Elements born of economic causes can act back upon those causes

Evidence

[O]nce an historic element has been brought into the world by other, ultimately economic causes, it reacts, can react on its environment and even on the causes that have given rise to it. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 378

Categorization

• DEFINE: Engels’ dialectical point that ideology, once produced, has relative autonomy—central to the Marxist debate over whether nationalism is reducible to economics.
• QUESTION: Engels concedes here that historical elements can act back on causes—worth verifying how this concession sits with the book’s broader critique of Marxist economism.