CONCEPT OF TRIBUTALISM: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF AMIN’S, J. HALDON’S AND H. H. STAHL’S APPROACHES Cover Image

TRIBUTALIZMO KONCEPCIJA: S.AMINO, J.HALDONO IR H.H.STAHLIO SAMPRATŲ LYGINAMOJI ANALIZĖ
CONCEPT OF TRIBUTALISM: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF AMIN’S, J. HALDON’S AND H. H. STAHL’S APPROACHES

Author(s): Nerijus Babinskas
Subject(s): History
Published by: Vilniaus Universiteto Leidykla

Summary/Abstract: By this article the author wants to revive discussion about Marxist schemas of social development and their applicability for constructing models of universal history. There are attitudes of three scholars presented in the current text: Samir’s amin’s who is known in the Western historiographical tradition as a main creator and promoter of the concept of tributary mode of production, John’s Haldon’s who paid quite much attention to the mentioned concept and dedicated his entire book to this issue, Henri’s H. Stahl’s who created original alternative approach to the issue of tributalism. The author rejects J. Haldon’s concept of mode of production as too narrow (in fact J. Haldon identifies mode of production with mode of exploitation). The author proposes a wider definition of mode of production which is based on analysis of Karl Marx’s text’s. according to the author the most important elements of mode of production are exploitative subject (it is defined by property of conditions of production, which realises as a social power) and productive/obligatory unit which can be manifested as a household of an individual direct producer or as a community. The author proposes the following principled classification based on his conception of mode of production: 1. a proprietor of land is a monarch / state and a productive / obligatory unit is community (of Asiatic/Slavonic type); 2. Aproprietor of land is a monarch/state and a productive/obligatory unit is a household of an individual direct producer; 3. Proprietors of land are private landowners and a productive/obligatory unit is community (of Asiatic/Slavonic type); 4. Proprietors of land are private landowners and a productive/obligatory unit is a household of an individual direct producer. The most important conclusions of the author‘s are as follow: 1. H. H. Stahl’s statment that there were alternatives in the social development of precapitalist societies are definitely reasonable. 2. Keeping in his mind controversies among presented conceptions of tributalism the author emphasizes that at the moment the question of the typology of antagonistic precapitalist societies remains open; so further researches and discussions are necessary. 3. As a point of departure for further researches and discussions the author proposes his principled classification of antagonistic precapitalist societies based on criteria of an exploitative subject and a productive/obligatory unit.

  • Issue Year: 2009
  • Issue No: 24
  • Page Range: 178-194
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: Lithuanian