Infrastructural determinism is the major principle of cultural materialism asserts that production and population variables “probabilistically determine” the rest of the sociocultural system (Harris 1979, 55-58). Sociocultural materialism states the principle in this way: The mode of production and reproduction probabilistically determines primary and secondary group structure, which in turn probabilistically determines the cultural and mental superstructure (Elwell 1999, 157-159).
Definition