History, Power, Ideology: Central Issues in Marxism and Anthropology (review)

The new edition of Donham's History, Power, Ideologyshould find a large audience among anthropologists and particularly those interested in economics and theory. The text is largely unchanged from the original edition. The author uses a new preface to reintroduce his work (and particularly his interest in structural models) and place it in the changing interests field.

Donham has two goals. The first is to use Marxist theory (and particularly models of production and class divisions) to probe power relations among the Maale. (The Maale live in southern Ethiopia and had a kingdom largely autonomous of the external world until 1975.) The second, and more ambitious, goal is to employ data from ethnographic research among the Maale to illuminate, critique, and refine Marxist theory. The point is not simply to apply Marxism to the kin based logic of Maale social formations, or to use Maale social practices to talk about Marxism's shortcomings when applied to noncapitalist situations. Rather, Donham tacks between theory and history (Maale and Marxist) to bridge the gaps between structure and agency as well as symbol and meaning to define Maale social formations, to advance social theory, but also to answer fundamental questions about human social life.

The new preface frames his work in anthropology of the late twentieth century. Important is his discussion of structure and history. He points out that interest in structural models has faded over the last decades to be replaced by historical explanations. Unfortunately, these explanations conflate time and space, and simplify representations of social relationships that confound fact with fiction and fluid social process with short-term cause, effect, and conjecture. In place of stale structuralism and fetishistic history, Donham argues for an approach that blends structural analyses (tempered by attention to agency) with an appreciation of long-term trends in history. This is a challenging goal for anthropology, but one that the author strives to meet.

The book is marred by two small problems. The first is the advertised foreword by Eric Wolf. Wolf's contribution adds nothing to the tone or importance of Donham's work. The second is Donham's insistence that his book does not fit neatly into accepted categories of writing. Perhaps ten years ago this was true, but the text does what I would expect of any good anthropological writing at the end of the twentieth century. It blends incisive theory and solid ethnography to illustrate an argument that goes beyond the descriptive (or theoretical) and thus contributes to the continued advancement our field.

Donham's style makes difficult theoretical material understandable. Nevertheless, this is not a text for introductory courses. History, Power and Ideologywould be excellent for advanced undergraduates or graduate students in courses on theory, economics, or social and cultural change.