Europe and the People Without History

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Europe and the People Without History is a book by anthropologist Eric Wolf. It focuses on how the expansion of European societies not only affected those societies that Europeans encountered in their expansion, but also the effect upon those European societies themselves. It asserts that non-European peoples were active participants in the progress of history, rather than static, unchanging cultures. The assumption that these 'others' are from unchanging cultures, and are left out of Eurocentric historical narratives is why they are referred to as 'people without history'. The "People Without History" also refers to those peoples of whom their cultures lack a formally written articulation of their histories hindering their inclusion in 'Western' historical narratives.

This book discusses the three modes of production. Modes of production was first addressed by Marx. They are: • Kin-ordered • Tributary • Capitalist

Marx was most concerned with the Capitalist mode of production.