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Sociology is a field of study dealing with social life, social causes, social change, and human behavioural consequences. To understand human interaction and the changes human civilisation has been through, it becomes necessary to trace the history from the point of human evolution from a scientific perspective. To do so, the study of historical materialism and its key concepts is required.The theory of historical materialism is a Marxist theory put forth by Karl Marx. Karl Marx’s historical materialism is a theory on human society and history that states that thoughts and social institutions develop only as a superstructure founded on an economic base.

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What is Historical Materialism in Sociology?

A brief introduction to sociology.

  • Sociology is a field of study dealing with social life, social causes, social change, and human behavioural consequences
  • It is mainly the study of human interactions. The study is made via conducting legitimate social research and experiments on social groups, organisations, or institutions
  • There are various categories of social groups in sociology, depending upon the identification of various relationships and group dynamics
  • Four basic social group types have been recognised traditionally
  • Primary groups
  • Secondary groups 
  • Collective groups

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Introduction to Karl Marx’s Historical Materialism and its need in sociology

  • Historical materialism is a Marxist theory put forth by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Karl Marx’s historical materialism is a theory on human society and history that states that thoughts and social institutions develop only as a superstructure founded on an economic base
  • To understand human interaction and the changes human civilisation has been through, it becomes necessary to trace the history from the point of human evolution from a scientific perspective. To do so, the study of historical materialism and its key concepts is required in sociology

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Historical Materialism and Its Key Concepts.

  • The general ideas on society put forth by Karl Marx are known as historical materialism theory
  • He based his ideas on the fundamentals of ‘materialism’. He believed that material conditions and/or economic factors affect society’s structure and development. Materialism is simply a matter of material reality that forms the base for any change
  • He stated that material conditions (or materialism) comprise production essentially by technological means and that this production’s forces and relations form the human society
  • Karl Marx’s theory is known as historical materialism as he traces the evolution of human society from one stage to another while interpreting it on an economic or materialistic basis; that is, the theory of historical materialism states how a society’s superstructure is based on the infrastructure of economy and economics
  • According to Karl Marx, the history of change in society is unilinear, and every society has been through changes while marching forward. He describes these stages as –

Primitive Communism 🡪 Slavery 🡪 Feudalism 🡪 Capitalism 🡪 Socialism 🡪 Communism.

  • Some basic assumptions considered by Karl Marx while providing his theory on historical materialism are : 
  1. Considering society as a whole interrelated entity.
  2. Society is susceptible to change.
  3. The nature of humans and social relationships.
  • According to Karl Marx’s historical materialism theory, all objects, whether they are living or inanimate, are susceptible to continuous changes. The laws of dialectics determine the rate of this change. Karl Marx states that new developments in the productive forces conflicted with the existing production relations
  • The historical materialism theory given by Karl Marx sums up the development and consequences of new forces of material production that account for human history

Terms to be focused on while describing key concepts of Historical Materialism.

  • Individuals have to delve into social relations instead of isolation, irrespective of their wishes
  • The societal infrastructure and superstructure
  • The forces and relations of production in human society and the dialectical relationship between them
  • Describing and understanding social change in terms of classes in society
  • The revolutions in the history of society and their effects
  • The concepts of consciousness and social reality
  • The two ownership structures in socialism 
  1. State Ownership
  2. Co-operative Ownership
  • The four modes (or stages) of production 
  1. Asiatic Mode
  2. Ancient Mode
  3. Feudal Mode
  4. Capitalistic Mode

Conclusion

By the end of this article on Historical Materialism, we have learnt 

  • The meaning of historical materialism
  • The role and need of historical materialism in the field of sociology
  • The theory and key concepts of Karl Marx’s historical materialism
  • Terms and relations in Karl Marx’s historical materialism

We can now conclude that the historical materialism theory given by Karl Marx sums up the development and consequences of new forces of material production that account for human history.