holistic cultural materialism

context

cultural materialism was a framework proposed by marvin harris for conceptualizing the major areas of society/civilization design. it consists of: superstructure, social structure, infrastructure.

andrea farias provided a great introduction and proposes an expansion of it, calling it: Holistic Cultural Materialism, emphasizing the biological systems we're also part of.

i find it a very useful reference for clarifying what are the civilizational systems we've built and that we're part of.

framework

i.e. (andrea's updates are in bold)

"I propose an expanded theory I'll call Holistic Cultural Materialism, in which the development and characteristics of civilizations are understood as emerging from the complex interactions between six interconnected elements:

• Infrastructure: The material base of a society, including its technologies, economic systems, and modes of production and reproduction.

• Structure: The social, political, and economic institutions that organize and regulate human activities and relationships.

• Superstructure: The cultural beliefs, values, practices, and symbolic systems that shape individual and collective consciousness and behavior.

• Physiologic Structure: The biological and psychological dimensions of human existence, including human bodies, brains, and behaviors, as well as the environmental factors that influence them.

• Multi-Species Structure: The networks of relationships and interactions between human societies and other species, including the ways in which humans depend on, co-evolve with, and impact the lives of other organisms.

• Planetary Structure: The Earth's ecosystems, biogeochemical cycles, and climate system, which provide the fundamental life-support systems for all species and shape the conditions for the development of civilizations."