Synthesis, or a new problematic in economic anthropology

Abstract

This essay is not the place to provide a thoroughgoing critique of the neo-Marxist articulationist school. This will be done elsewhere. Prattis, “Alternative Views of Economy and Society in Economic Anthropology,” forthcoming in (1982). I have pointed out in this essay that previous use of the notions of strategizing man and situational logic was to introduce substantive elements into formal considerations of the decision making process. It would seem, however, that it may be more useful to ally situational logic with production theory in order that the micro-macro gap in analysis is bridged. This may ensure that the systemic preoccupations of neo-Marxist theory in anthropology has an actor situation perspective as a caveat. My main concern, however, is with a realistic perspective on the various issues, implications, and contentions of the methodology polemics in economic anthropology. Of the two alternatives posed at the beginning of the essay it is evident that I am in favor of discarding the fragmented segments of current orthodoxy in economic anthropology, finding it more fruitful to develop the problematic introduced by the French school of historical materialism. This school of thought has the potential to provide an integrated approach simply by asking different questions.