In the social production of
their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are
independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a
given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality
of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society,
the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and
to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of
production of material life conditions the general process of social, political
and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their
existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness.
