Abstract
In the influential volume Trade and Market in the Early Empires. Economies in History and Theory edited by Karl Polanyi, Conrad M. Arensberg und Harry W. Pearson (Chicago 1957) Pearson published his provocative article “The Economy has No Surplus”. He rejected a mechanistic view of development in which surplus was considered as the precondition of “complex” societies with priests and a ruling class. He stressed the question of the preconditions of the surplus: “There are always and everywhere potential surpluses available. What counts is the institutional means for bringing them to life”. It provoked a number of statements by Marvin Harris, Ernest Mandel, Maurice Godelier and others, which criticised Pearson’s standpoint and insisted on the “evolutionary” view of surplus. In this contribution, I will sketch this debate and discuss its relevance to the beginnings of the Neolithic. The topicality of Harry W. Pearson’s essay lies in the fact that he pointed out that the surplus product did not have a natural cause, but was organised and that it came from a society that was already no longer egalitarian.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bird-David, N. (1992). Beyond “The Original Affluent Society”: A culturalist reformulation. Current Anthropology, 33, 25–47.
Bogaard, A. (2017). The archaeology of food surplus. World Archaeology, 49, 1–7.
Childe, V. G. (1936). Man Makes Himself. Watts & Co.
Childe, V. G. (1958). The prehistory of European society. Cassell.
Dale, G. (2016). Karl Polanyi: A life on the left. Columbia University Press.
Dalton, G. (1960). A note of clarification on economic surplus. American Anthropologist, 62, 483–490.
Dalton, G. (1963). Economic surplus, once again. American Anthropologist, 65, 389–394.
Demoule, J.-P. (2007). L’origine des inégalités. In J.-P. Demoule (Eds.), La révolution néolithique en France (pp. 78–89). La Découverte.
Diamond, J. (1999). Guns, germs, and steel. The fates of human societies. Norton.
Engels, F. (1962 [1884]). Der Ursprung der Familie, des Privateigentums und des Staats. Im Anschluss an Lewis H. Morgans Forschungen, 25–173, Marx Engels Werke 21. Berlin: Dietz Verlag. [English translation taken from https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1884/origin-family].
Foucault, M. (1978). Dispositive der Macht. Über Sexualität, Wissen und Wahrheit. Merve.
Fried, M. H. (1967). The evolution of political society. Random House.
Gimbutas, M. (1995). Die Sprache der Göttin. Das verschüttete Symbolsystem der westlichen Zivilisation. Zweitausendeins.
Godelier, M. (1972). Rationalität und Irrationalität in der Ökonomie. Europäische Verlagsanstalt.
Goody, J. (2010). The Eurasian miracle. Polity.
Graeber, D. (2011). Debt: The first 5,000 years. Melville House.
Hansen, S. (2016). Prähistorische Innovationsforschung. Das Altertum, 61, 81–132.
Hansen, S. (2018). Arbeitsteilung, soziale Ungleichheit und Surplus in der Kupferzeit an der Unteren Donau 4600–4300 v. Chr. In H. Meller, D. Gronenborn, & R. Risch (Eds.), Überschuss ohne Staat – Politische Formen in der Vorgeschichte. 10. Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag vom 19. bis 21. Oktober 2017 in Halle (Saale) / Surplus without the State – Political Forms in Prehistory. 10th Archaeological Conference of Central Germany, October 19–21, 2017 in Halle (Saale), Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle 18, 221–246. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt.
Hariri, Y. N. (2014). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Vintage.
Harris, M. (1959). The economy has no surplus? American Anthropologist, 61, 185–199.
Hauptmann, H. (2003). Eine frühneolithische Kultfigur aus Urfa. In M. Özdoğan, H. Hauptmann, & N. Başgelen (Eds.), Köyden Kente. From Village to Cities. Studies Presented to Ufuk Esin (pp. 623–636). Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayınları.
Hauptmann, H., & Schmidt, K. (2007). Anatolien vor 12000 Jahren. Die Skulpturen des Frühneolithikums. In Vor 12000 Jahren in Anatolien. Die ältesten Monumente der Menschheit. Ausstellungkatalog Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (pp. 67–82). Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Herskovitz. M. J. (1952). Economic anthropology. A study in comparative economics. Knopf.
Higham, T., Chapman, J., Slavchev, V., Gaydarska, B., Honch, N., Yordanov, Y., et al. (2007). New perspectives on the Varna cemetery (Bulgaria)—AMS dates and social implications. Antiquity, 81, 640–654.
Honneth, A. (2015). Die Idee des Sozialismus. Versuch einer Aktualisierung. Suhrkamp.
Jullien, F. (2017). Es gibt keine kulturelle Identität. Suhrkamp.
Kaplan, D. (2000). The darker side of the original affluent society. Journal of Anthropological Research, 56, 301–324.
Kaube, J. (2017). Die Anfänge von Allem. Rowohlt.
Krauß, R., Zäuner, S., & Pernicka, E. (2014). Statistical and anthropological analysis of the Varna necropolis. In H. Meller, R. Risch, & E. Pernicka (Eds.), Metalle der Macht – Frühes Gold und Silber / Metals of Power – Early Gold and Silver. 6. Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag vom 17. bis 19. Oktober 2013 in Halle (Saale) /10th Archaeological Conference of Central Germany, October 17–19, 2013 in Halle (Saale), Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle 11, 371–387. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt.
Lévi-Strauss, C. (1966). The scope of anthropology. Current Anthropology, 7, 112–123.
Lévi-Strauss, C. (2013). Anthropology confronts the problems of the modern world. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Lubbock, J. (1874 [1865)]). Die vorgeschichtliche Zeit, erläutert durch die Überreste des Alterthums und die Sitten und Gebräuche der jetzigen Wilden (mit einem Vorwort von Rudolf Virchow) Bd. I–II. (German translation of “Prehistoric Times: as illustrated by ancient remains and the manners and customs of modern savages”: Jena Costenoble). Williams and Norgate.
Malinowski, B. (1922). Argonauts of the western pacific: An account of native enterprise and adventure in the archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea. E.P. Dutton & Co.
Mandel, E. (1968). Marxistische Wirtschaftstheorie. Suhrkamp.
Mandel, E. (2002). An introduction to marxist economic theory. Resistance.
Marx, K. (1962 [1867]). Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie. Erster Band: Der Produktionsprozeß des Kapitals, Marx Engels Werke 23. Dietz Verlag.
Marx, K. (1976). Die ethnologischen Exzerpthefte. Herausgegeben von Lawrence Krader. Suhrkamp.
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1958 [1845–1846]). Die deutsche Ideologie. Kritik der neuesten deutschen Philosophie in ihren Repräsentanten Feuerbach, B. Bauer und Stirner, und des deutschen Sozialismus in seinen verschiedenen Propheten. Marx Engels Werke 3, 9–530. Berlin: Dietz Verlag [English translation taken from https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideoloy].
Meller, H. (2015). Vom Jäger zum Bauern – Der Sieg des Neolithikums. Der unumkehrbare Auszug des Menschen aus dem Paradies. In T. Otten, J. Kunow, M. M. Ring, & M. C. Trier (Eds.), Revolution Jungsteinzeit, Schriften zur Bodendenkmalpflege in Nordrhein-Westfalen 11,1 (pp. 20–28). Darmstadt: Theiss.
Morehart, C. T., & De Lucia, K. (Eds.). (2015). Surplus. The politics of production and the strategies of everyday life. University of Colorado Press.
Morgan, L. H. (1976 [1877]). Die Urgesellschaft (German translation of “Ancient Society”). Stuttgart 1908; Nachdruck Lollar/Lahn: Achenbach.
Pearson, H. (2010). Ground between two stones: Melville Herskovits and the fate of economic anthropology. History of Political Economy, 42, 165–195.
Pearson, H. W. (1957). The economy has no surplus. Critique of a theory of development. In K. Polanyi, C. Arensberg, & H. W. Pearson (Eds.), Trade and market in the early empires: Economies in history and theory (pp. 320–339). Gateway.
Polanyi, K. (1947). On belief in economic determinism. Sociological Revue, 37, 96–112.
Polanyi, K. (1957). Economy as instituted process. In K. Polanyi, C. Arensberg, & H. W. Pearson (Eds.), Trade and market in the early empires: Economies in history and theory (pp. 243–270). Gateway.
Polanyi, K. (1977). The livelihood of man, Studies in Social Discontinuity (edited by Harry W. Pearson). Academic Press.
Renfrew, C. (1986). Varna and the emergence of wealth in prehistoric Europe. In A. Appadurai (Ed.), The social life of things: Commodities in cultural perspective (pp. 141–168). Cambridge University Press.
Renn, J., & Hyman, M. D. (2012). The globalization of knowledge in history: An introduction. In J. Renn, & M. Planck (Eds.), The globalization of knowledge in history. Research Library for the History and Development Knowledge Studies 1 (pp. 15–44). Edition Open Access http://edition-open-access.de/studies/1. Accessed 23 May 2018.
Renn, J., & Scherer, B. (2015). Das Anthropozän. Zum Stand der Dinge. Matthes & Seitz.
Rowley-Conwy, P. (2001). Time, change and the archaeology of hunter-gatherers: How original is the ‘Original affluent society’?’ In C. Panter-Brick, R. H. Layton, & P. Rowley-Conwy (Eds.), Hunter-gatherers: an interdisciplinary perspective (pp. 39–72). Cambridge University Press.
Sahlins, M. (1968). Notes on the original affluent society. In R. B. Lee & I. DeVore (Eds.), Man the hunter (pp. 85–89). Aldine.
Sahlins, M. (1974). Stone age economics. Routledge.
Sahlins, M. (2008). The Western illusion of human nature: With reflections on the long history of hierarchy, equality and the sublimation of anarchy in the West, and comparative notes on other conceptions of the human condition. Prickly Paradigm Press.
Sahlins, M., & E. R. Service. (1960). Evolution and culture. University of Michigan Press.
Salvadori, M. L. (2008). Fortschritt – Die Zukunft einer Idee. Wagenbach.
Scott, J. C. (2017). Against the grain. A deep history of the earliest states. Yale University Press.
Serres, M. (2019). Was genau war früher besser? Suhrkamp.
Service, E. R. (1958). A profile of primitive culture. Harper & Row.
Service, E. R. (1962). Primitive social organization: An evolutionary perspective. Random House.
Service, E. R. (1975). Origins of the State and Civilization: The Process of Cultural Evolution. Norton.
Sigrist, C. (1983). Gesellschaften ohne Staat und die Entdeckung der social anthropology. In F. Kramer & C. Sigrist (Eds.), Gesellschaften ohne Staat. Gleichheit und Gegenseitigkeit (pp. 28–44). Syndikat.
Smith, M. E., Feinman, Gary M., Drennan, Robert D., Earle, T., & Morris, I. (2012). Archaeology as a social science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109, 7617–7621.
Steward, J. H. (1955). Theory of culture change: The methodology of multilinear evolution. University of Illinois Press.
Tylor, E. B. (1865). Researches into the early history of mankind. J. Murray.
Veit, U. (1996). Studien zum Problem der Siedlungsbestattung im europäischen Neolithikum. Waxmann.
Windler, A., Thiele, R., & Müller, J. (2013). Increasing inequality in Chalcolithic Southeast Europe: the case of Durankulak. Journal of Archaeological Science, 40, 204–210.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Reinhard Jung and Stefanos Gimatzidis for their kind invitation to this inspiring symposium. I would also like to thank Professor Marguerite Mendell, Director of the Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy Montreal and Ana Gomez in the Karl Polanyi archive for their support. Emily Schalk translated an earlier version of this contribution.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hansen, S. (2021). “The Economy Has No Surplus”: Harry W. Pearson’s Contribution Revisited, 60 Years Later. In: Gimatzidis, S., Jung, R. (eds) The Critique of Archaeological Economy. Frontiers in Economic History . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72539-6_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72539-6_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-72538-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-72539-6
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)