File spoon-archives/marxism.archive/marxism_1995/95-03-31.000, message 377


From: Richard Spear <rspear-AT-primenet.com>
Subject: Re:  Mayans
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 18:10:06 PST


Alex's post, I think ... I lost the thread 

> >      Anyway, my whole point in bringing up the case of the Mayans had 
> > to do with the stages-of-production thread of discussion several weeks 
> > ago; I was trying to show that the marxist schema of a necessary progression
> > in modes of production as a prerequisite for communism doesn't necessarily 
> > hold. The revolt of the lower classes in Meso-America did not result in a 
> > higher stage of civilization but in its abandonment, not in a higher mode 
> > of production but in the virtual abandonment of production (some farming 
> > was still done post collapse, but for the most part they returned to the 
> > rain forest to gather and hunt).

The Maya were not gatherer/hunters ... they were milpa (swidden) farmers. 
They cleared small plots of land to plant corn, beans and squash (mostly). At 
least this was true at the family level. When organized into nascent states 
they were large scale agriculturalists, clearing wide areas and using a wide 
variety of agricultural techniques.

I have entertained the idea that they were able to return to family level 
industry because they retained their knowledge of the processes. This might 
still be true for many people not far removed from an earlier mode of 
production. There are people everywhere who have only recently become 
urbanized and who would not find it difficult to return to farming. It doesn't 
take much imagination to visualize people burned out on capitalization 
returning to their earlier ways ... if you've been to some of the Mayan sites 
you've seen how they were abandoned ... it does look as though folks just left.


Regards, Richard
rspear-AT-primenet.com


     --- from list marxism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

     ------------------

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005