cultural materialism

basic relationship among ecology, society and religion:

religion -> social structure -> ecology

Karl Marx: Materialism

super structure: religion, laws, ideology RELATED TO infrastructure: forces and relationships of production

cultural materialism:

theory that argues that material conditions, includingtechnology, determine patterns of social organization, including religious principles

Cultural Materialism: Marvin Harris

•A theoretical position that takes material features of life, such as the environment, natural resources, and mode of production, as the bases for explaining social organization and ideology. •Environmental conditions and subsistence techniques together either determine or severely limit the development of many other aspects of culture

cows in India

•Beef eating was common in ancient India until 8th Century BC. •Class, religion, ideology--- regulate ecosystem •Is it an irrational decision or it a very rational practice for maintaining an ecosystem?

Cows for what?

•Cows are protected for milk and milk products but not for meat. •Traction: Production of agriculture •Dung: domestic cooking fuel, fertilizer...•Saving cows :"not expression of spirit and ritual" but of rain and energy •Managing bones, horns and skin have connection to practice caste system in India

Cultural Ecology of India's Sacred Cattle

•Hindu taboos, customs, rituals associated with management of Indian cattle is observed as "positive functioned" and adaptive processes of the ecological system. •There is a functional relationship between Hindu doctrine of "Ahimsa" and materialist existence of Indian peasants.

Universal pattern

•If a society fails to maintain a balanced relationship between human and ecosystem then either the society will change its inner mechanisms with new structures, or extinct (Harris) .•Infrastructure _ structure _ super structure

What is materialism?

•Material factors are seen as determinant factors of shaping cultures. •Economy, mode of production, resource, physical existence, population size

Kaiko Ritual

•Rappaport (1968) analyzes how Kaiko rituals of sacrificing pigs to the ancestral guardians in times of war among the Tsembaga Maringin New Guinea. Ritual of the Maringprovided them correct, essential, timely answer to ecosystem •Raising pigs is laborious job that also diminish women' s fertility and help maintaining low growth rate of human population •Women say "Pigs eat as much as our husbands eat". •It could help them maintaining balance between population growth and subsistence resources •By practicing rituals, they meet protein deficiently which will help worries to recovery form injuries.

Why are Muslims and Jewish prohibited to eat pork?

•The Jewish and Muslim bans on eating pork? Pigs eat the same foods as humans and are expensive to keep. Sheep, goats and cattle, by contrast, thrive on grass, and provide wool, milk and labor. •Ecological condition, relationships between human population between various living organisms and core ideas of adaptation are core factors in understanding norms and material existence.