the ethnological notebooks of karl marx - Marxists Internet Archive

community by cultural and social historians, ethnologists, Marxists,so-called Marxists, etc., is a simplistic periodization and a simplistictypology without reference to a chronology implicit in the periodizationof oriental society, feudalism, etc. It is an abstraction from history andan ethnocentrism, whether performed by Europeans or not, casting thehistory of the world in the European mold. Since Phear developed hisideas within the framework of Maine,63 the question of the community,State and society will be taken up in the section devoted to the latter. Atthis point we will merely call attention to a judgment by Phear, “In theEast, under the village system, the people practically governed themselves__’,64Marx singled out for his attention by marginal lines some 65 excerptsfrom Phear’s book. Of these all but five deal with economic and agrotechnologicalmatters, and these latter in about equal proportion. Therem aining five deal with instruction lay and religious, religious taboo,clothing, polyandry. Marx denoted by an X) the joint or communalactivity of Ceylonese villagers, the interest rates and methods of debtcollection in Bengal, the absence of money and the manner of fleecing theryots. Especially long passages marked out by marginal lines deal withBengal household budgets, the village smithy, the village office andaccounts, interest rates and collection practices, and the watering of plotsin Ceylon.Marx interspersed his own comments in five passages: the local agentsof the Zamindar also act as his spies (Phear excerpts, p. 135); the idea ofthe ryot being the enemy of social reform is questioned, and the ryot’sdesire to keep his son at work in the field instead of at school is justified(Phear excerpts, p. 136); Phear’s objection to government practice infamine control is supported (excerpts, p. 142). (The third essay in Phear’sbook is criticized on the grounds mentioned above.)TA B LE HI. Marginal lines by Marx in the Phear excerptsP·129 Rice growing. Names of crops by season^130 Social respect. Village buildings. Plough construction. Mahajan.131 Household budget. Food costs. Market. Instruction.132 Brahmin teachers. Cowmen. Blacksmith; iron implements.133 Iron from England out to India. Poor man’s worship.134 Rent according to soil and use.135 Zemindari amla. Kachahri. Gumashta.136 Mahajan. Interest rates and collection practices. **) Ryot fleeced.*)137 Widow inheritance. Absurdly small plots.138 Woman and sudra religious taboo. Joint family worship of deity.139 Trade practice of monastic orders. Mandal versus Zemindar.140 Zemindar not a landlord. Land tenure. Land law.141 Comparison of English tenant rates.33