Abstract

Cultural materialism can be defined as an anthropological research orientation, originally introduced by Marvin Harris in his book The Rise of Anthropological Theory as a theoretical paradigm and research strategy. It is the greatest achievement of his work. This concept is further developed by Harris subsequently in his 1979 book Cultural Materialism in which he argues that social change is dependent of three factors: a society's infrastructure, structure, and super structure. These elements are well wrought in many of the literary works. Hence there is a growing need to analyze short stories from an anthropological point of view. Short story, as a branch of fiction existed in different forms in the past like fables, fairy tales and ballads, but short stories as a genre has evolved only in the nineteenth century. The present study is based on the selected short stories from the maiden anthology Who is Responsible? by K. V. Dominic. There are various issues dealt with in this anthology. The present article is an attempt to reveal the various aspects of culture as found in the stories. It also throws light on how cultural ecology and cultural materialism affects the people belonging to a specific region.

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