Marxist Theory and Anthropological Analysis: The Study of Nomadic Pastoralist Societies

Bonté, Pierre

doi:10.1007/978-1-349-16632-9_2

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…However, the best possible insight into this issue is given to us by French Marxist anthropologist Pierre Bonte: in researching different nomadic pastoralist tribes of East Africa, he noted that they were all stratified by economic classes, but that only some had states, whereas others, like the Tuareg that he personally studied, did not (Bonte 1981). This led Bonte to question the general applicability of the Marxist-Leninist theory of the origin of the state (Bonte 1981, 22), concluding that the relation between class and state at the very least isn't direct.…”

Section: Class and State: Causation Or Correlation?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Contending materialist conceptions of the origin of the state: On the divide between Morgan and Engels

Matić

2023

Srpska politička misao

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This paper will present a comparative analysis of two major materialist conceptions of the origin of the state, namely, those of Lewis Morgan and Friedrich Engels. The first part of the paper will offer a brief overview of the 17th century origins of this theory: the philosophical attempts to establish how the state came to be. Thereafter, we will look at how Morgan's innovative approach enabled tremendous progress on this issue, offering, if not the answer to the question of the state's origin, then at least the means of reaching it. The central part of the paper will present Engels' attempt to create a theory of his own, featuring aspects of both Marx's and Morgan's thought: in this regard, we will focus on the fundamental elements that are shared between Morgan's and Engels' theories. Finally, the subject of the last part of the paper will be the divergence between the two authors: here, we will examine the theoretical limitations of Engels' attempt to surpass Morgan's work and point to a number of errors that proceeded therefrom.

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Section: Class and State: Causation Or Correlation?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Contending materialist conceptions of the origin of the state: On the divide between Morgan and Engels

Matić

2023

Srpska politička misao

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“…The social relations within pastoralists' domestic formations make a big difference. Bonte (1977Bonte ( , 1979Bonte ( , 1981bBonte ( , 1981c, for example, emphasised the relationships between individual and kin or community-based accumulation in Nilotic pastoralist societies of East Africa, explaining how class formation is complex, intersecting with wider social relations, religion and ideology. Equally, in such segmentary lineage systems redistributive relations involving a diverse array of stock-sharing and entrustment practices may act to offset individualised accumulation; instead accumulation occurs at the kin-group or community level.…”

Section: Accumulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pastoralists and peasants: perspectives on agrarian change

Scoones

2020

The Journal of Peasant Studies

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For many years, studies of peasants and pastoralists have run in parallel, creating mutual blind-spots. This article argues that, despite contrasting research traditions and conceptual framings, there are many commonalities. The classic problematics of agrarian studiesaround production, accumulation and politicsapply as much to pastoralists as they do to peasants. Processes of social differentiation and class formation, the role of wage labour and questions around mobilisation and politics are consistently relevant. However, a reflection on a large literature on pastoralism across nine world regions reveals that there are nevertheless some important contrasts with classic representations of a settled peasantry. These are: living with and off uncertainty; mobility to respond to variability; flexible land control and new forms of tenure; dynamic social formations; collective social relations for a new moral economy; engaging with complex markets and a new politics for a transforming world. The article concludes by arguing that, under contemporary conditions, these are all important for understanding settled agrarian systems too, as today pastoralists and peasants face many of the same challenges. These seven themes, the article argues, offer a new set of lenses for examining pastoral and peasant settings alike, helping to expand perspectives in agrarian studies.

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“…Under the nomadic mode of production, they understood a complex unity of environmental, economic, and sociocultural components. At the same time, Karl Marx's German mode of production occupied an important place in the concept (Bradburd 1984;Digard 1989;Bonte 1981Bonte , 1990.…”

Section: French Structural Marxismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Complexity, Inner Asia, and Pastoral Nomadism

Kradin¹

2019

seh

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For many years scholars have interpreted the large polities of pastoral nomads of Inner Asia as having different levels of complexity (pre-state, early state, feudal society, nomadic civilization, etc.). The present article discusses the debates of recent decades within the post-Marxist and postmodern approaches as well as the polemics about the relation between internal and external factors, about the hierarchy and heterarchy, periodization and complexity levels. Many important issues give rise to a new wave of debates. However, there is still no consensus on a number of fundamental issues. We call to a new phase in nomadic studies (nomadology) -the transition from the great theories to the middle-range theories. We also give comments on some articles of the present special section. FROM MARXISM TO EMPIRICISMIt can be said that by the end of the Soviet era four main viewpoints on the nature of nomadic social structure had formed in Russian nomadology (see in more detail: Kradin 1992Kradin , 2003Kradin , 2007Kradin , 2014Vasyutin and Dashkovsky 2009): (1) pre-class society among the nomads. At the same time, some researchers believed that nomads could achieve statehood with the establishment of foreign exploitative relations; (2) the early state of the nomads; (3) feudalism among the nomads: a) the orthodox version of the nomadic feudalism theory; b) the saun version of nomadic feudalism; c) power over the nomads as the basis of feudalism; the formation of feudalism in the course of poor nomads sedentarization; and d) opinions about the feudal essence of nomadism without indicating its nature; and (4) a special nomadic or exopolitary mode of production.Unfortunately, theoretical research in nomadology became unpopular in the post-Soviet period. In a broader context, one can state that a wave of empiricism has swept through historical studies, archaeology, and anthropology. A huge number of studies introducing empirical material into scientific circulation is published each year. Sometimes, there are interesting generalizations that can be attributed to the middle-range theories. However, the number of conceptual generalizing studies by the Russianspeaking researchers is exceedingly small. One of the primary reasons might be the disillusionment of scholars in Marxism and, subsequently, their unwillingness to create new idols for themselves. It is possible that this fact can be explained by the general crisis in academic studies, endless reformatting of the structure of research studies, poor funding, and fierce competition for additional resources.One way or another, in the first post-Marxist decade the discussion was rather sluggish and the leadership gradually shifted to foreign researchers. The very focus of discussion also changed. The most relevant issue was the level of complexity the nomadic empires corresponded to. Some authors support the idea of the pre-state nature of nomadic societies

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Marxist Theory and Anthropological Analysis: The Study of Nomadic Pastoralist Societies

Cited by 10 publications

References 8 publications

Contending materialist conceptions of the origin of the state: On the divide between Morgan and Engels

Contending materialist conceptions of the origin of the state: On the divide between Morgan and Engels

Pastoralists and peasants: perspectives on agrarian change

Social Complexity, Inner Asia, and Pastoral Nomadism

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