ABSTRACT
On the lower levels of culture the material contrivances necessary for gaining a living are slight and are usually in the workman's possession. The one, historical materialism, was developed by Karl Marx on the basis of the Hegelian dialectic, while the other, institutional mutationism, and was originated by Veblen from the Darwinian principles of variation, selection, and survival. At the outset it should be stated that neither the Marxian nor the Veblenian interpretation is accepted as a technological explanation of culture, if by technology is meant the mechanical arts. How the technological scheme and private property enforce different disciplines upon occupational classes and how they lead to a conflict in social habits will be seen from a necessarily abridged account of Veblen's theories of private property and productive efficiency. By reasoning from Darwinian postulates Veblen sees economic evolution as a "non-teleological" process in which the "fittest" institutions or "habits of thought" survive through "natural selection."
