I appreciate your thought-provoking, complex and subtle remarks. I will really need to think this over to be able to respond. But a few preliminary remarks.
I think what we are getting into here are the very important questions about what terms like "material", "social", "ideological" and even "real" mean and what their relations are.
My views on these issues have been influenced by Raymond Williams, if that helps to give some indication of my own take. I think a lot of problems arise from dichotomous treatments of physical/social, real/ideal, material/ideology, etc.
I think these issues are also related to the interesting questions raised by Chris Burford regarding marx, history, value, etc.
These are all issue I have struggled with for a number of years and still am struggling with, and I do not claim to have THE answers or know THE truth, and I am willing to listen, discuss, and learn.
More later,
regards,
Mat