著者

栗本 慎一郎

出版者

社会経済史学会

雑誌

社會經濟史學 (ISSN:00380113)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.44, no.4, pp.323-341, 426-425, 1979-01-10

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The very paper read at the national conference of Socio-Economic History Society of May, 1978, was already published at a periodical Shiso, No. 647, with the title of "Economic Anthropology and Economic History'. Therefore this newly writtem essay presents firstly economic anthropologists' radical concepts related to the origins of economic institutions, and secondly their comments on Marxist conception of history, as a complement to the above-mentioned paper. Polanyi, the founder of new economic anthropology, asserts that trade, money and market have their separate origins. Some forms of trade and various money uses gain great importance in economic life, independent of and precedent to markets. Even where market elements are presents, they do not necessarily involve the existence of a supply-demand price mechanism. Prices (equivalencies) are originally set by tradition, and their change, if it occurs, is brought about by such institutional means, not by market methods. Polanyist's (substantivist's) views naturally leads us to the position critical against Marxist economic history. We indicate that the substructure of society, production style, should not be purely materialistic, but just epistemological. Relating to this, a French Marxist, Louis Althusser's understanding about it and history can be regarded as thoughts with some same base as ours. Materialistic conception should be epistemological, if it is to try to keep valid.