Economic Determinism

IN STUDYING the way in which the raw material of human nature undergoes socialization, we have to begin at some one definite point. There may be a value in looking first at the most obvious feature of a society, namely, its economic base; and we may proceed to define two hypotheses: (1) that the economic problem confronting a society shapes all the phases of its group life, and (2) that individual personality is shaped by this group life. This would give us a simple economic determinism for personality. These hypotheses, we shall find, will need much modification; we begin with them for the sake of their simplicity. But it must be made clear that there is no attempt to define the origins of any cultural pattern, or to find, in the course of ceaseless social interaction, something that "comes first" and is uncaused. Rather, the question is whether a radical alteration in economic activities does clearly lead to radical alterations in other aspects of society, and whether, as a result of this, personality is transformed--whether directly, as through new kinds of work, or indirectly, as through alteration of the mother-child relationships. It is emphasized that while we gratefully use, in the next few chapters, a number of studies of primitive peoples, no ethnologist is to be held accountable for the interpretations offered here.

One example is only a starter, however; we must proceed to a more cautious analysis of what is involved. In the Madagascar group we saw that the economic situation itself--the availability of an area for wet-rice cultivation--seemed to offer an explanation for new economic institutions; institutions responded to physical realities. We must examine a broader collection of data to see whether this simple causal relation can be confirmed; we must at the same time consider whether other institutional patterns must perforce yield to the oneway action of economic behavior; and finally, we must determine whether personality can be viewed as the end result of such a causal sequence.

Let us get our terminology clear, and make the distinctions which are imperative if an analysis is to be carried through. By "economic determinism" we mean any system of thought in which the main outlines of social life are derived from the economic organization of the group. A prominent but by no means the only version of the thesis is the conception of Marx and Engels that social life is a reflection of the way in which the dominant social group, at a given stage in the productive arts, maintains its economic status; social change, for example, is forced upon the entire social group as a result of technological changes and inventions which enhance or challenge the power of the ruling class. It is generally conceded, as Marx maintained, that a changing economic pattern causes changes in other aspects of the life pattern; science, the fine arts, philosophy, and religion are transformed as a result of a change in the productive arts. At the same time it is important to emphasize, as did Marx and Engels, that these other "derived" institutions have their own effect upon the productive arts. There is constant interaction (suggested by the Hegelian concept of dialectic), the economic forces being primary but being constantly modified by the influence of the derived institutions.This defines roughly in what sense economic determinism is valuable as an avenue of approach to personality. Three points must be stressed:

1. The economic situation can limit the possibilities of personality growth in particular directions. If life is a constant struggle against cold and scarcity of food, as it is for the Central Eskimo, the situation is unfavorable for the rise of the philosophies and sciences of a leisure class, or a theology based upon the concept of universal goodness, the "cup runneth over" idea of life. In relation to the subsistence problem which the Eskimo faces, these concepts would be functionally meaningless. Similarly, there can only be certain kinds of personalities when there are such economic limitations.

2. We may go beyond this purely negative statement and say that the economic situation will indicate the likely directions in which the various social patterns will evolve. When, for example, we consider that the Indians of the western part of the Great Plains, such as the Dakota and Sioux, were a buffalo-hunting people, and that during the short period of his adult life the male had great prestige as a buffalo hunter and warrior against other buffalo-hunters, we see why the old man and the boy, the woman and the girl are secondary, why there is a forced habit of honoring the qualities which only a few of the people can have. We therefore expect to find an aristocratic society based upon the appropriate hunting and war-making arts. Since surplus wealth is possible, there can be a genuine leisure-class philosophy, as witness the beautiful and intricate philosophy and theology developed by the Dakotas.

3. In defining the role of the economic arts, we shall use a principle: the same geographic problems may take entirely different forms by virtue of different social attitudes, different ways of "phrasing the situation." Suppose, for example, that great schools of fish appear offshore. Among some primitive peoples the right procedure, if a person sees a school of fish, is to run quietly home and tell his closest relatives, who promply make a big catch. Among other tribes with the same food problem, anyone who notices a school of fish noises the fact abroad like a town crier, and the whole community go out with their nets; the fish are corporately caught and corporately devoured. In the first group we are dealing with competitive personalities, and in the second with cooperative personalities; in each generation such personalities result from the pattern of life in childhood. If, then, we look closely at economic determinism, we find that it is not a question of the economic situation, but a question of the economic behavior of the group. Economic behavior does not result solely from the economic situation, but from a complex which includes non-economic factors. It would consequently be meaningless to say that the economic situation alone determines the personality pattern; the economic situation is one of several factors that shape the personalities who express and are expressed in the culture. But we must be clear as to what these other factors are; we shall pursue them through several chapters.

With the above qualifications, we find, then, much value in the concept of economic determinism. But by this phrase is meant determinism not through the economic situation, but through the economic institutions--the social inventions shared by the group in dealing with an economic situation. The economic situation--including climate, soil, forests, fish, game, etc.--constitutes a vital stimulus but does not forecast the response. Social change does not follow directly from changes in the food supply or from disaster or war; it follows from the way in which such a crisis articulates with the prevailing pattern of needs and attitudes.

We may ask how economic institutions originate if they do not derive directly from the economic situation. Their origin is legion. In addition to the economic situation there are many biological, cultural, and personal factors. An example of a biological factor is the fact that a physically diminutive people who can live on a very limited caloric intake will not develop quite the same institutions as a people large in stature who need half again as much food; another biological example is the fact that a people with a long life span will have proportions of old and young differing from those of a people with a shorter span. An example of a cultural factor operating to define the role of the economic situation is the fact that when groups with different traditions are brought into a common area and faced with common problems, they understand their economic predicament in the light of their own traditions. Under such conditions, there will be a deep unconscious residue of attitude from an earlier period. The personal factor is seen in the fact that, within each group, biological variability and the varying impress of different institutions will have yielded differences in personality, and these will lead to various individual ways of coping with each economic problem.

Though we cannot begin with the economic situation and proceed, as through a funnel, to a final description of personality, we shall often have to give the economic situation the place of figure in the figure-ground pattern of all situations; it will tend to become the anchorage point in a world of problems. In the same way, economic institutions will often be the figure as we confront institutional life as a whole. In consequence, so far as personality is anchored upon a response to social institutions, it will tend to be anchored upon attitudes related to economic goals--goals reached through economic behavior.