History, Power, Ideology: Central Issues in Marxism and Anthropology / Edition 1

by Donald L. Donham, Eric R. Wolf

Overview

Is Marxism a reflection of the conceptual system it fights against, rather than a truly comprehensive approach to human history? Drawing on recent work in anthropology, history, and philosophy, Donald Donham confronts this problem in analyzing a radically different social order: the former Maale kingdom of southern Ethiopia.

Unlike capitalist societies, wherein inequality is organized by contracts between "free" individuals, in Maale powerful men were thought to "beget" others through control of biological fertility and material fortune. Donham scrutinizes this unusual system of domination in order to sharpen issues in social and cultural theory. He concludes that the interpretation of symbols and analysis of historical contingency should be crucial steps in any Marxists investigation. The result is a provocative and original re-reading of the Marxist tradition, and a spirited defense of its continued vitality and relevance.

"Every once in a while there appears a book that . . . opens up new ways of inquiring into the ways of the world. Donald Donham has written such a book. The style is quiet and judicious, but the effect is stunning. . . . In putting inherited partisan approaches to the test of explaining the realities of Maale society and culture, Donham enriches anthropology and imparts new vigor to the analytical Marxian traditions. History, Power, Ideology embodies a major accomplishment."—From the Foreword

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520213371
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	06/27/1999
Edition description:	First Edition, With a New Preface and a Foreword by Eric Wolf
Pages:	259
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Donald L. Donham is Professor of Anthropology at Emory University and author of Work and Power in Maale, Ethiopia (1994). Eric R. Wolf is author of Europe and the People without History (California, 1982).

Table of Contents

Foreword 
Preface to the 1999 edition Preface 

Introduction 
1. Homo economicus: A Maale mystery
2. Epochal structures I: Reconstructing historical materialism
3. Epochal structures II: An anatomy of Maale production
4. History at one point in time: "Working together" in Bola, 1975
Conclusion 

Appendix: Predicting the past from the future Bibliography 
Index 

Editorial Reviews

"An enormously thoughtful and imaginative reflection on [history, power, and ideology]. . . . This book re-directs our attention to enduring questions with which all social and cultural theory must ultimately grapple—the big questions of historical explanation and historical determination that refuse to dissolve quietly into textuality. In thinking through, with rare intelligence and control, what indeed remain 'our deepest questions,' Donald Donham has produced a challenging ethnographic and theoretical treatise of enduring value."

Anthropological Quarterly

"Among the most impressive contributions to social anthropology and Marxist social theory in recent memory. . . . It deserves a central place in contemporary anthropological literature"

Journal of Anthropological Research