By Dr. Frank Elwell

This presentation is closely based on the first chapter of Industrializing America. It is posted in an attempt to give students an alternative means of understanding this critical theory.

A collection of people who make use of various means of adapting to their physical environment, who engage in patterned forms of social conduct, and who create shared beliefs and values designed to make sense of their collective actions.

This course will examine society through the prism of Sociocultural Materialism.

Sociocultural materialism is a theory of sociocultural systems.

A social theory is simply a world view-- a framework for understanding your world and organizing observations. Points at what to look for.

Marvin Harris, a cultural anthropologist, is responsible for the most systematic statement of S.M. principles.

Sociocultural materialism attempts to account for:

The various parts of society are interrelated. When one part of society changes, other parts must also change.

An institution, such as the family cannot be looked at in isolation from the economic, political, or religious institutions of a society. When one part changes it has an effect on other parts of the system.

Viewing society as a system of interrelated parts is at the core of most sociological theory.

Difference in most theories is in terms of organizing principles.

According to S.M., the way a society is organized to meet the needs of its population determines the rest of the system.

So, two key assumptions:

Mankind is relatively free from biological drives and pre-dispositions.

We are born with some reflexes such as grasping and suckling.

But rather than relying on instincts, the vast repertoire of human behavior is learned.

To say most behavior is learned and not instinctual does not mean that it is not deeply rooted.

Food taboos are an easy example. They are clearly learned. But the violation of many food taboos can cause physiological reactions. (Say, eating slugs.)

Mankind has five basic bio-psychological needs:

People need to eat and will generally opt for diets that offer more rather than fewer calories and proteins and other nutrients.

People cannot be totally inactive, but when confronted with a given task, they prefer to carry it out by expending less rather than more human energy.

People are highly sexed and generally find reinforcing pleasure from sexual intercourse.

People need love and affection in order to feel secure and happy, and other things being equal, they will act to increase the love and affection others give them.

People need meaning in their lives. This need arises out of our capacity for self awareness.

While the needs are universal, the ways in which societies meet these needs as well as the extent to which these needs are met are highly variable.

Some societies approve of eating worms, homosexuality, wife sharing, gods, etc.

There are clearly other needs, but parsimony takes precedence.

All needs are shared with other primates (save meaning).

American's have carried eating rich foods to a high art. Now we diet--but it is a discipline.

American's have carried the conservation of energy to a high art as well. Now, we actively look for ways to expend energy, but exercise is a discipline.

It is also apparent that people learn proper (and improper) objects of sex.

Without love, human infants fail to thrive and can die. With minimal love we warp.

Sometimes the need for meaning is fulfilled through religion, sometimes philosophy, sometimes entire cultures try to give meaning to lives.

The entire sociocultural system rests on the way society exploits its environment to meet the biopsychological needs of its population.

The following slide depicts an outline of the sociocultural system as envisioned by sociocultural materialism.

All human social systems can be analyzed in terms of this universal structure.

Familiarize yourself with the whole, we will then proceed to discuss the parts.

The physical, biological, and chemical constraints to which human action is subject.

Like all living organisms, Humans must draw energy from their environment.

The environment is limited in terms of the amount of energy and matter it contains, and the amount of pollution it can tolerate.

The need to draw energy out of the environment in order to satisfy the biopsychological needs of its people is the first and central task of any society.

Therefore, each society must ultimately exist within the constraints imposed by its environment.

Chief among these constraints is the availability of natural resources. A further constraining factor is the amount of pollution created by society.

While mankind can modify these constraints, they cannot be escaped.

The material infrastructure consists of the technology and social practices by which a society manipulates its environment by modifying the amount and type of resources it needs

It is through the infrastructure that society manipulates its environment by modifying the amount and type of resources needed.

The modes of production and reproduction are attempts to strike a balance between population and the consumption of energy from a finite environment.

Consists of behaviors aimed at satisfying requirements for subsistence.

Consisting of behaviors aimed at controlling destructive increases or decreases in population size.

It is upon this environmental infrastructural foundation that the remaining parts of the social system are based.

A curious phenomenon: over the course of social evolution both population and productivity tend to grow.

Increases in production cause population to grow, which then further stimulated productivity.

Social structure refers to human groups and organizations.

This component of sociocultural systems consists of the organized patterns of social life carried out among the members of a society.

Primary groups consist of small groups like the family that regulate reproduction, exchange and consumption within domestic settings. Normally small, intimate, multiple roles.

Impersonal organizations such as government and industry which regulate productions, exchange and consumption within and between groups and sociocultural systems.

The primary and secondary group dichotomy encompasses all human organizations responsible for the allocation and distribution of all bio-psychological need satisfaction.

All societies have elite that have dominant positions in social groups and organizations. But the power of elites varies across societies and through time.

The bio-psychological satisfaction of those on top of the hierarchies weighs more heavily than those below.

Hierarchies based on class, sex, race, caste, age, ethnic, and other statuses exist throughout the structure of society.

The cultural superstructure includes recreations activities, art, sports, empirical knowledge, folklore, and other aesthetic products.

The mental superstructure involves the patterned ways in which the members of a society think, conceptualize, and evaluate.

Max Weber said there were four basic motivators of human behavior, four "reasons" why we behave the way we do.

Rational action in relation to a value.

Action dictated by custom or habit.

Action determined by affective or emotional states.

Rational action in relation to a goal.

Weber noticed a curious phenomenon: Over the course of social evolution more and more of our behavior is guided by zweckrational.

The mode of production and reproduction (infrastructure) determines primary and secondary structure, which in turn determines the cultural and mental superstructure.

This principle claims a lot. It is strongly stated, though materialists do recognize the concept of probability.

We also recognize the concept of feedback.

While the infrastructure is considered to be of primary importance, the structure and superstructure are not mere reflections of infrastructural processes, but are in interaction with the infrastructure.

Societies are very stable systems. The most likely outcome of any change in the system is resistance in other sectors of society.

System maintaining negative feedback is capable of deflecting, dampening, or extinguishing most system change.

The result is either the extinction of the innovation or slight compensatory changes that preserve the fundamental character of the whole system.

But there are times when change is rapid and fundamental--revolutionary in character.

In general, sociocultural change that releases more energy from the environment is likely to be swiftly adapted.

Infrastructural and environmental relationships are central in explaining sociocultural change.

We also recognize the importance of structures and superstructures in determining the speed, and character of change.

It is not the simple calculation of the greatest good for the greatest number of people that accounts for sociocultural change.

Many changes are more satisfying to some members of society than to others.

Infrastructural change that enhance the position of elite are likely to be amplified and propagated throughout the system.

Sociocultural materialism is in agreement with Marx when he states: "The ideas of the ruling class in each epoch are the ruling ideas."

The elite are able to impose direct economic and political sanctions to get their way. Also encourage ideas and ideologies favorable to their position.

But recall, the amount of power and control exercised by elite varies across societies and through time.

The rationale behind giving the infrastructure such priority rests upon the fact that it is through infrastructural practices that society adapts to its environment.

It is through the infrastructure that society survives. It modifies the amount and type of resources required for life.

Since these infrastructural practices are essential for life itself, all widespread structural and superstructural patterns must be compatible with them.

A society’s infrastructure is the primary cause of its structure, and the structure, in turn, is the primary cause of its superstructure.

Provides a logical set of research priorities for the study of sociocultural life.

World population and industrial infrastructures are growing at an exponential rate.

You can't do one thing. This tremendous growth (or intensification) has impact on other parts of the system.

The intensification of the infrastructure causes the growth of secondary organizations at the expense of primary groups.

The intensification of the infrastructure and the bureaucratization of the structure, cause the superstructure to "rationalize."

Rationalization is the increasing dominance of goal oriented rational behavior at the expense of behavior guided by values, traditions and emotions

In the US, the power of the elite has waxed and waned. The elite were probably more powerful in the last half of the 19th century than they are today.

Some claim that the elite are in the process of reasserting their power today.

One of the first tasks of a sociocultural materialist analysis is to attempt to identify the elite, gauge the amount of power that they wield, and uncover their biases and assumptions when analyzing sociocultural systems.

The analyses of social problems in this course are based on the principles of sociocultural materialism.