Contradiction and
Change
Structural marxism and ‘modes of
production’
Marx + LeviStrauss=Maurice Godelier
• Features of structural marxism:
– From Marx, structural marxists took
the ideas of class, contradiction, and
mode of production.
– Like Levi-Strauss, they believed that
all societies possessed underlying,
hidden structures.
Their main concept was
‘mode of production’
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Consist of relations of production, relations of exchange and
forces of production.
Relations of Production=the culturally determined way in
which control, possession or ownership of major resources
occurs in given society.
Forces of Production=the technology and technical
knowledge required in a given society to reproduce the
means of society.
Relations of production and forces of production may be in
contradiction; these contradictions lead to change.
In general, relations of production are considered to be
primary.
Most societies consist of several modes of production, in this
case the concept of articulation of modes of production is
important.
– articulation means both linking and ‘to give expression to.’
– Articulation specifies the nature of the contradictory linkages
btween modes of production.
Modes of Production in
England, c. 1600-1900
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Forces of Production: Intensive peasant agriculture, use of ploughs and
irrigation. Increase in mercantile activity and trade.
Relations of Production: Largely feudal/mercantile: Key resource remains
land, and landownership is defined by relations of private property, influenced
by heredity, descent and an inheritance of aristocratic title: dukes, earls,
counts, princes, etc.
However, rise of mercantilism and the beginnings of application of technology
to manufacturing:
Social Classes linked to the relations of production during this period:
A. Agriculture:
Landlords
Yeoman farmers
Tenants
B. Mercantilism and Industry:
Merchants
Artisans
Workers
The mode of production CHANGED in ENGLAND between 1750 and 1850, to
one referred to as industrial capitalism, a mode of production that has spread
throughout the world, first through colonialism.
Existence of Different Modes of
Production in a World Market
• Feudalism and Capitalism in Latin America:
• Feudalism in the form of latifundias,
alongside a plantation sector in the West
Indies and Brazil. Both of these, although
producing for a world market, depended
upon extra-economic coercion.
• Laclau: capitalism is based on the free
labourer’s sale of labour power, not on
serf-like or slave-like relations.
Modes of Production in
Post-Mao Rural China
• Change from collective farms to household
responsibility system after 1978. Allowed individual
households to market produce and decentralized the
collectives into separate farms and businesses.
• Han: this process is uneven in 2 villages she
studied.
– Both villages are characterized by an articulation between:
• The tributary mode of production (TMP)
• The petty commodity mode of production (PCMP)
• However, the TMP is dominant in Nanyi, while the PCMP is
dominant in Baifu.
• What are the consequences of the different modes of
production for kinship, gender and family relations?
PCMP characteristics:
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PCMP: Consists of commodity production by kin
corporations which can be households, groups of
brothers, patrilineages, or simply a conjugal family
consisting of a husband and his wife. Patri-corporations
own and control production resources. Produce more
for sale than for use. Capitalist-lie in that it is profitdriven , but does not employ large numbers of wage
workers and technical inputs remain low-cost and not
capital-intensive.
No explicit gender differentiation; women as well as men can
head small business enterprises.
TMP characteristics
• Consists of a stratified society in which the state controls surplus
production and redistributes it.
• State also ‘owns’ territory and landed property.
• Heirarchical ideology characterizes relations between rulers and
ruled, but also some reciprocity. State seen as a large family.
• In China, this ideology was expressed through Confucian norms,
which held that balance and harmony resulted from the
subordination of children to parents, subjects to rulers, and women
to men.
• It is associated in China with ‘traditional’ gender practises:
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Inheritance of land by elder sons.
Patrilineages
Patrilocality
Dowry
Concubinage
Women involved mostly in domestic work, men in public production.
Baifu and Nanyi as
mixed villages
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Baifu has adopted the household responsibility system to a
greater extent. Farms and industries are decentralized and
independently run.
Nanyi: large amounts of land have been devoted to industry;
hence political decentralization has not been necessary. Village
committee still possesses a great deal of authority.
Baifu is dominated by a PCMP with many independent
enterprises.
Nanyi by the TMP, where the state has more control over
everyday decisions.
Baifu has more heterodox gender relations; e.g. uxorilocality,
women retaining their household registration in their natal
villages, women have more control over birth choices.
Nanyi has more orthodox gender and familial relations;
patrilocality is enforced and the communist party birth control
worker controls birth decisions.
Modes of production,
gender, dowry and
bridewealth
• Goody: major differences between
Africa and Eurasia in terms of
marriage payments.
– Sub-Saharan Africa: bridewealth
– Eurasia: dowry.
Intensive agriculture
and dowry
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Intensive agriculture: agriculture with the use of plough and irrigation.
Often land is privately owned or owned by the state.
Population increases and wealth increases; land is a scarce means of
production.
Upper strata (castes or classes) will attempt to control the marriage choices
of their offspring.
Patrilineal inheritance of land; daughters inherit moveable property through
dowry.
Diverging inheritance: immoveable=sons; moveable= daughters.
Emphasis on virginity of daughters, fidelity of wives, often patrilocality,
controlled or arranged marriages. ‘like marries like’.
Found in Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Confucian, Greek and Roman Law,
Christianity until the industrial revolution. Stresses similarities between
Europe and Asia.
Class and caste endogamy is also a feature of these societies.
Status of a family is reflected in the behaviour of women; associated also
with notions of honour and shame, e.g. ‘honour killings’..
– E.g. India: upper-caste women’s propriety was a reflection of the purity
of the caste. Arranged marriages, bans on widow remarriage, fidelity
of wives, lack of divorce, etc.
– When a caste attempted to increase its status, it would more strictly
control the behaviour of women.