An Anthropological Reflection on the Means of Production: The Eric Wolf's Marxist Analysis

Abstract

In anthropology, one of the aspects that are most subject to study given the vast influence it has on human processes in relation to their environment is productivity and work. Karl Marx was possibly the one who most influenced human material activities, basically because his anthropological conception of man is that of homo economicus, who transforms the material conditions of existence through his work. Man is an essential part of the world that is forced to confront him, making this confrontation clear with the implementation of technology and organization. Precisely this social organization is conditioning when it comes to proposing the forms of production, since nature in turn conditions man to seek ways to resolve the restrictions that nature itself imposes on him. The studies carried out by the anthropologist Eric Wolf will be of great help to explain this reflection.