Alain Testart was one of the major social anthropologists of his time. He left behind a considerable and original body of work dealing with social structures and their evolution which afforded keys to the reinterpretation of archaeological material. A one-time self-professed Marxist, he had abandoned this theoretical framework many years ago. Nevertheless, since they tackle questions that are crucial to those who want to understand the past in order to change the present, his writings are a precious source of information (...) and of thought-provoking reasoning. (shrink)

The article explores the main forms of domination which structure that category of classless societies in which inequalities of wealth and socioeconomic inequalities are absent, and which are often grouped together under the heading “primitive communism”. Our aim is to show that, contrary to the image conveyed by a certain Marxist tradition drawing on a rather sketchy body of ethnological information, such societies do actually present various forms of domination, which can sometimes be extremely harsh and formalized. These practices in (...) particular involve the domination exercised by the old on the young, by the holders of the esoteric knowledge on the uninitiated or the common people and, perhaps most of all, by men over the women. (shrink)

Following on from our earlier contribution (Actuel Marx no57), the present article tries to determine the presence of phenomena of exploitation within the subset of societies without classes, societies devoid therefore of the subsequent socioeconomic inequalities, and which we often qualify by the term “primitive communism”. The inquiry turns out to have a problematic nature, insofar as the testimonies available are often contradictory, while the objective elements of inquiry remain rare. The conclusion arrived at here is that if exploitation could (...) not be totally absent in these societies, its magnitude remained a very limited one, especially if we relate it to the, sometimes very explicit forms of domination which these societies experienced. This manifest paradox must doubtless be interpreted as being characteristic of such wealthless societies. (shrink)