Marx considered Asiatic village communities foundations of Oriental despotism
Evidence
[T}hese idyllic village communities [of Asia] had always been the solid foundation of Oriental despotism… they restrained the human mind within the smallest possible compass, .. . enslaving it beneath traditional rules, depriving it of all grandeur and historical energies… — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 1535
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to Said’s Orientalism project and postcolonial critiques of Marx’s historical teleology. — connects to: Wittfogel pioneered Asiatic society study within a Communist academic career — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 121; The Orientals-cannot-self-govern claim runs from Oriental despotism through modernization theory
Related
- Marx characterized idyllic Indian villages as foundations of Oriental despotism (similarity 0.91)
- Wittfogel pioneered Asiatic society study within a Communist academic career (similarity 0.82)
- Wittfogel explained Eastern bureaucratic despotism through irrigation-driven productive forces. (similarity 0.81)
- Marx’s orientalism concerned land tenure and government, not racial feeling (similarity 0.80)