Femmes, greniers et capitaux

by Claude Meillassoux

For over twenty years, Claude Meillassoux has been concerned with the study of the different modes of production which existed in Africa prior to colonisation, and the ways in which they responded to colonisation. In this book Professor Meillassoux draws both on his extensive fieldwork in Africa and on the anthropological literature to provide a detailed theoretical analysis of the self-sustaining agricultural community and its articulation with capitalism through the process of colonisation. Using evidence from the usually separated disciplines of ethnology and economics, he explores the major contradiction created by the persistence within the heart of capitalism of the self-sustaining domestic community as a means of reproduction of labour power, and shows that in fact there is a logical connection between the kinship structures which control reproduction in such communities and the forms of exploitation of workers from groups dominated by imperialism. This book offers the elements both of an advanced theory of the domestic mode of production and of a radical critique of classical and structuralist anthropology. just as Professor Meillassoux's earlier work, L'Anthropologie iconomique des Gouro de Cote d'Ivoire was received as a 'turning point in the history of anthropology', this study, which goes beyond a discussion of concepts in an attempt to further the practical steps taken by Marx and Engels, represents a major contribution to the contemporary progress of historical materialism.

Genres: Anthropology, Economics, Africa, Politics, Theory, History

257 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Mwanafunzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third book by Meillassoux I've now read. He certainly stayed "on-brand" during his career... Here he argued that anthropological orthodoxy had erred in seeing kinship as the principal determinant of social relations in African societies, especially those based on agriculture. As was his M.O., he maintained that economic relations determine social relations. Control of these relations rested with elders, who were the de jure managers of production and the orchestrators of marriages and births. Meillassoux understood women in African societies as holding tremendous social and political value; metaphorically, they represented the "womb" in which future generations were fostered. Women’s inherent value made them the object of political desire, which Meillassoux saw as the basis of their subjugation by men and by elders. There is a seductive logic to this line of thinking; some version of this schema is found in A LOT of African history & anthropology (though usually it's more nuanced...). As many scholars have pointed out over the last 50 years while reading Meillassoux, the framework has a certain appeal, BUT it's essentially undermined by the fact that there is a conspicuous ABSENCE OF EVIDENCE PRODUCED BY OR ABOUT WOMEN to support it. Countless case studies in the interim have shown that the reality is much more complicated and multi-causal than what's presented here.

[Lily Bronski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cannot rave about this book enough. Brilliant and ambitious marxist anthropological analysis — completely unique in its rigor, unfortunately.

[Roberto Yoed · Rating 2 out of 5]

While Claude is far more interesting than the structural anthropologists, he surely knows how to revision marxism.

Three main problems:

1.- His proposal of "domestic mode of production" ignores completely Marx's analysis in 'Das Kapital', specifically where Marx says that some social formations subsume to the mode of production on vigency. By Cluade's logic, we can propose a "monetary" mode of production or even a "fisher" mode of production. Social and economic activities by themselves don't consolidate a whole, the sum of them (domestic relations and a lot of other ones) consolidate a determined mode of production.

2.- Claude proposes that in agricultural societies (that are part of his infamous "domestic mode of production"), what determines the domination of elders are not the means of production (!!!), but their position in respect of goods and women. I'd have loved to see Claude vis a vis and ask him 'how did elders gained access to such goods and women?'. After that, I'm pretty sure that he would have understood, and without a doubt, the importance of controlling the means of production.

3.- After telling us that sometimes elders trade juniors as slaves, and that sometimes they alienated women from a full life, Claude wholeheartedly negates class exploitation on agricultural societies...

I can go on, but I'm sure you get the idea: Claude is far more endearing than "the structure of myths" or a boring monography about an indigenous culture in the middle of nowhere, but his use of marxism is, at best, worrying.

[KT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent short study rooted in historical materialism challenging the universal notion of primitive or traditional economies, which the author argues is unduly applied to distinctive forms of social organisations each with their own laws

Outlines how the domestic mode of production, constituting homologous communities that maintain ties only with communities of the same king, no longer exist, in the wake of primitive accumulation, as other economies, such as the aristocratic economy and capitalism, were built upon the domestic economy
That is not to say domestic relations of production do not still exist as seen in the family that is still vital to social reproduction

I found particularly value in the second part of the book that is centred on the exploitation of the domestic community via imperialism as a mode of reproduction of cheap labour-power
Compelling critiques of unequal exchange and Amin's overemphasis on mode of exchange rather than labour exploitation, class struggle and mode of production when studying underdevelopment
Highlighting a key omission that is what are the particular conditions under which the elements for reproducing labour-power are produced i.e. what are the conditions for the super-exploitation of labour in the periphery?

Couched in Marx's analysis that the conditions under which labour-power is reproduced, are located, for any one society, in a given historical context which changes over time
This was exemplified through the author's study of British colonial mines in South Africa and Uganda, which relied on the domestic relations of production to maintain and reproduce migrant labour reserves at subsistence level through legal and repressive means
It can also be understood today through the family and how care work and domestic labour has been penetrated by capitalist relations.

[Creikord · Rating 2 out of 5]

Una monografía densa y ardua, no apta ara aficionados. Se analiza la economía doméstico-neolítica y la absorción a la que la somete el imperialismo en clave científica, es decir, para adentrarse en la lectura hay que tener nociones amplias sobre economía, marxismo y sociología.