The article deals with the main methodological and theoretical background of cultural materialism as
an anthropological approach and a research strategy. Synthesizing Marxists’ historical materialism, cultural
ecology, and neo-evolutionism, first cultural materialist Marvin Harris elaborates a tripartite scheme of
the cultural system (infrastructure, structure, and superstructure), extending and extolling the infrastructure
as something that includes demography and ecosystems, in addition to the productive forces and mode
of production. Cultural materialism rejects dialectical materialism and class struggle, giving priority to infrastructural
variables in the causal arrow of determination.