“The Economy Has No Surplus”: Harry W. Pearson’s Contribution Revisited, 60 Years Later

Svend Hansen ()
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Svend Hansen: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Eurasien-Abteilung

Chapter Chapter 4 in The Critique of Archaeological Economy, 2021, pp 55-70 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In the influential volume Trade and Market in the Early Empires. Economies in History and Theory edited by Karl Polanyi, Conrad M. Arensberg und Harry W. Pearson (Chicago 1957) Pearson published his provocative article “The Economy has No Surplus”. He rejected a mechanistic view of development in which surplus was considered as the precondition of “complex” societies with priests and a ruling class. He stressed the question of the preconditions of the surplus: “There are always and everywhere potential surpluses available. What counts is the institutional means for bringing them to life”. It provoked a number of statements by Marvin Harris, Ernest Mandel, Maurice Godelier and others, which criticised Pearson’s standpoint and insisted on the “evolutionary” view of surplus. In this contribution, I will sketch this debate and discuss its relevance to the beginnings of the Neolithic. The topicality of Harry W. Pearson’s essay lies in the fact that he pointed out that the surplus product did not have a natural cause, but was organised and that it came from a society that was already no longer egalitarian.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-72539-6_4

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