Tributary Mode Of Production Research Articles

Structure and Dynamics of Islamic Social Formations (Seventh–Fourteenth Century)

Abstract From the seventh to the fourteenth century, the Muslim world’s key actors were free peasants working limited and scattered cultivated areas, whose communities paid heavy taxes. A distinct nomadic mode of production dominated the arid lands and their warlike pastoral tribes. Wealthy merchants and artisans controlled urban ideological production, living next to actual ruling classes, who drew exceptional material privileges from their proximity to the state. Since the latter’s status contradicted the contractual community’s values, political power was socially alienated and needed support from paid soldiers and often co-opted religious notables. The author describes Islamic social formations as real flesh-and-blood beings who developed original features on the same tributary mode of production’s skeleton. He shows that comparable dialectical oppositions enlivened them, stemming from uneven and combined development processes. Thus, their states and villages, barren lands and city markets, contractual ideology and monarchical powers were permanently in conflictual interaction.

КОНЦЕПЦИЯ ТРИБУТАРНОГО СПОСОБА ПРОИЗВОДСТВА В МЕЗОАМЕРИКЕ В МЕКСИКАНСКОЙ ИСТОРИОГРАФИИ ВТОРОЙ ПОЛОВИНЫ ХХ В.

The article considers the history of the concept of the tributary mode of production in the Mexican historiography between the 1960s and the 1980s. This concept was elaborated by Ion Banu and Samir Amin as an al- ternative to the traditional “Asiatic mode of production”. It entered Mexican historiography in the late 1960s as a result of the spread of Neomarxist ideas. In the mid-1970s various scholars, including Alberto Ruz in the Maya studies and Roger Bartra and Pedro Carrasco in the Aztec studies, became interested in the concept of tributary mode of production to explain the socio-economic nature of Mesoamerican state. Analysis of the ideas of Alberto Ruz (1906– 1979) shows that his interest in tributary mode of production was the result of a search for new theoretical and methodological base and interpretation of the new materials. The problematics of the socio-economic characteristics of the Ancient Maya society became essential for Ruz in the last years of his life. His ideas could develop into an original theoretical model, which would become the basis for the consolidation of Mesoamerican studies in Mexico into a unified school. However, his death and the absence of a comparable figure among the next generation resulted in a denouement of the concept of tributary mode of production during the next decade.

La prehistoria del modo tributario de producción

El trabajo discute algunas implicaciones analíticas de las propuestas de Haldon acerca del «modo tributario de producción» como categoría histórica general, capaz de describir la forma de las relaciones sociales predominantes en las formaciones sociales pre-capitalistas. Desde el momento en que asumimos esta tesis, cada uno de los procesos particulares de emergencia de formaciones tributarias «primarias» debe ser considerado como un caso particular de un evento general: el origen de la sociedad de clases. A pesar de la evidente centralidad de esta cuestión para la Teoría Social, ha recibido muy poca atención en los debates. Se presenta el esbozo un marco teórico general para abordar este problema, a través de la discusión del concepto de «Revolución Neolítica», entendido en términos sociales. La conclusión más importante de esta discusión es que el «modo tributario de producción» no deriva directamente del «comunismo primitivo». La Arqueología y la Antropología nos muestran una rica veriedad de formas sociales en las cuales es posible reconocer «formas parentales de extracción del excedente». Podremos hablar, por lo tanto, de formas pre-clasistas de explotación. La discusión sobre este punto nos conduce finalmente a proponer la recuperación de conceptos como «sociedad germánica» y «comunidad asiática» para dar cuenta de esta variedad.

Relaciones sociales en sociedades precapitalistas: una crítica al concepto de «modo de producción tributario»

Este trabajo analiza el concepto de «modo de producción tributario» en sus diversas acepciones y, muy especialmente, en la desarrollada en los trabajos de J. Haldon. Partiendo de una revisión de los conceptos del materialismo histórico, se ponen de relieve las aplicaciones contradictorias de este concepto, en particular en lo referente al estudio del caso de al-Andalus. Estas contradicciones demuestran las carencias existentes este concepto y la necesidad de completar su contenido incluyendo las relaciones de dependencia personal.

The Concept of Ethnography in Mafeje

In classical anthropology, the term “ethnography” refers to the scientific description of races. Yet, Archie Mafeje uses the concept of ethnography in what seems to be two ways. On the one hand, ethnography, such as he conceives of it, has socio-cultural connotations. It is his preferred substitute for the nebulous concept of “culture”. On the other hand, by ethnography he seems to refer to the idea of non-disciplinarity. In other words, the concept of ethnography becomes the substitute candidate for the social sciences, as they are conventionally known. Either the concept carries both meanings or Mafeje simply equivocates. This article discusses Mafeje's concept of ethnography. First, the article contextualises the discussion by providing a broad outline of his theoretical orientation. Second, given that his use of the concept of ethnography departs from that of an anthropological research method, the concept is explained and outlined. The remainder of the article demonstrates how Mafeje sets this concept to work by discussing his study of the tributary mode of production of the pre-colonial interlacustrine kingdoms of the Great Lakes region.

Typologies of pre-modern societies beyond feudalism: exploring alternative possibilities and the problem of their applicability in cases of peripheral European societies

The most traditional approach of medievalists to articulate classification of pre-modern European societies is to consider whether particular pre-modern society is feudal or not. However I argue that this approach is quite complicated because of ambiguity and polysemy of the term. There are at least several Marxist and non-Marxist alternatives instead. Transcending the horizon of debates about feudalism proposes more creative possibilities and enlarges analytical capacities. Although discussion about the notorious Asiatic mode of production seems obsolete nevertheless there are other more promising and up-to-date concepts like the tributary mode of production, patrimonialism versus feudalism dichotomy or the so-called type/model of early Central European state (the system of Ius Ducale). The application of the concept of the African mode of production in the case of typology of some European pre-modern peripheral societies despite of its astonishing etymology also is plausible. Another perspective way of elaboration comparative researches of pre-modern European peripheries is combining Marxist and non-Marxist concepts (like patrimonialism and the tributary mode of production, for example). I would also like to emphasize that in some cases in order to develop adequate typological concepts the combining of evaluation of internal (evolving of socioeconomic structures) as well as estimation of external impact is inevitable.

Editorial Foreword

The Romanian Journal for Baltic and Nordic Studies devotes the first half of this issue to novel social analyses and paradigms tailored on societies on the interference of pre-modernity and modernity. A well-known researcher of the phenomenon, especially as it is reflected in an East-Central European setting, Nerijus Babinskas maintains that feudalism, in contrast to the classical Marxist-Leninist interpretation that had become a canon during the Communist regime, “was not an inevitable stage of pre-modern development of all European societies”. By breaking apart of this ideological conception, Babinskas investigates the pros and cons of four Marxist alternative notions such as Asiatic mode of production, African mode of production, early Central European model or tributary mode of production, and a non-Marxist approach based on Max Weber’s patrimonialism. The author contends that a blending of these interpretations is the way out of the conceptual ossification which over the past decades has led social research in the matter into a deadlock.

Framing the Archaeological Data in Islamic Sicily. An Outlook from the Trapani Mountains

AbstractThis paper aims to show how a renewed theoretical and methodological approach to Islamic Sicily can provide new insights into the organization of the rural communities in the Trapani Mountains between the ninth and twelfth centuries. The first part is dedicated to the definition of ‘Islamic social formation’ and ‘tributary mode of production’, and to the integration of both concepts in the debate on al-Andalus, for the characterization of a medieval Islamic society. This theoretical background is indispensable for advocating the relevance of establishing comparisons between Islamic Sicily and al-Andalus. Finally, the last three sections will show how these new methodological approaches and their theoretical background can provide a historical interpretation of the archaeological record.

Working in landscape archaeology: the social and territorial significance of the agricultural revolution in al-Andalus

The agrarian transformations which took place in the Iberian Peninsula between the eighth and the tenth century are essential for an understanding of how al-Andalus came into being. These developments provided the basis of a social formation which developed into a tributary mode of production. This study is part of a research project that draws inspiration from the tenets of landscape archaeology. Studying historic landscapes as part of the material culture of past societies provides valuable information about cultures and the ways they express themselves in space.

Materialism, Mode of Production, and a Millennium of Change in Southern Mexico

In this paper, I ask why the insights of classical (i.e., materialist) Marxism are not more commonly used by archaeologists of recent academic generations. With evidence from the Soconusco region of Mexico, I explore the relationship between the economic base and political superstructure of the region’s inhabitants as well as evidence for the transformation from a kin-ordered to a tributary mode of production. Major esthetic and political transformations occurred across the region when naturalistic standards were replaced by abstract Olmec-style representation beginning approximately 1,400 cal. B.C. In contrast, macrobotanical, ground stone, and faunal patterns from the site of Cuauhtemoc (along with patterns from across the Soconusco) indicated that a major transformation of the economy occurred during the Conchas phase (1,000–850 cal. B.C.). Along with the marked intensification of subsistence production, the Conchas phase was also when the first system of conical mounds were built at the top three tiers of political centers in the Soconusco. I argue that the use of modes of production holds unrealized potential for a materialist interpretation of the past and that the development of a tributary mode of production helps explain the changes in the Soconusco after 1,000 cal. B.C.

The Concept of Tributalism: A Comparative Analysis of S. Amin, J. Haldon and H. H. Stahl‘s Approaches

By this article the author wants to revive the discussion about Marxist schemas of social development and their applicability for constructing models of universal history. The viewpoints of three scholars are presented in the current text: Samir Amin‘s who is known in the Western historiographical tradition as the main creator and promoter of the concept of tributary mode of production, John Haldon‘s who has paid much attention to the above-mentioned concept and has dedicated an entire book to this issue, Henri H. Stahl‘s who created an original alternative approach to the issue of tributalism. The author rejects J. Haldon‘s concept of „mode of production“ as being too narrow. In fact J. Haldon identifies the mode of production with the mode of exploitation. The author proposes a wider definition of the mode of production which is based on the analysis of Karl Marx‘s texts. According to the author, the most important elements of mode of production are exploitative subject (it is defined by property of conditions of production, which realises as the social power) and productive/obligatory unit which can be manifested as a household of an individual direct producer or as a community. The author proposes the following classification based on his conception of a mode of production: 1. A proprietor of land is a monarch/state and the productive/obligatory unit is the community (of Asiatic/Slavonic type); 2. A proprietor of land is a monarch/state and the productive/obligatory unit is the household of an individual direct producer; 3. Proprietors of land are private landowners and the productive/obligatory unit is the community (of Asiatic/Slavonic type); 4. Proprietors of land are private landowners and the productive/obligatory unit is the household of an individual direct producer. The most important conclusions of the author‘s are as follows: 1. H. H. Stahl‘s statement that there were alternatives in the social development of precapitalist societies are definitely reasonable. 2. Keeping in his mind the controversies between the conceptions of tributalism the author emphasizes that for the moment the question of the typology of antagonistic precapitalist societies remains open; so further researches and discussions are necessary. 3. As a point of departure for further researches and discussions the author proposes his classification of antagonistic precapitalist societies based on the criteria of an exploitative subject and a productive/obligatory unit.

Modes of Production, Rules for Reproduction and Gender: the fabrication of China's textile manufacturing workforce since the late Empire

Textile production by rural households has been a major component of political economies in China since at least the late Empire. The petty commodity production of textiles first developed within a pre-capitalist context, marked by the interaction of owner-operator peasant households with a tributary mode of production. Initially petty commodity production led neither to ‘industrialisation’ nor to the replacement of pre-capitalist forms of household-based production. Instead, it continued to be carried out by people as members of households to which they had unbreakable economic obligations, and over whom kin seniors could exercise state-sanctioned patriarchal power to operate gender transfers. As cheap imports of machine-spun cotton yarns threatened to undercut China's domestic textile industry in the late 19th century, capitalist investors began to operate factories employing the rural women who were the first proletarians to manufacture textiles outside the household, and the forebears of China's new working class of internal rural migrants.

Persistent Stasis in a Tributary Mode of Production: The Peasant Economy of Ethiopia

The paradox of Ethiopia's agrarian economy is that, despite underwriting a world civilization, the transition to an industrial economy has eluded it. Using a model of Afro-Asiatic tributarism, we attribute this outcome to endemic extractive contests between a predominantly landed peasantry and a titled, prebendary overlord class. The latter's strategy of political accumulation inevitably engendered immiserization of overlord and peasant alike by privileging diversion over production. The surplus was then dissipated on unproductive consumption, national defence and internecine strife. Lacking a strong state to mitigate predation and political instability, the Ethiopian peasant rationally ‘chose’ to be efficiently, albeit self-sufficiently, poor.

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE MIDDLE BENUE BASIN BEFORE THE JIHAD, C.1500-1812

This paper examines the evolution and nature of the political economy of the middle Benue basin before the Jihad. The processes of production in the middle Benue basin developed to a level that made it possible to generate surpluses. The level of surplus appropriation in the tributary mode of production was such that it gave the centralised states a much stronger resource base which enabled them not only to expand production but also to organise wider distributive networks both within and outside the Middle Benue basin, thereby further consolidating their economic, military and political domination of the region before the jihad. (Humanities Review: 2001 1(1): 67-73)

The King's Preferential Option for the Poor: Rhetoric, Ideology and Ethics in Psalm 72

AbstractPsalm 72 embodies the ideal that the Davidic dynasty wished to be seen by its subjects to fulfil. Rhetorical analysis shows that the conception of the king as the protector of the poor is offered as the sole justification for the world-wide dominion claimed for him. But this ideology, which presents the king as caring for the poor of his own people but claiming tribute from foreign nations, contains a moral contradiction, as well as concealing the truth that the king was supported by domestic exploitation. However, the appropriateness of the model of the tributary mode of production is questioned in the light of the evidence for private property rights. The ideology draws its plausibility from an ancient tradition of royal measures in favour of the poor. Although direct evidence is limited, it will have been to the advantage of the judaean dynasty to take such measures in order to repress the independent power of local elites. The text suppresses this interest of the king, as well as his own exploitative activity, in favour of his alleged concern for the poor, and thus harmonizes the interests of the king with theirs. But it achieves this at the expense of the doctrine of unconditional divine election, deriving the king's legitimacy from his fulfilment of the divine will in his 'option for the poor'. The psalm's permanent ethical value lies in that it treats state authority as legitimate only if exercised on behalf of the weakest members of society.

China's Motor: A Thousand Years of Petty Capitalism (review)

400 China Review International: Vol. 4, No. 2, Fall 1997 Despite this criticism, the book is a valuable reference for Chinese economic reform. It represents an official exposition of the great transformation of the Chinese economic system during the early stage of the reform era. Chu-yuan Cheng Ball State University Chu-yuan Cheng is a professor ofeconomics specializing in studies ofthe Chinese economy and has published thirty-six books on this subject. m Hill Gates. China's Motor: A Thousand Years ofPetty Capitalism. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1996. xiv, 326 pp. Hardcover $35.00, isbn 0-8014-3143-3. This is a heroic attempt by anthropologist Hill Gates to rehabilitate the "spirit" (p. 6) ofMarxism as a viable explanatory framework for the last thousand years of Chinese history, including the present. She tries to show how the rulers and people of a modified socialist state can prosper through the rulers' manipulations of an overgrown "Petty Capitalist" market which is the "motor" ofboth state and society. Ultimately Dr. Gates fails to rehabilitate Marxism, but in passing provides a number of illuminating insights on the inner logic of some key aspects of Chinese history and (both wittingly and unwittingly) on the conceptual and moral limitations of Marxism. Dr. Gates worries (p. ix) that her conclusions will embarrass non-Marxist scholars, mostiy fellow anthropologists, upon whose work she has drawn. She probably need not be concerned. Most contemporary anthropologists think well to the left, and at worst are merely too shy to make their material-determinist explanatory framework as overt as she does. Gates can also expect (though she might be embarrassed by) sympathetic treatment from Chinese apologists for the so-called "new authoritarianism," who also hope to synthesize a relatively open but politically neutered market with a relatively mild but politically authoritarian state defined and run by Marxists. Dr. Gates calls the vigorous and growing Chinese market since Song times by 1997 by University ^ Mandst name of«Petty Capitalist Mo(je 0fProduction" (PCMP). She employs the traditional Confucian word "tribute" to characterize die political economy of the state and its servants as the "Tributary Mode of Production" (TMP). ofHawai'i Press Reviews 401 Gates' TMP is already familiar notjust, or even primarily, to Marxist material determinists but to their philosophical opposites, particularly the followers of the late philosopher ofhistory, Eric Voegelin.1Voegelinians might be characterized , using nomenclature parallel to Marxist material determinism, as practitioners of "ideational determinism." Gates herself sometimes comes perilously close to becoming a closet Voegelinian. She avoids this only by discounting her own narrative ofideational religious material and arbitrarily assuming that the claims it contains by rulers to a linkage with the transcendent must be bogus, reflecting Earthly rather than Heavenly forms. She thereby forecloses by assumption any way for the rulers to justify their receipt oftribute from the ruled in exchange for reconciling the ruled with the transcendent. Voegelin argues that hypocrisy is impossible to sustain in such matters. Successful rulers ofeach new stage of civilization seem first to perceive Heaven in a new way and then "re-present" their vision of Heaven onto Earth in the forms of the organization of their new state and society. Gates has her Chinese, both rulers and ruled, do the reverse and use their earthly organizations, both political and economic, as models for constructing their visions ofHeaven. Like Voltaire, she merely assumes that men always make their gods in man's own image and never the other way around. Voegelin, however, claims that such cynicism, like Voltaire's, tends to become dominant only during a crisis of civilization. Such a crisis occurs when the evolution ofEarthly institutions outgrows the honestly perceived but always limited vision ofHeaven that gave rise to these institutions in the first place.2 Gates would probably agree that China, possibly since Song times and surely since the Ming, has moved ever deeper into such a crisis of civilization. She is more convincing when she argues that (at least over the last millennium ) popular religion has been conceptually more antagonistic to than reflective ofrulers' religion (pp. 151, 155 n. 3, 168). A fair-minded Voegelinian could accept almost all of Gates' teasing of socioeconomic political...

Book Reviews : JOHN HALDON, The State and the Tributary Mode of Production, Verso, London and New York, 1993, x + 339 pp

Book Reviews : JOHN HALDON, The State and the Tributary Mode of Production, Verso, London and New York, 1993, x + 339 pp

Radical functionalism: The life and work of Karl Polanyi

In concluding, let us restate the main theoretical arguments concerning Austria-Hungary and Malinowski-Polanyi. There are many more aspects of this latter contrast which I have not dwelt on, including those of temper and personality. My concern was to show that it is not enough to trace ideas back to their origin in an undifferentiated Central Europe, for we need to be quite clear about the context in which those ideas were initially taken on board. Mach was an appropriate philosopher for the ordered bureaucracy of Austria, and he embodies the individual-centered and fundamentally conservative message, which I see articulated later in very different (and non-positivist) styles by Popper, Hayek, Schumpeter, etc. This was the message accepted in its fundamentals by Malinowski in Cracow. The Hungarian half of the Empire had quite different traditions, and one might even say that political dilemmas in this half of the Empire were so pressing that they had no time for philosophy. By the time Polanyi was growing up in Budapest, nationalist fervor was at its height, and a nineteenth century heritage of liberal, even radical thought, was under pressure from the extreme right. Polanyi's Jewish family background probably pushed him towards the Left in his early years, though it in no way interfered with this Hungarian patriotism. When he read Mach, he accepted the “individualist” and positivist aspects of the message, but he could never endorse the conservative respect for tradition that underpinned Malinowski's functionalism. This is what makes his position so interesting, and he maintained it throughout his career. In this light, Polanyi's economic anthropology is an authentic cultural product of Central Europe. Malinowski, to the extent that he took on board the basic social theory of Austrian liberal conservatism, “sold out” to the West, and to an ideological tradition which has an alternative home in another country on the periphery of industrial capitalism: Enlightenment Scotland. Austria-Hungary also produced intellectuals who “sold out” in the other direction, and abandoned all notion of intellectual autonomy for the individual by capitulating to the total discipline of the revolutionary Party. This tradition is that of Russia and Lenin, and the best known Central European intellectual recruit was Lukacs, perhaps because he studied idealists in Germany rather than the positivists in Vienna. Karl Polanyi was unable to give unswerving loyalty either to the capitalist ideology of the West, or to the ideology of the new “tributary mode of production” in the East. The middle position, which I believe he occupied throughout his life, is one that will never satisfy ideologues, and it is hard to infuse it with the same intellectual elegance. Still, just as his historical researches showed the real possibilities for combining modes of economic integration, and his life experiences showed the folly of concentration on only one, so Hungarians have learned from history that they are best off with the sort of mixed economy they have today. His popularity in Hungary is therefore unsurprising, and one may hope that the practical message of his anthropology will not be permanently forgotten in the West.

Land Tenancy Reform in Ethiopia: A Retrospective Analysis

Previous articleNext article No AccessLand Tenancy Reform in Ethiopia: A Retrospective AnalysisGene EllisGene Ellis Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 28, Number 3Apr., 1980 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/451195 Views: 9Total views on this site Citations: 3Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1980 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Berhanu Abegaz Persistent Stasis in a Tributary Mode of Production: The Peasant Economy of Ethiopia, Journal of Agrarian Change 5, no.33 (Jul 2005): 299–333.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0366.2005.00103.xM. Bazlul Karim Rural development projects— Comilla, Puebla, and Chilalo: A comparative assessment, Studies In Comparative International Development 20, no.44 (Dec 1985): 3–41.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02717354R. P. HARGREAVES RECENT ARTICLES ON DEVELOPMENT, New Zealand Journal of Geography 76, no.11 (May 2008): 19–20.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0028-8292.1984.tb00158.x

The Mexicas and the Tributary Mode of Production

The Mexicas and the Tributary Mode of Production