A very influential anthropologist, Marvin Harris, focused his research on trying to understand why societies responded to issues the way they did. His work culminated in the theory of cultural materialism, which notes that human social life is a response to the practical problems of earthly existence.
Please use outside source to define cultural materialism. Do you agree with this concept? Is human social life a response to outside problems and concern or are there other forces at work? What could they be?