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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 12 page report discusses Karl Marx's theory of historical materialism and compares and contrasts it with the ideas of Emile Durkheim on the sociology of religion and Claude Levi-Strauss's perspective on the universality of the human mind. To a great degree, the idea of historical materialism encapsulates much of what Marx believed to be the fundamental determinants of modern humanity. It is compared with the equally important aspects of religion and structuralism. Bibliography lists 9 sources.
Page Count:
12 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_BWmarx.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
"historical materialism" is most commonly associated with Marx, the ideas surrounding ownership, property, wealth, and individual productivity are all key in his analyses of capitalism, politics and social theory. It
is essential that one understand Marxs theory of property in order to understand his concept of historical materialism (Cahan 392). The theory of property is reveals what has come
to be thought of as the foundation that supports the relation between the Marxian metaphor of base and superstructure. Karl Marx applied materialism to the very fabric of political and
social ideas, which were deemed mere figments of ownership in physical capital, or of alienation from it. Marx perceived that the immaterial character of wealth transforms the modes of
production. Throughout his work, Marx was able to convincingly trace the economic practices of each historical era to prove that the socioeconomic bases of society are distinct from their superstructure.
Capitalism as a "mode of production," Marx argued, is a historically new and distinct form of human society. Such an assumption may be
granted as accurate (Barker 41). However, it is also true, in the sense that in both the ancient world and the world of feudalism there
were "capitalists." There was obviously trade and money and, of course, there were merchants profiting from buying and selling. But these, by themselves, were insufficient to establish capital as the
ruling principle and regulator of society. It was this point that Emile Durkheim and Claude Levi-Strauss determined their own unique theories as
applied to the sociology of religion (Durkheim) and Levi-Strausss perspective on the universality of the human mind. Durkheims publication of "The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life" in 1912
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