ABSTRACT
An interrelation is expressed as an empirical generalization; but it is an axiom and no more testable than axioms pertaining to control attempts in general. Although there are numerous versions of materialism, none suggests that objects or substances determine human behavior primarily through control attempts. A control version of materialism would promote reconsideration of environmental or geographic determinism, something that social and behavioral scientists abandoned prematurely, and enhance its credibility. A control version of materialism could revive work on the infrastructure of Marx's theory. Throughout history there have been billions of attempts to control human behavior without using any material thing; but international or temporal variation in the extent and efficacy of such attempts is another matter. In all countries the most conspicuous determinants of changes in biotic control are technological, but change in the mode of production warrants special recognition.
