There is no aspect of society that is in greater need of sociological study than is man's increasingly efficient organization for providing himself with a quantity and variety of material goods. In recent decades human ecology has been the most notable attempt by sociologists to develop an analytical framework encompassing this sector of collective human behavior. But so widely accepted has become the self evident truth that the early great expectations for human ecology have not been fulfilled that even sociologists with an ecological orientation seem to lack faith in the value of their subject matter. Although each year demonstrates anew that this phenomenon remains too vital to be banished entirely from sociology, human ecologists have come to practice Uncle Tom postures in the presence of colleagues endowed with the current psychological orientation, and to spend their research hours assaying their data hopefully for values, sentiments, motivations, and other elusive psychological elements. The factors which have led to this unseemly situation are too complex to analyze here but, in brief, the difficulty lies in the absence of a coherent theoretical system developed specifically around man's organization for sustenance. The lack of such a system has led to fragmentation with consequent sterility in human ecology, and, correspondingly, a weakening of sociology itself. The development of a theoretical system would do more than anything else to further the advance of human ecology toward a logically sound, empirically productive, and sociologically meaningful discipline. In attempting to move toward a theoretical system in the present paper, it has not been possible to give proper recognition to all those who have advanced similar ideas in the past. The parallels will be evident to persons familiar with the field. In particular it will be noted that the system offered here bears, at certain points, a close relationship to