西アフリカにおける「アジア的生産様式」への一考察 : Asante王国の例を中心として

抄録

Economic anthropology has attracted world notice in recent years. It was begun with the classical studies by Malinowski. Firth, etc. which was research on the economic phase of primitive society. But it is gradually developing toward a fundamental interdisciplinary study for the rethinking of human history. It also corresponds with the blind allys of present society or the social sciences, in other words the blockage of the value system of Western civilization. At present, the principles of market economy increase internal conflicts not only in the economy but also in the culture of the advanced nations, for instance, in over-concentration, pollution, alienation, etc. Besides, the Third World gradually recognize the fact that they are never the developing countries, but the underdeveloped countries which are compelled to develop from "undevelopment" to "underdevelopment" as a peripheral formation to the capital accumulation on a world scale. They demand the acknowledgment of interdependence and the New International Economic Order, therefore, the South-North conflicts increase their intensity. And now, we are urged to review the myth of "Homo Economicus" in this modern society and the social sciences which are based on it. These sciences have advanced with the growth of capitalism in Europe since the 18th century. which is based mainly on a commodity economy. It had investigated in essence the phase of production in human society, but not distribution and consumption. Polanyi was the first to raise this question or form a new paradigm, and even more, constructed the base for the new economic anthropology. But his theory is essentially an empirical study based on social balance, therefore it cannot interpret the dynamic structure of human history. Then, if Polanyi's paradigm is sublated by Marx's historical materialism, it may be an effective method for rethinking human history and the solution of underdevelopment in the Third World. And the concept of the Asiatic mode of production may be one of the most important subjects in the neo-marxist economic anthropology based on this method, because of the heterogeneous character of European history. From this point of view, I will analyze the formation and development of the Asante kingdom in West Africa, and from there the historical study of West Africa in the pre-colonial period. The Asante kingdom was the Akan people's state that developed with the slave trade in present Ghana from the late 17th century. The Asante society was based on peasant communities in which matrilineal lineages abusua engaged in auto-subsistent farming (not autarky). These peasants possessed the farm land and cooperated in the work according to the lineage's bond. The making of a farm therefore required the help of every able-bodied member of the domestic unit; besides, the rights to use the land were inherited by maternal kinsmen. These peasant communities were under mediate rule through a hierarchical social formation (village headman - elder - chief - Asante king) based on kinship and tribal ties. But these had their broad autonomy; besides, the tribute from these communities to the chief were almost redistributed through the rituals. Then the chiefs cannot acquire their source of revenue from the tax-rent couple (surplus products or surplus labors) for commoners, but on the latter was imposed the obligation of military service. In the 18th century, chiefs acquired their source of revenue from the profit of selling slaves which were plundered from the region around Asante by this military service.