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Updated: May 23, 2026
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Published on: December 16, 2022
Summary
Cultural materialism explains practices by outcomes, but behavior analysis shows delayed outcomes need rule-governed behavior. Rules create immediate consequences, reinforcing adherence to cultural practices.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Psychology
- Cultural Anthropology
- Sociology
Background:
- Cultural materialism posits practices stem from material outcomes.
- Behavior analysis challenges this, citing delayed, improbable, or small outcomes.
- Existing theories lack mechanisms for linking delayed material consequences to behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explain how cultural practices are reinforced despite delayed material outcomes.
- To integrate cultural materialism with behavior analysis through rule-governed behavior.
- To propose a theory for how rules support cultural practices.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical analysis integrating cultural materialism and behavior analysis.
- Examination of rule-governed behavior as a mediator.
- Exploration of how rules create molecular contingencies supporting molar outcomes.
Main Results:
- Delayed material outcomes are insufficient reinforcers for cultural practices.
- Rule statements create learned aversive conditions (e.g., guilt) upon noncompliance.
- Compliance is reinforced by the termination of these aversive conditions, supporting cultural practices.
Conclusions:
- Rule-governed behavior bridges the gap between delayed material outcomes and immediate behavioral reinforcement.
- Cultural practices are sustained by molecular contingencies established through rules, often supplemented by supernatural beliefs.
- Cultural designers play a crucial role in formulating rules based on understanding material contingencies.
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