Sahlins Cosmologies of Capitalism

Sahlins (1988) → Core arguement

• Different cultures incorporate global forces like capitalism through their own cosmological frameworks

• Capitalism itself is culturally specific and is not a universal logic

What is a ‘Cosmology of capitalism’?

• The idea that aech culture assimilates capitalist forces through its own cultural logic rather than being simply obliterated by them

How does Sahlins advance on Wolf?

• Wolf restored indigenous peoples to history but still framed their story within Western capitalism.

• Sahlins shows that indigenous cultural logic actively shaped that history and they were not just participants

Sahlins main case study

• Macartney Embassy (Britain–Qing China trade): China refused British manufactured goods and accepted only silver for tea

• Tributary system shaped the entire trans-pacific economy

• Chinese cosmological values were a motor of global commerce, not a passive recipient of Western capitalism.

Chinese tributary system

• Neighbouring states acknowledge Chinese supremacy by sending gift missions.

• The emperor was understood as mediating between heaven and humanity.

• Foreign goods ere reinterpreted as exotic tribute from barbarian peripheries — curiosities, not signs of a rival civilisation.

Weakness

• Still frames indigenous agency within a capitalist framework

• Shows cultures shape capitalism but does not challenge the underlying idea that historical analysis requires a documentable, chronological timeline of causes and effects.