What are examples of cultural materialism?

Cultural materialism is an approach that divides a culture into 3 layers: infrastructure, structure, and superstructure. Infrastructure is how people attend to their basic needs of survival and reproduction. Structure is how these strategies are managed at the level of the household and society (i.e. institutions and laws). Superstructure is the ideology that keeps the wheels of the other two levels going (i.e. the beliefs, values, art, etc.). For cultural materialists, the level of infrastructure is the most important determining factor in the form a society will take. A classic example is the protection of sacred cows in India. Although many of us might see these cows as a valuable food source, for the adaptive strategy of agriculture, cows are more useful for their labor in the fields. When the infrastructure changes (people adopted agriculture), the superstructure also changed (a new belief in the sacredness of cows) to facilitate practices that support the community's economic viability.