Comprehensive Notes on Agriculture, Subsistence, and Economic Anthropology

Modes of Production

• Mode of production: The social relations through which human labor transforms energy from nature.

  • Concept originated with Eric Wolf, influenced by Karl Marx.

  • Marx argued human consciousness is shaped by work.

  • Wolf identified three modes of production: domestic, tributary, and capitalist.

  • Domestic (kin-ordered) production:

    • Organizes work based on family relations.

    • May involve age- and gender-based inequality.

    • Common in forager and small-scale subsistence farmer societies

  • Tributary production:

    • Producers pay tribute (goods or labor) to those controlling production through political, religious, or military force.

    • Example: Feudal Europe where peasants worked land owned by nobles and gave them a portion of their harvest.

    • Another example: Ancient Egypt where farmers gave a portion of their crops to the Pharaoh.

  • Capitalism:

    • Private property owned by capitalists.

    • Workers sell labor for survival.

    • Surpluses are produced, kept as profit, or reinvested.

    • Example: Industrial Revolution in England when factories were privately owned and workers sold their labor for wages.

    • Another Example: Modern day United States where businesses are privately owned and workers are paid for their labor.

Domestic Production

• Also known as kin-ordered production.

• Labor is organized based on kinship relations.

• Example: Indigenous maize farming in southern Mexico and Central America.

  • Men clear fields, families plant seeds, children protect crops.

  • Men weed and harvest, women dry corn and remove kernels.

  • Women grind corn to make tortillas.