what is cultural materialism?

Answer 1

Materialism that arises from the culture. In the United States, we tend to want to have many expensive toys that we don't need, because that it what is promoted by our culture. We have bigger houses, bigger vehicles, more clothes, more electronics, more food than virtually anywhere else in the world. We start getting indoctrinated when we are children and think we need to eat a certain type of breakfast cereal or will die if we don't get the newest trendiest toy, and it just keeps on for the rest of our lives. We see it on t.v., in the movies, in magazines, on other people, and we think we've gotta have it. People that can't feed their kids have giant televisions, because we all think we "deserve" to have the biggest, the newest, the trendiest, the most expensive everything.
Sad...

Answer 2

This is a problem question because it has two answers.

First, it is an idea in anthropology that draws on Marxian concepts related to the importance of infrastructure and the modes of production in a society. Remember that a society consists of:
1) an infrastructure (the material side),
2) a structure (the social relations side) and
3) a superstructure (the ideational/concept-related side).

According to cultural materialists, though each cultural subsystem can change and affects the others, the material base, or infrastructure, is in almost all circumstances the most significant force behind the evolution of a culture.

The second idea that cultural materialism can refer to is the Marxian theory of literature (media). A cultural materialist in this sense usually focusses on how the subject matter studied falls within its historical context with particular attention to the marginalized groups as well as the evolution and results of class conflict.

Answer 3

I would think it means to value things based upon your environmental upbringing.
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