MATERIALISM FOR many people means two things: firstly, an obsession with material things (possessions, conspicuous wealth and consumption), and secondly, a rejection of theism (a belief in God and spirit) and acceptance of the view that the natural world of which we are part is all there is. Marx's conception of the materialist theory of history has connections to both of these vernacular uses of the term. Marx believed that human beings were part of nature, not beings placed on Earth by God, although a belief in gods or God was itself a product of mankind's specific relationship to--and, indeed, alienation from--the nature of which they were part. Although human beings are a part of nature, in very important respects they are quite unlike other animals. Human beings have the capacity to make things through their labor in order to satisfy their needs and desires. This entails forms of social cooperation and the capacity to plan. And human beings are conscious, having ideas which, among other things, enables them to make plans.