Readings:
Karl Marx, Pre-capitalist Economic Formations,pages 68-120.
Friedrich Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, "Stages of Prehistoric Culture" and "The Family"
Marvin Harris, The Rise of Anthropological Theory, "Dialectical Materialism"
Assignment:
Post your thoughts on either or both of the following questions:
1. Is, as Harris maintains, the dialectic an unnecessary encumbrance to materialism, a "Hegelian gorilla"?
2. Is Marxism fundamentally different from other 19th-century schemes of general evolution? If so, in what way? If not, why not, despite the insistence of Marxists that it is?
In class:
First hour: Discuss further the answers to the questions on your postings.
Second hour: Discuss the question of whether and why Marxist analytical methods were bound to lead to the phenomena of 20th-century socialism.