Historical Materialism

Historical materialism is a way of looking at the world that focuses on how people's economic activities shape the ways in which societies change and develop over time. To help explain this, think of it like a big game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. In this game, the "rock" represents the economic world (such as people's jobs, skills, and tools used for production), the "paper" represents the political world (such as laws, governments, and militaries used to control or influence people), and the "scissors" represents the cultural world (such as art, religion, and philosophies used to shape people's lives). Historical materialism sees all three of these areas (economic, political, and cultural) as inseparably connected and based on each other. The way people produce, exchange, and use goods will shape their social and political organization, which in turn will shape their culture, and so on and so forth.