Rethinking Sociological Theory by Stephen K. Sanderson

Author:Stephen K. Sanderson [Sanderson, Stephen K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General, Social Classes & Economic Disparity
ISBN: 9781612052052
Google: 9NxQswEACAAJ
Publisher: Paradigm Publishers
Published: 2012-01-15T02:50:27+00:00

CONCLUSIONS

Cultural materialism in the hands of Harris has made important achievements with respect to many important arenas of human social life, but it has also failed with respect to a variety of other arenas. Is this research program a progressive or degenerating one? This is a very difficult question to answer, but it is risky to conclude that it is a progressive program. On the other hand, it is not clear that it is a degenerating program. It seems to be a program in suspended animation. The main difficulty is the lack of adequate testing: there have been few truly severe tests. This is why I find it very difficult to draw any strong conclusions. My view is that cultural materialism, in principle, is a useful approach whose potential has never been fully exploited. Contemporary cultural anthropology has largely abandoned materialist theories and moved in a culturalist and postmodern direction. Few are left to practice cultural materialism. But culturalist and postmodernist perspectives will not dominate forever. It is always possible that a future generation will resurrect cultural materialism and submit it to more rigorous testing, especially now that (outside of culturalism and postmodernism) anthropologists are starting to learn more rigorous quantitative methods. But even then, cultural materialism can never be more than part of the story. The majority of cultural materialists, including Harris himself, have shown hostility to sociobiology, but in fact the two perspectives have enough in common to make them synthesizable. Any future cultural materialism must move in this direction.

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