Maidens, Meal and Money

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Meillassoux

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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. H e was among the first anthropologists to study the economic problems associated with the transformation of pre-colonial peasants into commodity producers, and to apply an historical materialist approach to 'primitive' or transitional economies and the social formations to which they give rise. 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. THs book offers the elements both of an advanced theory of ^ t S f l o m t o c mode of production and of a radical critique of Jf classical ano^structuralist anthropology. Just as Professor If Meillassoux's parlier work, L'Anthropologie economique des afyoire was received as a 'turning point in the Barriwtf^cdfeS'fthiplpology', this study, which goes beyond a discussion of concepts in an attempt to further the practical steps taken by ?Warx and Engels, represents a major contribution to the CQ^temporary progress of historical materialism. rover illustration shows a women's work association among the Kujamaat Diola of Senegal; the w o m e n are beating groundnuts to separate the nuts from the stocks. Photograph by kind permission of David Sapir. Cover design by Alan Gunston Printed in Great Britain by George Over Limited Also issued in hard covers

C A M B R I D G E U N I V E R S I T Y PRESS

Maükns, Meal and Money

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Themes in the Social Sciences

Editors: Jack Goody & Geoffrey

Hawthorn

The aim of this series is to publish books which will focus on topics of general and interdisciplinary interest in the social sciences. They will be concerned with non-European cultures and with developing countries, as well as with industrial societies. The emphasis will be on comparative sociology and, initially, on sociological, anthropological and demographic topics. These books are intended for undergraduate teaching, but not as basic introductions to the subjects they cover. Authors have been asked to write on central aspects of current interest which have a wide appeal to teachers and research students, as well as to undergraduates. First books in the series Edmund Leach: Culture and Communication: the logic by which symbols are connected: An introduction to the use of structuralist analysis in social anthropology Anthony Heath: Rational Choice and Social Exchange: A critique of exchange theory P. Abrams & A. McCulloch: Communes, Sociology and Society Jack Goody: The Domestication of the Savage Mind Jean-Louis Flandrin: Families in Former Times: Kinship, household and sexuality John Dunn: Western Political Theory in the Face of the Future David Thomas: Naturalism and Social Science: A Philosophy of Social Science

Post-empiricist

Maidens, Meal and Money Capitalism and the domestic community

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