FREE ESSAY ON TRANSCENDING THE BARRIERS....ERIC WOLF BEYOND MARX

TRANSCENDING THE BARRIERS....ERIC WOLF BEYOND MARX

Transcending the Barriers My primary interest is to explain something out there that
impinges me, and I would sell my soul to the devil if I thought it would help. Eric Wolf,
1987 Eric Wolf's interest into the realm of anthropology emerged upon recognition of the
theorist- imposed boundaries, encompassing both theories and subjects, which current and
past anthropological scholars had constructed. These boundaries, Wolf believed, were a
result of theorist tending to societies and cultures as fixed entities-static, bounded
and autonomous, rather then describing and interpreting societies within a state of
constant change, ceaselessly vulnerable to external influence, and always interconnected
with other societies. Yet to transcend current anthropological theories and boundaries,
and to explain this interconnectedness, in attempt to understand the world, Wolf believed
three criteria must be met: 1) To trace the world market and the course of capitalist
development, 2) To develop this theory of this growth and development and finally, one
must be able to relate both the history and theory of that unfolding development to
processes that affect and change the lives of local populations Wolf, 1982:21) By tracing
the formation of Wolf's theory through these criteria, from Marxist and beyond, one can
see how, although Marxist in orientation, he goes beyond current anthropological theory
and attempts to diminish the boundaries, by suggesting that a political economic theory
laden with history in a macrocosomic context is the only means in which one can begin to
attempt to understand the world. Capitalist Development The influence of Lewis Henry
Morgon and his unilinear version of social evolution posed as the backbone for Karl Marx
and Fred Engels. Yet rather then transcending from the primitive to the civilized upon
the classification of cultures into seven distinct ethical periods based on the
development of subsistence techniques (Kuper, 66), Marx and Engels based their course of
creation from primitive communism, through to feudalism and capitalism judged in terms of
the Modes of Production which dominated each stage. It was these Modes of Production,
referring to the specific technologies, which form the base or the infrastructure of a
society. From this base, Marx purposed a Superstructure Theory in which the base
determines the superstructure, that is laws and government, while both the Superstructure
and the Base determine the ideology, the philosophies, religion and the ideals that are
prevalent in society. In other words, the economic base provided the cultural
superstructure, thus culture could only be understood by drawing upon the changing nature
of human production and reproduction, which inevitably is controlled by those in which
power is invested-read the ruling class. Change or advancement towards the teleological
goal of civilization therefore became a class struggle, those with little power, against
those with power. To maintain this power, Marx believed, the ruling class will resort to
whatever means they can, especially through futility in ideological mystification,
resulting in the construction of a false consciousness, or a false belief of the lower
class. This false consciousness and false belief resulted eventually in a conceptualized
delusion, subjecting them [the lower class] unconsciously to the dominant ideals of
society-a concept also known to Gramsci as Hegemony. Growth of a Theory Wolf adapted this
Marxist approach in his theorizing, that is paying attention to the fundamental dynamics
of change and phenomena such as exploitation, domination and colonialism from the get- go
of his anthropological inquiry. In his Ph.D dissertation (1951) while probing into the
lives of Puerto Rican societies and cultures he suggested that communities and their
socio-cultural traits could not be completely understood without analyzing the impact of
existing forces such as national power relations, international trade and world markets
(Abbink, 95) It was through these forces which he saw us as all interconnected. From his
fieldwork with peasants he discovered that these smaller communities form a central
component of larger, more complex societies. Therefore occurrences at local levels needed
to be understood in terms of reactions of the local people to the economic and political
forces expelled from the larger societies, as it is these larger societies which are
subjecting the smaller societies to a false consciousness based on the ideology of those
in power. Communities which form part of a complex society can thus be viewed no longer
as self-contained and integrated systems in their own right. It is more appropriate to
view them as the local termini of a web of group relations which extend through
intermediate levels from the level of the community to that of the nation. In the
community itself, these relationships may be wholly tangential to each other (Wolf,
1956). This notion of interconnectedness between small communities and large power
centers therefore allowed Wolf to view society as heterogeneous and interacting across
boundaries, rather then as simply a bounded system of ordered relations (Wolf, 1988:757).
His model of a society henceforth developed as one vulnerable to a continual process of
change and structuring subjected by the people in the outside world and the capitalist
mode of production, emphasizing the power exerted to produce ideology, ultimately
unintentionally dominates each member of society. making Wolf's theory a process of
politics and economy, of structural power and Marxist Mode of production Beyond Marxism
As illustrated above Wolf views society as interpenetrating, complex and interconnected
(Wolf, 1988:753) , but the world is interconnected on a much deeper level then that
simply purposed by mode of production and Marxist theory. Therefore he argues, it is
important to see the world and societies, and their interconnectedness framed in a
macroscopic historical context, as the history itself is like a organized flow-process of
fusion and fission (Wolf, 1988:757). By calling attention to the history of a society it
allows one to look at the processes unfolding over time, these processes of change and
refashion are seen then more clearly once they are immersed with an all encompassing
macrosetting where each society is seen as connected to those in its periphery. The
combination of these two vices thus allows changes, such as those imposed by capitalist
penetration upon communities, as in the instance of the full-out erosion of kin based
social order as a result of secularization of beliefs, or simply the use of kinship
systems as ideologies, more specifically as ways to regulate social labor, and cover-up
exploitation, to be recognized (Wolf, 1982) It is only with this recognition, and the
dismembering of ahistorical functionalism that Wolf believes will bring down the barriers
between the traditional and the modern spheres, also known as the West and the Rest.
Conclusion Cultures are not integral wholes carried by social isolates. We must
distinguish between reality culture and ideology-making, and recognize that the creation
or dismantling of cultures always goes on within extensive social fields, structured by
the dominant modes of production (Wolf, 1984:393) Wolf's angle of theory demonstrates a
cornucopia of processes and ideas, ultimately illustrating the relationship between
society, culture, ideology and modes of production. Although backboned by a Marxist
ideology, his drive to illuminate the interconnectedness between anthropologically
constructed spheres, demonstrates his desire to stem away from rigid distinctions which
pure Marxist thought offers. It is this desire which pushes him beyond simply an economic
based theory towards one that is also political, situated upon the structural power
exerted in society, ultimately making his analysis one of economic and political
processes, only seen through macroscopic historical lenses. 
Bibliography
Abbink, Jan and Hans Vermeulen. History and Culture: Essays on the Work of Eric R. Wolf.
Amsterdam, Het Spinhuis, 1992. Kuper, A. The Invention of Primitive Society. London:
Routledge, 1988. Friedman, Johnathan. An Interview with Eric Wolf Current Anthropology 28
(1987) 107-118 Wolf, Eric. Europe and the People Without History. Los Angeles/Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1982. ------------ Culture: Panacea or Problem? American
Antiquity 49(2)1984: 393-400 ------------ Inventing Society American Ethnologist 15
(1988): 752-761