In an era where digital culture blurs the lines between material reality and linguistic representation, the concept of materialism remains as contested as ever. Interrogating “materialism” as a cross-cultural philosophical concept, this study argues that the “Indian” (lokāyata/cārvāka), Arabic (dahriyyah/māddiyyah) and Turkish (dehriyye/maddiye/maddecilik/materyalizm/özdekçilik) may be cultural equivalents of the English term “materialism”, but they are not equivalent signifiers for the same signified. Shaped by unique linguistic, philosophical, religious and historical trajectories, each word carries distinct cultural memories. Employing conceptual history and etymological analysis, we reveal how these terms encode irreducible shadows of meaning shaped by the cultural memories they acquired throughout their histories. We argue that translating these terms without acknowledging their connotative nuances risks erasing lived histories and imposing anachronistic, ideological or political frameworks.
Ramil et al. (2026) studied this question.