Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1996 15:58:49 -0400
Subject: Re: Groups as basic unit of production


In a message dated 96-04-10 14:09:43 EDT, you write:

>When it comes to modern capitalism, no one ( or at least, no
>socialist ) would attempt to explain human society in terms
>of genetics. Conversely, no one would attempt to explain the
>devlopment of the earliest hominids in terms of the forces
>of production, since there weren't any. At some point, there
>is a transition, where one kind of development gives rise to,
>and coexists with the other.

Just curious, why would we need to construct a link between captialism and
genetic explanations and a mode of production for early hominids?  The force
of production in early homind environs would have been the need for food,
production would have been the activity of procuring food, whether early
hominids gathered food cooperatively or on individual basis.  The need for
food and the practice of gathering it would constitute a structuring practice
regardless of the degree of complexity to those practices.  To explain homind
development in the terms of force of production would require us to examine
the early hominid mode of production, whether this would be fruitful line of
inquiry or not I do not know.


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