Pre‐capitalist modes of production in non‐European societies

This article is an intervention in the debate on feudalism in non‐European societies. The scholarly isolation of those working in the field is deplored; the difficulties associated with the concepts of mode of production and social formation are discussed; strong exception is taken to the position that the feudal mode of production is a universal category applicable to all societies; and it is further argued that universal laws of feudalism, comparable to those of capitalism, have never been identified. The author suggests that Marxist historians should abandon the concept of mode of production. Rather, history should be studied in terms of a succession of dominant relations of production.     

Fieldwork experience: Relived and reconsidered. The Agrarian society of Uttar Pradesh∗

Fieldwork is currently regarded as basic to the anthropologist's method of studying rural communities. Though I studied social anthropology as a student, my interest in fieldwork in U.P. villages in the early 1950s came from different sources ‐from the tradition of fieldwork‐based rural studies initiated by R.K. Mukerjee in my university and from my contact with the writings of Mao Tse‐Tung in the course of my brief involvement in revolutionary politics. What gave special significance to my fieldwork was my theoretical interest in exploring the relevance of the concept of class as a tool for understanding the dynamics of predominantly agrarian, ex‐colonial countries. Fieldwork helped me to gain an insight into the peculiarities of the agrarian structure in an ex‐colonial country which showed rural‐urban antagonism more sharply than internal class polarisation. It is through fieldwork that I became aware of the role played by ecological and geographical factors in determining the peculiarities of the agrarian structure in each region. Field experience also made me aware of the conflicting pulls of class conflict and community solidarity operating simultaneously in Indian villages. The inadequacy of fieldwork as a method was also revealed to me sharply inthe course of fieldwork itself. When I tried to explore how the evolution of the agrarian structure in a region was shaped not merely by the natural factors specific to a region but the political‐economic forces operating from outside the region, I found I had reached the limits of field work. In the absence of a broader perspective of a macro theory of social change, fieldwork yielded only a bewildering mass of facts and information but no meaningful insights.     

Surplus yield and production structure: The case of small‐scale rural industries in West Bengal

Rural industries in West Bengal are characterized by a multiplicity of organizational forms, such as independent petty production, petty production under subcontracting relations with a master trader, modern small‐scale production, and medium‐sized capitalist production. On the basis of field data, we have estimated the amount of surplus generated by these different kinds of producer across a number of organizations and industries, using an alternative criterion: imputing wages to family labour. It was observed that a large number of petty producers generate negative or very low surpluses, and thus have to find supplementary sources of income. Further, the surpluses generated by petty producers attached to a master trader are generally higher than those of independent petty producers.This can be explained in one of two ways. Either the existence of mutual trust between attached petty producers and a master trader offers the former certain advantages over the independent ones, in terms of steady access to urban markets, cheaper sources of raw materials, and easy credit. Or, alternatively, the control such attachment licenses enables a master trader both to extract and to maintain continuous access to higher levels of surplus. For these reasons, this system, of organization lends viability to artisanal production.     

Changes in peasant food production and food supply in relation to the historical development of commodity production in pre‐colonial and colonial Tanganyika∗

This paper explores the dynamic interaction between peasant food production and commodity production under conditions of the increasing penetration of capital and consequent erosion of pre‐capitalist modes of production in pre‐colonial and colonial Tanganyika (Tanzania). It is argued that while the law of value inherent in commodity production definitely served to effect more specialisation of labour in peasant production, nevertheless,it was bounded by the limits of labour productivity attainable in peasant household production units. Shortfalls in peasant food production appeared as the most glaring consequence of the labour productivity constraint. The role of the colonial state was critical, not merely in the sense of acting to increase peasant commodity production. The colonial state also intervened strategically to dispense famine relief in times of serious food shortfalls, which guaranteeing peasant subsistence, altered its character from that of unreliability to that of regularity. Since peasant subsistence formed the necessary base for peasant commodity production, state famine relief ensured the persistence of peasant commodity production but not its proliferation, the latter again being indicative of the labour productivity constraint.     

Socio‐economic differentiation and relations of production among rural‐based petty producers in central Peru, 1880 to 1970.

In an attempt to uncover the complexity of socio‐economic differentiation, detailed evidence is presented of the changing production relations among the Huasicanchinos of Central Peru over a period of ninety years.

It is argued that the process of differentiation can only be understood within the context of a quite specific system of production. An examination of the specificity of the relations of production in a particular period then reveals the complexity of this differentiation process and exposes some of the difficulties involved in a class analysis where capitalist relations have not been generalised throughout the social formation.

The study of this group of Central Peruvian petty producers over ninety years reveals that the differentiation process was a function of specific features of the relations of production in each of three periods; these relations were themselves emergent from the articulation of huasicanchino petty production with the changing form of dominant capitalism in Peru. As a function of differing relations to large capital, petty production units took on a variety of forms. Qualitative differences in the form of small production units in one period then gave rise to quantitative differences in control over resources in a subsequent period. Quantitative differences were in turn expressed in variations in relations of production between controllers and direct producers, and so on.

It is concluded that assumptions about inevitable polarisation should not obscure the complexity of a process which can only be understood by reference to the particular history of a social formation.     

Value,price, and simple commodity production: The case of the Zapotec stoneworkers∗

The concepts of ‘commodity’ and of ‘simple commodity production’ in the work of Marx and his interpreters are examined as a necessary departure point for the analysis of value and price in a Mexican peasant‐artisan stoneworking industry. The labour theory of value, which posits a close relationship between market price and average embodied labour cost of commodities in a peasant‐artisan economy, is applied to the stone‐working industry and is shown to have explanatory power in both the qualitative and quantitative sense. This analysis leads to the conclusion that the labour theory is a necessary tool for discerning and approximating the fundamental role of the labour process, as well as the structure of production relations, in determining the nature and conduct of exchange activities in a peasant‐artisan commodity/market economy.     

Class relations and capitalist development: Subsumption in the Colombian coffee industry, 1928–92

The concept of subsumption had a short life within Marxist analysis of family farming because analysts using the concept failed to appreciate the centrality of class relations in Marx's analysis of capitalist development. I argue that the concept of subsumption is best understood as a theorisation of the subtle cultural and historical processes through which labour is incorporated into capitalist development projects. I reinforce this theoretical discussion with an analysis of capitalist development in the Colombian coffee industry. This case demonstrates that capitalist development is as much project as process, as much the reformation of cultural identity as the restructuring of relations of production.     

The economic bases of demographic reproduction: From the domestic mode of production to wage‐earning

This article investigates the changes affecting demographic reproduction of population of peasant origin when they shift from self‐sustenance to market economy and wage‐earning. It shows how in the domestic mode of production, the birth‐rate and the survival of the pre‐productive generation until the age of production are dependent on the labour productivity of subsistence agriculture and on the techniques of conservation of crops, and how social reproduction is governed by the mode of distribution of the surplus‐product. The loss of control of the communities over their grain reserves, and their progressive integration into the market economy and wage‐earning, change the conditions of demographic reproduction, which comes to depend on money income, prices of subsistence, market supply, level of employment etc. These circumstances and the concomitant insecurity favour both a burst of natality as a means of social security and the survival of the younger generations for longer periods; and they accentuate the demographic effects of famines or unemployment. Hence the dramatic consequences of the monetary policy implemented in the dependent countries on the physiological conditions of the proletarianised rural populations.     

The peasant image and agrarian change: Representations of rural society in nineteenth‐century French painting from millet to van Gogh

In the upsurge of rustic themes in French painting during the second half of the nineteenth century is articulated a range of urban responses to agrarian and industrial transformation of country and city at the time. The recreation through art of ‘peasant culture’ was rooted in preoccupations about work and production, changing social relations and forms of sociability, the idea of the nation and the growth of political consciousness. This article examines some of the processes underlying the abundant production of peasant images ‐ the role of patronage, the growing importance of contemporary art criticism in formulating and diffusing values and sensibilities — as well as the complex and, at times, contradictory strains within the iconography of rural life in nineteenth‐century French art.     

The profitability of bonded labour: The gem‐cutting industry in rural South India

The system of debt bondage in the gem‐cutting industry of South India is considered. Evidence is examined from intensive field work in villages in Tamilnadu, and one large village in particular, which has been a major centre in the synthetic gem‐cutting industry for 70 years. It is argued, against various authors, that here bonded labour is not a pre‐capitalist relation of production. Rather, it is part of a dynamic, capitalist small‐scale industry that is rapidly expanding into global markets. Moreover, since 1990 a dramatic change is noted in part of the industry: the introduction of semiautomatic machinery, with which a new product (the American diamond) is made. This has led, inter alia, to the displacement of women workers. The profits earned by employers, the nature of relations between employers and workers, and especially the use of kinship ideology, and the relevant inter‐connections are explored.     

The Agrarian question in Mexico: Debate in a Cul‐de‐Sac

The theme of this review essay is Mexico's unresolved agrarian question and the possibility of a distinct ‘Mexican Road’. Four books on the Mexican peasantry are considered: in turn, by John Gledhill, Jonathan Fox, Frank Cancian and Roger Bartra. They all deal with the relationships that connect that peasantry to the Mexican state within a tradition of rural development that has been punctuated and characterised by revolution and state‐building agrarian reform. It is argued that our understanding of the agrarian question in Mexico continues to be bogged down by unfocused monographs on the one hand (the books by the first three of the authors named) and schematic assumptions on the other (as exemplified by Bartra); and that much research needs to be done before the ‘Mexican Road’ can be seen as an accepted option among substantive agrarian alternatives. That research needs to appraise two assumptions frequently made: first, that the hacienda economy was pre‐capitalist; and secondly, that the agrarian programme in Mexico ushered in the rural transition to capitalism.

Casi Nada: A Study of Agrarian Reform in the Homeland of Cardenismo, by John Gledhill, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1991. Pp.xv + 420. NP. ISBN 968 7230 68 1

The Politics of Food in Mexico, by Jonathan Fox. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1993. Pp.xii + 280. $43.95 (hardback). ISBN 0 8014 2716 9

The Decline of Community in Zinacantdn, by Frank Cancian. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992. Pp.xxi + 300. $42.50 (hardback) ISBN 0 8047 2040 1

Agrarian Structure and Political Power in Mexico, by Roger Bartra. Baltimore, MD and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. Pp.xvii + 221. £37 (hardback); £12.50 (paperback) ISBN 0 80184 4398 7 and 4542 4     

Songs of the eight‐hour movement∗

The Making of the Labor Bureaucrat: Union Leadership in the United States, 1870–1920. By Warren R. Van Tine. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1973. 230 pp. $10.00.

Urban Liberalism and Progressive Reform. By John D. Buenker. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973. xi + 299 pp. $8.95.

Labor's Search For Political Order: The Political Behavior Of The Missouri Labor Movement, 1890–1940. By Gary M. Fink. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1973. viii + 228 pp. $10.00.

Them and Us: Struggles of a Rank and File Union. By James J. Matles and James Higgins. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice‐Hall, 1974. 311 pp. $6.95.

Writers in Revolt: the Anvil Anthology, 1933–1940. Edited by Jack Conroy and Curt Johnson. New York: Lawrence Hill &; Co., 1973. 234 pp. $8.95.

The Aristocracy of Labor: The Position of Skilled Craftsmen in the American Class Structure. Cambridge Studies in Sociology 7. By Gavin Mackenzie. New York and London: Cambridge University Press, 1973‐ 208 pp. $14.50.

Aspects historiques du mouvement ouvrier au Quebec. Edited and with an introduction by Fernand Harvey. Etudes d'histoire du Québec, 6. Montréal: Les Editions du boréal express, 1973. 226 pp. $5.80.

G. D. H. Cole. An Intellectual Biography. By L. P. Carpenter. Conference on British Studies Biographical Series. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1973. 271 pp. $14.95.

Five Per Cent Philanthropy: An Account of Housing in Urban Areas Between 1840 and 1914. By John Nelson Tarn. Cambridge, G. B.; Cambridge University Press, 1973. xiv, 211 pp. $23.50.

The Emancipation of Women: The Rise and Decline of the Women's Movement in German Social Democracy 1863–1933. By Werner Thonnessen. Trans. Joris de Btes. London: Pluto Press, 1973.185 pp. £3.75.     

Northern Thai peasant society: Twentieth‐century transformations in political and Jural structures

This article describes changes in politico‐jural structures in a peasant sector of Northern Thailand as between two specific periods 1910–50 and 1950–70. Peasant households and local communities, village elders and headmen, ideological practice and changing types, causes and means of settlement of disputes and trouble cases are analysed in a context of increasing socio‐economic differentiation. Changes and continuities are theorized in terms of two transitional conjunctures in a shift from a precapitalist mode of production. The small‐scale anthropological study is set in the theoretical framework of the Thai social formation as a whole, whose agricultural sector is shown to be increasingly dominated by capitalist relations of production.