Final answer:
Cultural materialism highlights the importance of technology and economic factors in shaping culture and examines the interaction between material and nonmaterial culture. It explores how cultural practices and consumption patterns reflect underlying economic and technological structures. The approach also challenges us to consider the social and ethical implications of consumerism and modernization.
Step-by-step explanation:
From cultural materialism, we learn that technology and economic factors are crucial elements that shape various aspects of culture, including family life, religion, and politics. This evolutionary approach shows how cultural practices, which are routine behaviors, are influenced by the material conditions of a society. For instance, the toothbrush as an element of material culture indicates a society's habits and technologies related to hygiene. Moreover, works like Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman question the value of materialism, illustrating the influence of new media technology and consumer culture, as well as the need to confront the implications of industrialism such as inequality and environmental damage.
This approach also highlights the dynamic between material and nonmaterial culture. Material culture includes physical objects like clothing or technology that can reflect cultural ideas such as capitalism, while nonmaterial culture encompasses beliefs and social norms, such as the appropriateness of wearing certain clothing for different events. As people encounter cultures different from their own, they become aware of both the commonalities and distinctions in material and nonmaterial aspects of these cultures. Additionally, the Internet's role in bringing information to the masses reveals the challenges of distinguishing trustworthy sources from misinformation and acknowledges the complexities in balancing cultural preservation with modernization.
Understanding cultural materialism provides insights into how material and nonmaterial culture are intertwined and how they evolve and adapt over time, often with a time gap between the introduction of material culture and nonmaterial culture's acceptance of it. This gap can also signal the tension experienced by societies grappling with rapid changes in technology and lifestyle.