Review

Author(s): William Roseberry

Review by: William Roseberry
Source: Dialectical Anthropology, Vol. 10, No. 1/2, ANTHROPOLOGY AFTER '84 - STATE OF THE
ART, STATE OF SOCIETY PART II (JULY 1985), pp. 141-153
Published by: Springer
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141

REVIEWESSAY
ERICR.WOLF,EUROPEAND THEPEOPLE WITHOUTHISTORY
(Berkeley:Universityof California Press, 1983)

William Roseberry

In this big and importantbook [1], Eric

Wolf begins and ends with the assertion that
anthropology must pay more attention to
history. The type of history he advocates is
one that is written on a global scale, that
takes

structural

of the major

account

trans?

formationsof world history, and that traces

the

connections

munities,

regions,

among

com?

discernible

peoples,

and

that

nations

anthropologists have often separated and

reifiedas discrete entities.He sees thiseffort,
in part, as recapturing the spirit of an older
anthropology that attempted to grasp civil
izational

processes.

The

principal weakness

such efforts, according to Wolf, was

to confront

failure

questions

of power

of

their
and

domination, their removal of anthropological

subjects from the economic and political
processes associated with themaking of the
modern world. Wolfs object is to remedy that
failureby producing a historical account that
traces

the major
and polit?
social, economic,
ical transformations
that have occurred in the

the past six centuries and

that connects
these transformations with the
?
histories of the "people
without
history"
the primitives
and peasants
encountered,
world

Western

over

analyzed, and objectified by anthropologists.

There is no way to describe such a project
without making it seem grand: it is. To at?
tempt to review it is a daunting task.
The book has other antecedents in addition
to the ambitious but politically naive anthro?
pology
William

of an earlier generation.

Roseberry

at the New

School

if an Associate
for Social

For one

thing,

Professor of Anthropology
Research, New York.

there

is a more

recent

tradition

in anthro?

pology, to which Wolf has been a major

contributor, that has consistently placed
culture in history.Wolfs earliest work, in?
cluding his doctoral fieldwork in Puerto Rico
[2], represents such an attempt. In addition,
his early typological essay on Latin American
peasantries [3] developed a historical inter?
pretation of rural peoples in Latin America
that suggested a profound reworkingof the
culturalist traditionof community studies.A
fuller

statement

of

this interpretation,

con?

centrating in this instance on the colonial

encounter

between

Spaniards

and

Indians

during the colonial era, can be found in

Chapter 5 of thepresent book. One can clear?
ly trace, then, a continuity fromWolfs early
work

to his most

recent,

even as the theoret?

ical and historicalmaterial grows in sophist?

ication and elaboration. Theoretically,Europe
and the People without History represents
Wolfs

clearest

ist

and most

explicit use of Marx?

such concepts
also

concepts,
although
the
his early work. Historically,
influenced
a remarkable
book
represents
compilation,
condensation,

and interpretation

of material.

Aside from the anthropological traditions

that influenceWolfs work, a whole body of
work has developed over thepast two decades
that has taken as its point of departure the
connection between apparently traditional
societies and the formation of the modern
world. Often associated with dependency
theory,especially the "catastrophist" view of
Andre Gunder Frank [4], the perspectivehas
received its most elaborate scholarly treat

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142
ment
in the world-system theory of
ImmanuelWallerstein [5]. During the 1970s,
this point of view became quite popular
among liberal social scientists in the United
States, so much so that a Latin American
sociologist could complain of the "consump?
tion" of dependency theory in the United
States [6] - a consumption that he felt
signifiedthe loss of its critical edge.Whatever
we might think of the politics of academic
consumption, the popularity of this literature
has meant

that

pologists,

and

individual

anthro?
historians,
con?
have been
sociologists

ducting regional case studies that reinterpret

earlier work and place particular regions
within the history of themodern world. Wolf
has been able to use this new scholarship in
attemptinghis own historical synthesis.
Wolf has read widely and well. He begins
the book with an attempt to place thepeoples
and societies a world travelermight have
encountered in 1400 AD, the trade routes
that connected them, and the civilizational
that either were

processes

or were not success?

ful in incorporating them. This effort,based

on a remarkable

synthesis of historical, ethno

and archaeological
research, comes

historical,

closest to realizing Wolfs

stated goal of

emulating the global vision of an older anthro?

pology. The survey serves as a base line for
Wolfs

of the emergence of Europe

of
power and the reorientation

discussion

as a global
world areas
destined

toward

for a world

and Wallerstein,

the production
of goods
Unlike
market.
Frank

however,

Wolf

contends

that

the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries in

Europe were not characterized by capitalism
but that economy and polity continued to be
dominated
by
tributary relationships.
Mercantile accumulation in the emerging
European

to transcend a
powers was unable
as
even
framework
that framework

tributary
received greater elaboration with the creation
of new state structures. The only state that

was able tomake the transition,and this for

special

reasons

and

at

later period,

was

England.

Wolf then turnshis attention to the impact

of the period of mercantile accumulation
upon
the

four major world areas. A discussion of

assesses
Iberians
in America
the emer?

gence of Latin American peoples within a

colonial structure designed to create and
protect a tributarypopulation. An examina?
tion of the fur trade leads to a description of
the response by native North American pop?
ulations as the trade moved westward, the
political alliances formed with English or
French powers, the mercantile activities of
particular groups, and the creation of entirely
new

"tribes"

and

ritual

complexes.

An

analysis of the slave trade facilitates a dis?

cussion of state formation inWest and South?
ern Africa,

of new

the emergence

economic

and political complexes as African popula?

tions were divided into raiders and raided,
civilized and barbarian. And a discussion of
the development of trade networks in the
the necessary
content
provides
examination
of political and economic

Pacific

for an
trans?

formations in India and China. In each of

these areas,Wolf makes use of anthropology
in twoways. First, he is able to utilize a grow?
ingbody of ethnohistorical literaturethathas
in some

examined

detail

the transformations

that occurred during this period on local

levels.

Here

Wolf
further develops
his well
a voluminous
to synthesize
ability
literature and produce
a more global picture
of what
is happening
in, in this instance,
known

"Latin

America"

or

"North

America"

or

"Africa" without losing sightof regional and

temporal complexity and differentiation.
Second, having traced a history of economic,
political,

and cultural

formation

and reforma?

tion, Wolf situates famous anthropological

examples of North American or African
"tribes" within that history, showing their
as part of a configuration
of
a
to
form
of
responses
particular
incorpora?
tion into circuits of mercantile
accumulation.

emergence

The anthropologists responsible formaking

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143
such people famous seldom told us about that

merits

history.

There

Wolf then moves to a discussion of the

capitalist transformation,which he considers
to have occurred with the industrial revolu?
most

tion. Although

authors

tend

to con?

centrate on the industrial revolution in

England,Wolf examines textile production in
England in conjunction with cotton produc?
tion in the American South and Egypt and
the fate of textile production in India, con?
tending, quite correctly, that they were all
a single structural
a theoretical treatise on

elements within

component

After

transformation.

the dynamics and contradictions of uneven

development under capitalism,Wolf turnshis
attention once again to the creation of
anthropological subjects. First, he looks at the
commodities that were associated with the
international
the
panied
and mineral
substitutes

labor that accom?

?
the agricultural
industrial era
raw materials,
the foods and food
division

of

and examines

the incorporation

of various world areas into that division of

labor.

Second,

he

examines

the mobilization

of labor in industrial enterprises and planta?

tionswith special attention tomigrations- of
contract

or displaced
to plantations
into an industrial order.
incorporated
laborers

peasants
The discussion

begins and ends with a treat?

ment of labor market segmentation, a theoret?
ical statement at the beginning that leads to a
historical

account

of

the creation

of ethnic

and
segmentation.
Again,
anthropology
are used
in two ways ?
as
anthropologists
sources
for Wolfs
synthetic
interpretations
and as objects of criticism. In some cases he is
able to use one historically minded
anthro?

pologist to criticize thework of others, as in

his use of Robert Wasserstrom's research in
Chiapas [7].
The book succeeds at just about every level
thatmatters to Wolf. The historical analysis,
from the global vision at the beginning
through the description of European trans?
formations

to the examination

of anthropological

subjects

of the creation
at different mo

in world

is extraordinary.
history,
of
who can
few
scholars
course,
are,

aspire to this sort of treatment,which re?

quires close attention to a bewilderingmix of
local and regional details as well as large scale
syntheses.

For

those

of us who

cannot

ap?

proach such an analysis, thebook will remain

a valuable

reference work

for many

years. The

theoretical analysis is also stimulating.The

chapter on modes of production [8], about
which I shall offer some critical comments,
provides a sophisticated defense of the con?
?
cept in a period inwhich partly in response
to "Althusserian"

or "structuralist"

writers

mode of production analysis is dropping out

of favor.The firstthreepages of that chapter
one of the most

provide

statements

eloquent

of Marxist method I have encountered. The

chapter on "Crisis and Differentiation in
Capitalism" [9] goes beyond the ritualistic
to

references

"uneven

and

development"

attempts to define it and analyze the dynam?

ics of uneven

under

development

capitalism.

Depending in part on the work of Ernest

Mandel [10], Wolf largely succeeds in this
attempt. The afterword [11] offers, in a
disappointingly short and summary form,
some

rich observations

on

culture,

politics,

and ideology.

More important,the historical analysis has

been carefully thought out theoretically.

from the explicit criticism of Frank and

Wallerstein
[12], the entire book is a demon?
Aside

stration

of the importance and possibility of

account. Wolf has always been a
deceptively
"simple" writer. For one thing, he
an alternative
tends

to write

straightforward

his

theoretical

style, making

arguments
complex

in a
issues

comprehensible and avoiding the obfuscation

of other

treatments.

For

another,

he has also

tended to make some of his most important

theoretical points as part of a historical
analysis, just as Marx embedded some of his
most important arguments regarding the
movement from absolute to relative surplus
value in historical chapters on the struggle
over

the length of the working

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day,

the move

144
ment

on

to industry,

from manufacture

so

and

[13]. For Marx, of course, theory and

could

history
sequent

separated, a lesson
of Marxists
have

not be

generations

sub?
not

always learned as well as one might hope. As

this book demonstrates,Wolf has learned it
toward a critical assess?

In working

quite well.

ment of what Wolf has accomplished, how?

ever,

I shall

on

concentrate

the more

obvi?

ously "theoretical" aspects of thebook. That

this breaks up what Wolf correctly regards as
a unity, I readilyadmit and regret.
One

of

the book's

is a con?

weaknesses

sequence of its strengths. Its scope allows

Wolf to present a civilizational process in
broad outlines, but two kinds of analysis
suffer.In the initialworld survey,
Wolf isvery
good at presenting the long cycles that have
produced, say, a China [14], but he can pay
little attention to the short cycles, the con?
junctures of event and trend that are shaped
by and shape the structuralchanges that seem
to take centuries
a

necessary

to emerge. This

consequence

of

is, of course,
the author's

object in the chapter,but it impliesa theoret?

ical understanding of history that leaves
history-makingout of account. That this is
not Wolfs own understanding is clear, not
only from the whole
body of his work
from the other sections
of his book.

discussion

of

the emergence

of Europe

of mercantile

accumulation

and cap?

to regional differentiation

must suffer.Wolf is at his best in analyzing

themain lines of, or most importantregions
e.g.,

the nuclear

areas of Latin

America or the westward movement of the

North American fur trade from thenortheast
to the northernplains. As he turnshis atten?
tion to divergent
analysis weakens.
directed

to

lines or less central areas, his

times it seems to be
At

a more

complete

sense

of

more

importance

the

variety of types encountered.At other times,

come

to expect

from

are

theoretical

issues

sug?

gested by Wolfs analysis ofmodes of produc?

tion. The mode of production chapter is a
revised version of an earlier paper [16]. Like
the original version, this chapter offers a
marvelous

account

and

defense

of Marx's

materialism and of the importanceof a mode

of production concept for an analysis of the
fundamental relations people enter intowith
other
form

Also

and with nature as they trans?

people
in production.
themselves
and nature

like the original version, this chapter

three modes

of

cap?
production:
italist, tributary, and kin-ordered. The present
version, however, offers a more detailed anal?
analyzes

ysis of the relationshipsand dynamics of the

various modes,

and

tion

Both

it also places more

limita?

tions on the applicability of mode of produc?

analysis.

versions

eschew

evolu?

tionism and begin with capitalism, arguing

that our understanding of tributaryand kin
ordered modes of production is colored by
our understandingof capitalism. The chapter
however,

and

one has

his other discussions [15].

But these matters are relatively trivial.Of

His

of event and trend. But even with

in, a process,

analysis

in Europe

italist development shows sensitivity to the

conjuncture
such care, attention

logical

but

the creation of anthropological subjects in the

periods

as Wolf discusses particular populations, one

gets lost in a listof names without the socio?

and

without
the People
this
argument
develops

History,
in more

detail. In the passage inwhich Wolf develops

this argument,he contends (and this is one of
the book's central theses) that the societies
are not examples
studied by anthropologists
of earlier evolutionary
stages but products of

the encounter between theWest and theRest,

that the apparently primitiveor pre-capitalist

are

"indeed
often tertiary, qua?
secondary,
or
[17]. He
ternary,
centenary"
phenomena

argues furtherthathe isnot tryingto categor?

ize all societies but to isolate basic relation?
ships characteristic of capitalism and the
societies

encountered

by European

expansion.

Moreover, the utility of mode of production

analysis does not lie in classificationbut in an
understanding of "the strategic relationships

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145
involved in the deployment of social labor"
[18]. Given these important conditions and
I

reservations,

shall

discuss

asso?

problems

ciated with his analysis of capitalist, tributary,

and kin-ordered

modes.

Although

I recognize

the importance of Wolfs order of presenta?

tion, I shall discuss capitalism last.To avoid
any hint of evolutionism, however, I shall
consider tributary
modes first.
mode
of production [19],
By tributary
Wolf understands a situation inwhich direct
producers, individually or in community,
means

of

and surplus
production,
is appropriated
from them by extra
product
economic means.
Such appropriation
implies
possess

that labor is "mobilized and committed to the

transformationof nature primarily through
the

exercise

of

and

power

domination

through a political process" [20]. The trib?

utarymode thereforeincludes, as part of the
definition,a state, and inWolfs view the state
can be either strong or weak.

Power may

rest

primarilywith the state or primarilywith

individuals. Of course,
particular
version corresponds with Marxists'
of

an Asiatic

and

mode,

the strong
definition

the weak

version

correspondswith their definition of a feudal

mode.

Wolf

and weak

that strong
correctly emphasizes
states were variable outcomes
of

similar relationshipsand that particular states

oscillated back and forth between the two
extremes.
and

He

therefore

feudal modes

contends
a

"exhibit

that Asiatic
resem?

family

blance to each other" [21] and should be

treated

argues
into a
converts

as

a single mode
of production.
He
further: "Reification
of 'feudalism'

of production
separate mode
a short period of
European

merely
history

phenomena

must

be measured"

[22].
Although I have no desire to restoreMarx?
ist orthodoxy, I should point out thatone of
Wolfs centralpoints violates his own rules for
argument.

He

contends

that Asiatic

and

feudal modes "exhibit a family resemblance

to each

other,"

which

is most

certainly

argument.

Differentiation

be?

tween feudal and Asiatic forms becomes

importantwhen we consider the potential of

certain

"strategic

for the emer?

relationships"

gence of wholly new relationships.Granted

that feudalism characterized a shortperiod of
European history (although it can only be
considered short by taking a rather long term
view), therewere two differentiatingaspects
of feudalism that proved crucial, a weak state
and a weak community of producers. Both
more

allowed

room

for individual

maneuver

that was fundamental in the context of the

accumulation

of

demonstrates

that

control

and

could,
mercantile

with

and mercantile

solidation
feudalism,
tonomy

mercantile

tributary
undermined
by

necessarily
cumulation

wealth.

Wolf

states were
mercantile

not
ac?

in fact, consolidate
wealth.
State con?
accumulation

under

could
however,
grant more
to merchants.
Simultaneously,

au?
the

weakness of the communityof producerswas

in

important

the

emergence

a differen?

of

tiated petty commoditymode of production,

upon which Marxists have laid such stress in
their analysis of the development of capital?
ism

became
[23]. In short, certain outcomes
with
mercantile
accumulation
under
possible

feudalism thatwere not possible underAsiatic

states. A

trend that may have only

a clas?
variant
form within

structural
a

represented

combined
sificatory family of relationships
with a series of events from the fourteenth to
the

some?
to produce
new
in Western
thing wholly
Europe.
Feudalism
becomes
then, because
"universal",
it

into a type case against which all other

'feudal-like'

classificatory

centuries

eighteenth

is

so

particular,

because

of

its world

historical significance [24]. This is,of course,

an

argument

from

evolution,

and

it sees

importance in feudalism not in termsof its

characteristic relationships and dynamics but
in termsof what came after it.That thereare
logical problems with this sort of analysis I
readily admit. Beyond logic, it might be
argued further that the evolutionary signif?
icance of feudalism is irrelevantto thehistor?
ical

problem

of

the

incorporation

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by mer

146
cantile empires or a capitalist system of a
variety of tributary systems.Given such an
interest,

however,

that more

I contend

at?

tention to variation within a family of re?

lationships is important. Just as mercantile
accumulation was internalized differentlyin
Asiatic and feudal systems, producing dif?
ferent results, different tributary systems
respond to capitalist expansion in different
ways.

The kin-orderedmode [25] presents an?

other set of problems.Wolf sees kinship as a
set of symbolic constructs concerning filia?
tion, marriage,

consanguinity,

affinity, and so

on that define the relationships into which

are

people

placed.

In

a kin-ordered

mode,

social labor is mobilized through these rela?

tionships by reference to the symbolic con?
structs [26]. Labor ismobilized under capital?
ism through the purchase and sale of labor
power, under tributarymodes throughpolit?
ical domination,

and under kin-ordered

modes

through kinship. Reference to kinship as a

relation of production has been developed

most

clearly

in recent years by French

Marx?

ists and those who follow them [27]. Wolf

mentions in particular the work of Claude
Meillassoux, and his influence ismost evident
in the discussion

the

of seniors and juniors and in

be?
distinction
anthropological

classic

tween

two

pending
formed.
cussion

de?
types of kin-ordered modes
or
not
nature is trans?
upon whether
A

number

are

of aspects of Wolfs
dis?
the
consideration
insightful, e.g.,

of kinship, the analysis of sources of conflict

and

tension

in kin-ordered

treatment of the emergence

and
modes,
of hierarchy.

the

But Wolfs discussion of kin-orderedmodes

leaves one confused. It is never clearwhether
he is tryingto reconstruct the structureand
dynamics

of kin-ordered

modes

in pre-state

situations or of kin-orderedmodes in a world

of tributary states and mercantile

accumula?
initial discussion of modes of pro?
tion. Wolfs
duction

indicates

that one

should

avoid

an

evolutionary reading and that he is discussing

the basic

features

of various modes

of pro?

duction in order to assess the impact of

European
expansion upon them [28].
he
Further,
begins the section on kin-ordered
modes by denying that primitivepopulations
are

our

contends

ancestors.
then
He
contemporary
that most discussions
of such pop?

ulations emphasize what they are not rather

thanwhat they are [29]. His analysis of what

they are is an internal analysis of kin-ordered

modes with scant reference to tributary states
or mercantile
Such references ger
empires.
erally

come

ships

(e.g.,

as he discusses
between

a set of relation?

seniors

and juniors)

that

will become important as the population is

incorporated within a system based on the
of mercantile

accumulation

wealth.

Further,

themode of production chapter follows the

chapter surveyingthe world as of 1400. The
tributary and kin-ordered

modes

are made

to

apply to the populations one encountered in

that period, and the discussion of tributary
modes refersto societies that actually existed
in the centuries preceding the emergence of
It would

capitalism.

then, that the kin

seem,

orderedmodes also have a historical existence

and
state

are

seen,

societies.

as pre
in this reconstruction,
sources are
Yet all of Wolfs

of kin
upon
analyses
ethnographic
ordered
of the present as if they
societies
our
were
ancestors.
indeed
contemporary
based

is, of course, well aware of this problem

with classic anthropology.
The whole book is
a largely successful
to address
it.
attempt

Wolf

More

immediately,

his

introductory

remarks

in the mode of production chapter refer to

the literaturecriticizing the concept of tribe
as a product of external incorporation [30].
But nowhere in the kin-orderedmode section
does Wolf engage in a critical dialogue with
the

sources

portance

of his

reconstruction.

of such a dialogue

The

becomes

im?

apparent

when one begins to notice how often words

or
"management"
or "mobilization"
mand"
like

the

activities

of

com?
"managerial
are used to refer to

leaders

societies.

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of

kin-ordered

147
Critical discussion would
with

propriate

be most

ap?

to the French Marx?

reference

ist literatureon West Africa. A whole litera?

ture on the lineagemode of production devel?
oped in the 1960s and 1970s [31], beginning
with

Meillassoux's

cieties
essay

discussed

on

essay

on

based

so?

traditional

"auto-subsistence."

relationships

This

between

seniors

and juniors and paid attention to the seniors'

monopoly of bride wealth, their ability to
labor and control marriages,
and
appropriate
so on. The next generation of French Marxists

proceeded to debate whether such a system

was

Terray,

exploitative.

considering

Meillassoux's work among the Guro and

limitinghimself to the pre-colonial material,
initially argued that the situation was not
exploitative [32]. He later changed his mind
under the influence of Pierre-PhilippeRey,
who maintained from the beginning that it
was exploitative [33]. Meillassoux has been
willing to talk of exploitation but not of class
in lineage-based societies [34]. Yet none of
the authors has seriouslyquestioned thebasis
for their reconstructionof lineagemodes of
has

Meillassoux

production.
about capitalism,
he

Money

in his Maidens,

but

to

much

and

Meal

a lineage mode

reconstructs

say

with?

out reference to capitalism and then plops

capitalism on top of it in the second part of
recent work has paid more
Terray's
to states and state formation
[35],
he has not made
that work engage his

the book.
attention
but

earlier

discussion

of

lineage modes.

Among

theparticipants,Rey ismost willing to discuss

colonialism

and

the

relationships

between

lineage societies and Europe [36]. But he

then imagines that he is saying something

about

pre-state

historical
sources

are

exploitation
Catherine

societies,

never making

distinctions. His
inappropriate

basic

ethnographic

for a discussion

of

among primitives.
Coquery-Vidrovitch,

in an essay

that is cited by other French Marxists but

that seems not to have had a major impacton
their thinking,outlines an African mode of

production [37]. We need not accept such a

label to recognize the importance of her
model of weak states based upon wealth
accumulation through longdistance trade and
slave production. Other subject populations,
not

are able to
into tribute producers,
social relations and com?

turned

their basic

preserve
munities.

in
are, however, participants
non
trade networks
and

long

They
distance

local

populations

tributary subjects of the weak states. These

in large measure,

are,

the

ones studied by French Marxists. A "lineage

mode" may therefore be preserved, but it
does not take a great imagination to see that
their participation within long distance trade
networks

and

states will

loose

have

a pro?

found effect upon relations between seniors

and juniors, institutingan expansionist logic
sees

that Meillassoux
ternal

logic of

as

inherent

the lineage mode.

in the in?
In a more

recent article that develops this point in a

rigorous fashion by means of an examination
of Dahomey,

the

plored

the

modes,

and Kemnitzer

Katz

have

relationship between
and

state,

an

expanding

ex?

lineage
world

system [38]. The point is that some of the

fundamental
French

relationships
in lineage-based
be understood
in the con?
seen

have

Marxists

societies

and

tensions

can only

text of state formation and long distance

trade.This is a point with whichWolf will be
in full agreement. Again, the book as a whole
is a demonstration
of this, and specific sec?
tions also treat the point, as in the discussion
of

the formation

of

slave-raiding

and

slave

providing populations in West Africa [39].

But

in his discussion

he

of the kin-ordered mode,

and seems
appraisal

this critical

suspends
to revert to a kind of evolutionism.

Wolfs

discussion of capitalism likewise

numerous
provides
insightsand provokes a
few questions [40]. His understanding of
capitalism is extraordinarily rich. I have
already indicated that I regard some of his
theoreticaldiscussions of capitalism (e.g., the
treatment

of

uneven

development)

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to

be

148
rewarding. In addition, I am in fundamental
agreementwith his definition of capitalism in
termsof the commodity formof labor power.
In his
form of

the commodity
treatment, however,
labor power becomes
virtually syn?

onymous with industrial labor, and the devel?

opment of capitalism is identifiedwith the
industrial revolution of the late eighteenth
century [41]. A number of questions can be
raised, the first having to do with labels and
timing.One of the interestingquestions that
came out of the "transition debate" between
Maurice Dobb and Paul Sweezy [42] had to
do with the characterization of the period
between the fourteenth and sixteenth cen?
turies, when

was

feudalism

in decline

debates

to the transition

like to refer to

as the bourgeois
revolution.
that requires
Another
problem

cussion takes us beyond

timing

and

us

forces

more

dis?

the question of

to confront

the

iden?

tification of industrial labor and the com?

modity form of labor power. In the first
place, such identification does not pay suf?
ficient attention to the transformationof the
English economy during the two centuries
prior

to the industrial

revolution

the "free?

ing" of peasants from estates and the growth

of domestic manufacturing beyond themajor
cities. Both signifiedthe growthof a potential
factoryproletariat, a group of people stripped
of control

over means

whose
of production
a commodity.
Of
becoming

labor power was

does
course, Wolf

not

ignore

this

devel

form

commodity

of

labor

power.

Second,

although the industrial revolution quickly

transformed

textile

production

and,

sec?

ondarily,metallurgical branches of the econ?

omy, other branches maintained their craft
character for a much longer period. Dobb
notes,

for example:

Not until the last quarter of the [nineteenth]century

class begin to assume the homogeneous
the working
of a factory proletariat. Prior to this, the major?
ity of the workers retained the marks of the earlier period
of capitalism....
As late as 1870 the immediate employer

did

and

capitalism had not yet emerged. Sweezy saw

feudalism ending in the fourteenth century
and postulated a system of pre-capitalist
commodity production that characterized the
ensuing two centuries. Dobb preferred to
label the period "feudal" up until the six?
teenth century.Wolf is clearlywilling to see a
tributarymode of production and tributary
states in force until the industrialrevolution
[43]. Yet such an interpretation needs to
confrontmore directly the political events of
seventeenth century England that contrib?
utors

opment. He discusses it in some detail and

produces statistics showing that some 40 per?
cent of the English population had left the
land by the end of the seventeenth century
[44]. But he does not make this material
confront the theoretical question of the

character

of many

workers

intermediate

was

not

sub-contractor

the
who

but the
large capitalist
was both an employee

and in turna smallemployerof labour [45].

Yet few would contend that capitalism did

not emerge until sometime after the publica?
tion of Capital.
Third, workers with a con?
to
nection
threatened craft traditions but who

were not yet subjected to factory discipline

were the leading figures in the nineteenth
century political definition of the proletariat
as

a class.

English
actors

E.P.

of the
Making
Thompson's
on these
Class concentrates

Working
and has little to say about

a factory

proletariat in textile mills [46]. A recent

book by William Sewell [47] concentrates on

the changing "language of labor" from the old

the
in France,
to 1848
examining
regime
a
manner
in
in which journeymen
variety of

craftsbegan to move beyond the closed mo?

nopolies of craft associations and define their
interests as proletarian.Mill hands were not
the leading figures in this process of political
definition.We need to pay more attention,
then, to what Marx called the formal sub
sumption of labor to capital [48], the crea?
tion of the commodity
on farms and in small

form of labor power

shops as journeymen

found the path to the status ofmaster crafts

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149
man blocked. I do not mean to deny the
the

of

importance

industrial

revolution.

simplywant to claim that the capitalistmode

of production should not be limited to a
form of production.

particular

We are now in a position to move beyond

modes of production and consider political
questions raised by Wolfs book. It is always
an unfair request of such a big book, but one
wishes that there were yet another chapter
which paid more attention to politics. As the
book stands, it traces the jumbling up of
various

and

regions

with

peoples

the devel?

opment of certain kinds of commodity pro?

duction

(e.g.,

tea, cocoa,

coffee,

sugar)

in the

nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the

migration of peoples to work in factoriesand
on plantations. But the conclusion to these
analyses is often simply an assertion of con?
nection.

after a brief look at

example,
ethnohistorical work inChiapas,

For

Wasserstrom's

Wolf concludes:
Zinacantan,

and

Chamula,

other

Tzeltal-

and Tzoltzil

speakingcommunitiesin thevicinityof San Cristobal Las

in highland Chiapas
have been studied intensively
since the 1940s. Most of
by American
anthropologists
these studies have dealt with them either as 'tribal* sur?

Casas

vivors of the ancient Maya, maintained

in relative isola?
or as parts of a colonial
tion from outside
contact,
in encapsulated
form within a
Hispanic
society preserved
Mexico.
Tzeltal
and Tzotzil,
modernizing
along with
other Native Americans
in Central America,
however,
were drawn early into the networks of mercantile
expan?
sion?,

and

since the
they have participated
actively
in the commercial
coffee and corn
century
of the area and in the politics of the Mexican
economy
state. These
in turn, have altered
their
involvements,

nineteenth

agricultural adaptation,
affected their political
continuing
identity
is thus not
munities
maintained

changed their class structure, and

and ceremonial organization.
Their
as inhabitants
com?
of "Indian"
a corpus of unchanged
traditions
fashion from a distant past. It is,
of a multitude
of interrelated and

in unbroken

rather, the outcome

often antagonistic
processes

set in motion

by capitalist

development [49].

Those of us who share this view will ap?

preciate

the

accumulation

of

case material

from various parts of theworld, but we will

want

to know

more.

We

will

want

to see

anthropological subjects not only as products

of world history but also as actors in that

-

history
various

developments,

to

themselves

accommodating
resisting

them,

reject?

ing them.Yet the above passage is offeredas a

conclusion regardingChiapas rather than a
starting point.

Of

to say that anthro?

course,

pological subjects have intervened in history

as political actors tellsWolf nothing new. He
emphasizes this at various points in thebook.
In addition, his Peasant Wars of theTwentieth
Century [50] examined one form of that
action.

Indeed, the present effort can be seen

as a fundamental
revision of the discussion of

"NorthAtlantic capitalism" in theConclusion

to Peasant

Wars.

Because

Europe

and

the

People without History treatscapitalistdevel?

opment in such detail, however, the political
questions it raises take us well beyond the
problem of peasant participation in revolu?
tionary

movements.

divisions

within

For

Wolfs

example,

discussion of the "new laborers" [51] traces

the creation and reproduction of ethnic
a segmented

labor

force. As

in other sections of the book, his analysis of

historical connections shows that they
nonetheless

occur

in a disconnected

manner,

that is, in this case, thatuneven development

creates a differentiated,fractionatedworking
population. This raises the political question
of how such a working people can organize
itself as a working class. Although theAfter?

word

contains

regarding

some

important
suggestions
politics, culture, and ideology, this
is not directly confronted.

problem
The book

con?
is, nonetheless,
politically
of historical
Statements
connection

sequent.
must once

conservative

again

be

raised

orthodoxy.

as a challenge
to
book
is pub?

The

lished just as an ascendant political phi?

losophy and its attendant academic syc?
ophants have attempted to banish historical
understanding frompolitics. Oppositions such
as

tradition

and modernity

are once

again

prominent in the halls of the UN as well as

the universities [52]. This book, which so
carefullytracesconnections thatothers find it

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150
serve an important

to ignore, will

convenient

educational function. Like everythingWolf

writes, it is quite readable, and the research is
impressive. One

can see, as one could

see with

Peasant Wars before it, this book being used

to good effect in classrooms across theUnited
States, challenging the official version of
"our" history and insistingupon theunity of
the two branches of inquiry.Wolf has there?
fore once

again made

his scholarship

intervene

in an importantpolitical conjuncture. In the

1950s, his writing was not addressed to a
public audience, but he was a leader in a
group that was trying to redirect anthro?
pological inquiry toward radically historical
questions during one of the ugliest periods in
the recent history of theAmerican academy
[53]. In the 1960s, his Peasant Wars grew out
in response

of the teach-in movement

to the

Vietnam War. The present book challenges

dominant understandings in a political mo?
ment Wolf could not have foreseenwhen the
book was

begun.

But the book is not simply a response to a

resurgent

Its historical

conservatism.

vision

offers a profound challenge to those radical

thinkerswho develop their critique of the
capitalist present by turningto putativelypre

and alter?
capitalist societies as counterpoints
natives. Shortly before Wolf began this book,
one such critique
Marshall
Sahlins published

[54],

turning to primitive societies as a

counterpoint

argued
economics

to

capitalist

economies.

He

that, unlike capitalism, primitive

was

inherently

underproductive

in

relation to capacity because primitivesdid not

produce

in accordance

with

norms

of max?

imization and expansion but in accordance

with the socially defined needs of the house?
hold. One might raise questions regarding
Professor Sahlins' understanding of capitalist
rationality,but the immediate problem is in
his approach to anthropological subjects as part
of his understanding
develop his analysis

of primitive societies. To
of the structure of under

Sahlins

production,

elaborates

domestic

mode of production, restingon thehousehold

and

its response

to consumption

requirements

[55]. Of immediate relevance to the Wolf

book is the fact that Sahlins uncritically
examines

material

ethnographic

from

the

twentieth century to support his arguments

regarding the underproductive character of
His

economics.

primitive

calculations

regard?

ing one of the cases,Mazulu village among the

Gwembe Tonga, shows that the village as a
whole is producing less than it requires. His
theory told him that some households would
be underproductive while others would be
overproductive, but he never fully confronts
the problem presented by Mazulu village
[56]. Perhaps an observation by its ethno?
grapherwill help. For the year duringwhich
research was

and the statistics used

conducted

by Sahlins were gathered, Thayer Scudder

writes:
During 1956-57, half (nine) of the adultmen ofMazulu

for periods of three months

village were out of the Valley
re?
to over a year, while at least two of the nine who

mained within the Valley worked severalmonths for

the future lake shore
along
clearing bush
one
was an invalid while
the
seven,
remaining
margin.
in wage
labour
three others had stopped participating
of their age. Out of fifteen of the village men on
because
I have data, eleven had already made four or more
whom
contractors

Of

some of these trips had

trips to the Plateau. While
for over two years, the modal
length was under a
year with the mean
just prior to
returning to the Valley
season.
the beginning of the rains and the main cultivation

work
been

Then,
again

One

when

the harvests

were

leave the neighborhood

might

choose

in, some

for outside

to analyze

of
work

these would
[57].

cultivation

in

such a village in termsof a domesticmode of

production, but one should at least insertthat
mode within the logic of a capitalist mode
that employs most of the adult men in the
village. This Sahlins does not do. In pursuit of
an anti-capitalist
economics,
then, one of our
most important authors ignores capitalism.
A more
book

recent

by Michael

example
Taussig

is a well
[58].

recer

In develo

a critique of capitalist rationalityand e*

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151
ing

and neo?
of peasants
sets up an opposi?
Taussig
value and exchange value

the consciousness

phyte proletarians,
use
tion between
economies.

between use value

opposition
value is an important one in the

The

and exchange

Marxist literature, although Marx tended to

stress that both

use value

were

simultaneously
One gets
commodity.

and exchange value

present as aspects of a

into trouble, however,

use
value
the
value/exchange
or so?
refer to entire economies

one makes

when

opposition

cieties. Given such a framework, it is not

difficult to write something like: "In the
precapitalistmode of production there is no
market and no commodity definition of the
value and functionof a good" [59]. Or: "In
precapitalist societies, commodity exchange
and the market are absent" [60], Even a
superficial reading of just about any ten
pages of Wolfs book would demonstrate the
absurdity of such assertions.
own ethnographic
material

Indeed, Taussig's
him.
contradicts

Taussig uses the use value/exchange value

opposition to develop an analysis of ideology
that is quite sophisticated. But it depends
upon an opposition that sees reciprocity at
the use value end and nonreciprocity at the
exchange value end. It is an opposition that is
fundamentally

anti-historical.

Again,

cri?

tique of capitalism is developed that removes

capitalism from the constitution of anthro?
pological

subjects.

suggest,

that

I do not mean to imply, nor does Wolf

our

understanding

of

anthro?

pological subjects should be reduced to an

analysis of the dynamics of the capitalist

mode

come

of

did not be?

production.
Shanghai
some cap?
Kansas
City, however much

italists and Congressmen might have desired

such
shaped,

an

outcome.

and

in many

Noncapitalist
cases continue

relations
to shape,

the lives of most of the peoples anthro?

pologists have studied. One of the paradoxes
of the history of capitalism has been its
development in noncapitalist milieux. Such

situations are not unaffected by the en?

counter
many

with
cases

in
and
however,
relations have been

capitalism,

wo?capitalist

created as a direct or indirect result of cap?

italist development. Anthropologists turn
such situations into visions of our past, into
precapitalist relations, at the expense of a
more profound historical and political under?
It is with

standing.

pleasure,

that one

then,

reads a critical analysis that rejects pseudo

historical oppositions and explores with such
care the historical processes by which primi?
tive and peasant

a funda?

have become

pasts

mentally altered primitive,peasant, and pro?

letarianpresent.Eric Wolf has made possible a
deeper understanding of our anthropological
and political task.

NOTES
1 Eric R. Wolf, Europe and the People withoutHistory
UniversityofCaliforniaPress, 1982).
(Berkeley,
2 JulianSteward et al., ThePeople ofPuertoRico (Urbana,
Illinois:Universityof IllinoisPress, 1956).
3 Wolf,
inary

of Latin

"Types

American

American

Discussion,"

(1955): 452-471.
4 Andre

Gunder

in Latin
1967)

Frank,

America
and

Latin

Prelim?
vol.

57

and Underdevelopment
Review
Press,

Capitalism
York:

(New

America:

Peasantry:

Anthropologist,

Monthly

Underdevelopment

or Re?

volution (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1969). For

see Fernando
the "catastrophist"
Henrique
charge,
"The consumption
of dependency
Cardoso,
theory in the
United States," Latin American
vol. 12
Research Review,
and "The Originality
of a Copy:
7-24;
(no. 3, 1977):
and the Idea of Development,"
CEPAL
Review
CEPAL

(2nd halfof 1977): 7-40.

5 Immanuel
(New York:
6 Cardoso,
7 Robert
Chiapas:

Wallerstein,
Academic

The Modern
Press,

"The consumption
"Land
Wasserstrom,
a Regional Analysis,"

vol. 8 (1977)' 441-463;

Economic

Development

World-System,

1974).
of dependency
and

Labour

Development

vol.

theory."
in Central
and Change,

and "Population Growth and

in Chiapas,

1524-1975,"

Human

Ecology, vol. 6 (1978): 127-143; Wolf, Europe,

pp. 337-339; Class and Society in Highland Chiapas
(Berkeley:UniversityofCaliforniaPress, 1983).
8Wolf,Europe, pp. 73-100.
9 Ibid,pp. 296-309.
10 Especially Ernest Mandel's Late Capitalism (London:
New Left Books, 1978).

This content downloaded from 170.140.26.180 on Thu, 04 Feb 2016 00:06:19 UTC
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152
11Wolf,Europe, pp. 385-391.
12 Ibid,pp. 21-23, 296-298.
13 Karl Marx, Capital, vol. 1 (New York: Vintage, 1977),
I discuss
in William
this interpretation
10-15.
Chapters
Modes
of
Produc?
and
Roseberry,
History
"Anthropology,
in Benjamin
(Move
and Karl Yambert
tion,"
(eds.),

AnthropologicalPerspectiveson Latin American Political

Economy

(forthcoming).

14

Ibid, pp. 50-56.

one encounters
15 When
seems

not

to be

sense of being

entire

area

that
(e.g., Africa)
any main
lines, this

characterized

by
lost in a list of names is heightened.

p. 76.

18 Ibid.
19 Ibid., pp. 79-88; cf. SamirAmin, Unequal Development
(NewYork: MonthlyReview Press, 1976).
20 Wolf, Europe,
21 Ibid., p. 81.

p. 80.

the

of

collection

to

contributions

the

transition

debate inRodney Hilton (ed.), The TransitionfromFeu?

dalism toCapitalism (London: New Left Books, 1976).
24 Compare

Maurice

Godelier's

of western

versality"

history

argument
in "The

about

the "uni?

concept

of

the

'Asiatic Mode of Production' and Marxist Models of

Social Evolution," in David Seddon (ed.), Relations of

Production
26

Frank Cass,

(London:

25 Wolf, Europe,

1978).

pp. 88-99.

Ibid., p. 91.

27 See Claude

"From

Meillassoux,

Reproduction

to Produc?

tion," Economy and Society, vol. 1 (1972): 93-105;

"The

in Agricultural
Societies:
'Economy'
Self-Sustaining
a Preliminary Analysis,"
in Seddon
(ed.), Relations
of
and Money
Production;
Maidens,
Meal,
(Cambridge:
Rationality
Monthly

1981); Maurice
Godelier,
in Economics
(New York:
in Marxist
1972);
Perspectives

Press,
University
and Irrationality

Cambridge

Review

Press,

Anthropology
(Cambridge:
Press,
Cambridge
University
Emmanuel
and "Primitive"
So?
1977);
Terray, Marxism
cieties
Siskind,

(New

York:

"Kinship

Monthly
and Mode

Review

Anthropologist,vol. 80(1978):
28 Wolf, Europe,

Janet
1971);
of Production,"
American

Money,

Press,

860-872.

'Economy;'

Terray, Marxism',

"Class

Rey,

and Josep R.

34 Meillassoux,

"Classes

"

Maidens,

and Class

Meal,

and

Conscious?

Contradiction

in Lineage

Societies,"

"Class

mode;"

"Lineage

"Reflections;"

contradiction;"
Dupre
"On Exploitation."
and Money,
pp. 75-81.

Terray,

Maidens,

Meal,

and Class

35 Terray,
"Classes
tance Trade
and

and

Consciousness";
"Long Dis?
of the State," Economy

the Formation

and Society, vol. 3 (1974): 315-345.

36 Rey,

Las

mode;"

"Lineage

de

Alianzas

clases

(Mexico

City: SigloXXI, 1976).

on an African

37 Catherine

"Research
Coquery-Vidrovitch,
in Seddon, Relations
of Production,"

38 Naomi

and David

Katz

of Production.
"Mode of Production

Kemnitzer,

and the Process of Domination: theClassicalKingdom of

in Madeline

Dahomey,"

Barbara

Frances

and

Leons

Rothstein (eds.), New Directions in Political Economy

(Westport, CT: Greenwood

Press,

39Wolf,Europe, p. 217 ff.

40 Ibid,pp. 77-79, 296-309.
41 Ibid,pp. 266, 267, 296-298 ff.
42 Collected inHilton, Transition.

1979).

43 Wolf, Europe,

pp.

49 Wolf, Europe,
50 Wolf, Peasant

pp. 338, 339.

Wars of the Twentieth

101-125.

44 Ibid,p. 269.
45 Dobb, Studies, pp. 265, 266.
46 E.P. Thompson, TheMaking of theEnglishWorkingClass
New York: Vintage, 1966).
47 William Sewell, Work and Revolution in France
(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1980).
48 Marx, Capital, pp. 645, 646, 948-1084.

& Row,

Century

and

double

(New York:

1969).

Harper
51 Wolf, Europe,
pp. 354-383.
the politically
for example,
52 Consider,
essay by Jeane Kirkpatrick,
simple-minded
standards,"

Commentary,

influential

and

"Dictatorships
vol. 68 (no. 5,

34-45.

1979):
53 A good
recent

ness in the Abron Kingdom of Gyaman," inMaurice

Bloch, Marxist Analyses and Social Anthropology
(London: Malaby, 1975); "On exploitation:Elements of
an Autocritique,"CritiqueofAnthropology,nos. 13& 14
(1979): 29-39; Pierre-Philippe
Rey, "The LineageMode
of Production,"Critique ofAnthropology,no. 3 (1975):
27-79;

33 Rey,

issue
"The

in Joel S. Kahn

Llobera, The Anthropology of Pre-CapitalistSocieties

(London:Macmillan, 1981).

Steward

p. 76.

29 Ibid,pp. 88, 89.

30 Ibid,p. 76.
31 See Meillassoux,

of the Literature,"

Review

Mode

22 Ibid.
23 See e.g.,Maurice Dobb, Studies in theDevelopment of
Capitalism (New York: International,2nd edition, 1963)
and

on
and Pierre-Philippe
Rey, "Reflections
Georges
Dupre
the Relevance
of a Theory of the History of Exchange,"
in Seddon, Relations
See also Joel Kahn,
of Production.
a
and
"Marxist
Societies:
Segmentary
Anthropology

32 Terray, Marxism.
an

16Wolf, "The Mills of Inequality," inGerald Berreman(ed.),

Social Inequality (NewYork: Academic Press, 1981)
17 Wolf, Europe,

Critique of Anthropology,nos. 13 & 14 (1979); 41-60;

to
is the work of the various contributors
example
a
as
well
et al., The People
Puerto
Rico.
See
of
in a special
set of reconsiderations
and critiques

of Revista/Review

vol.

Interamericana,

(no.

1,

1978).
54 Marshall Sahlins,Stone Age Economics (Chicago:Aldine,
1972).
55 This conceptwas developed not simplyinopposition to a
but

of production
capitalist mode
of the "economic"
definition

also

to restrict

in primitive

societies

much as possible.With the economic confined to

household,

relations

all extra-household

i.e., non-economic.
"politics,"
56 Sahlins, Stone Age Economics,

are "kinslr

pp. 73, 74,

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

103-J

rr

153
57 Thayer Scudder, The Ecology of the Gwembe Tonga
Manchester

(Manchester:

University

Press,

1962),

p. 156.

58 Michael Taussig, The Devil and CommodityFetishism in

South America (ChapelHill: UniversityofNorthCarolina
Press,

1980).

59 Ibid,p. 36.
60 Ibid,p. 127.

Dialectical Anthropology 10 (1985) 141-153

Elsevier

Science

Publishers

B.V., Amsterdam

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions