for the subfield of archeology: this was a subfield that, like cultural anthropology and sociology, appears to be lacking coherence and direction. In fact, Price asserts, cultural materialism shares far more with archaeology—despite the difference in subject matter—than it does with the idealist.
The point of departure for cultural materialism is Karl Marx’s statement that “the mode of production in material life determines the general character of the social, political, and spiritual.
Bell Hooks, in an essay on materialism among the youth, points out that: “For young people, the world is their marketplace. All one’s worth, mass media advertising tells them, is determined by material things.” (81). It is true, as the author states, that through mass marketing techniques, the corporates manipulating the consumer demand to the advantage of their business interests and.
Key Words is committed to developing the tradition of cultural materialism derived from the founding analysis of culture and society in the work of Raymond Williams.The journal provides a forum for radical thought on history and politics, and explores the role of literary, media and cultural forms in the contemporary global era.