Asya Tipi Üretim Tarzı'na Veda - Bilig

A Farewell to Asiatic Mode
of Production
Assis. Prof. Dr. Suna BAŞAK AVCILAR
Gazi University
Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences
Abstract: The dispute on the nature of Ottoman social forrnation,
which began thirty, even fourty, years ago, has not reached a
conclusion yet. In this debate, what has been done is that the
Ottoman social formation has been described in terms of what
it is not, despite with no much agreeable conclusions. This
study argues that the Ottoman social formation can not be
identified with the Asiatic mode of production. It criticizes the
theoretical, empirical and ideological basis of the Asiatic mode
of production. This is a farewell to those who have academically,
intellectually as welî as ideologically tried to explain the
Ottomans in the context of the Asiatic mode of production.
Key Words: Social Formation, Asiatic Mode of Production,
Feudalism, Oriental Despotism
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