Economy and ethics in the cosmic process^⋆

When T.H. Huxley lectured on evolution and ethics in 1893, his critique of the amoral laws ‘cosmic process’ left audience puzzled. While paid little attention to political economic institutions, this article draws historical materialism that era its twentieth-century legacies. Empirically, it analyses rise fall a Hungarian state farm with reference comparative literature socialist societies. Theoretically, socialism is considered as combination materialist philosophy history an axial ethical impulse. In aftermath collapse Eurasian order 1990s, we can see why was right deplore ‘fanatical individualism’ age. His humanism resembles early Karl Marx he stands closer Émile Durkheim than contemporary currents anthropology ethics. Économie et éthique dans le processus cosmique Résumé Lorsque donne une conférence sur l'évolution l'éthique en sa des lois amorales du « » laisse son auditoire perplexe. Alors que accordait peu d'attention aux institutions politiques économiques, cet attire l'attention matérialisme historique de cette époque ses héritages XXe siècle. Il analyse façon empirique l'essor la chute d'une ferme d'État hongroise se référant à littérature les sociétés socialistes En théorie, socialisme est considéré comme combinaison philosophie matérialiste l'histoire d'un élan axial. Après l'effondrement l'ordre socialiste eurasien années 1990, il apparaît clair avait raison déplorer l’« individualisme fanatique époque. Son humanisme ressemble celui jeune plus proche d'Émile courants contemporains l'anthropologie l'éthique. A pillar London scientific establishment for much life, Thomas Henry (1825-95) known wider public primarily role ‘Darwin's bulldog’ dissemination theory natural selection from 1860 onwards. Whereas Darwin shunned spotlight, intellectual kind hardly know today. He prolific writer anatomical papers, but also served numerous royal commissions cared passionately about raising educational standards. view, responsibility state, community, enable those born at bottom social hierarchy move upwards, himself had. became popular figure outside Royal Society elite dining clubs.1 This reflected crowds funeral subscription campaign commemorate achievements. The Memorial Committee raised funds great good finance statue Natural History Museum. second, more modest appeal organized fund memorial plaque Huxley's birthplace Ealing. ‘Among who replied dock labourer. was, wrote, “living hand mouth often able make both ends meet”. But sent postal shilling’ (Clark 1968: 124). No doubt donor one countless ordinary Londoners captivated by lectures. [W]hile morality necessarily part nature, still principle opposed self-regarding which cosmic has taken place. would be dissolved return simple warfare among individuals. It follows systems based principles are not logically sound (L. 1900: vol. 2, 352). True Victorian could never abandon belief progress. But, thirty years after celebrated exchanges Bishop Wilberforce wake publication On origin species, returned Oxford challenge reach selectionist theory. did so distinguishing ‘the – shorthand planet universe, indeed regulated new master Much lecture devoted Stoics Buddhists, ascetic pioneers what become Axial Age (Bellah & Joas 2012). Their ideals applauded, yet they criticized their ‘flight battle-field’ (T.H. 2009 [1893/4]: 86). Humans capable more, concludes Huxley: ‘Let us understand, once all, progress society depends, imitating process, less running away it, combating it’ (2009 83). problems argumentation legion. Human split into two phases: some point, during or prior first millennium BCE, our species alone transcended process. Since formulated proposition, development genetics transformed understanding unit selection. Darwinian thought been stretched theories group explain altruism, co-operation, ‘culture’ general. Would have impressed sociobiology E.O. Wilson Richard Dawkins? We speculate very interested efforts scientists, cognitive anthropologists prominent them, take up accounting religion terms evolutionary article, I pursue themes 1893 overlooked date. helped glimpse material implications argument offering them analogy between evolutionism laissez-faire ideology. At climax lecture, dismissed utilitarianism, Britain dominant age, fanatical individualism time’ 82). Spencer may felt personally accused. responded deploring friend's relapse old theological notions, put Man Nature antithesis’ (quoted Clark 118). thoroughly anthropocentric position insist human civilization had long reached point where ‘survival best’ counted, fittest’. died just later, without elaborating how exactly recognize best’. biographers spent retirement tending garden Sussex, nature combated horticultural intervention. 14th March, quarter three afternoon, greatest living thinker ceased think … Just discovered law organic history: fact, hitherto concealed overgrowth ideology, mankind must all eat, drink, shelter clothing, before politics, science, art, religion, etc.; therefore production immediate means, consequently degree attained given people epoch, form foundation upon legal conceptions, even ideas concerned evolved, light must, therefore, explained, instead vice versa, case (1968 [1883]: 429). Marx, like Huxley, committed too greatly origin, wrote reclusive biologist hope building bridge (presumably spirit identified Engels's graveside speech).3 Darwin's bulldog, however, dismissive ideas, equated rigid egalitarianism.4 resembled respect. Whether ever registered existence Engels, surely astonished afterlife twentieth century. Changes scope shift towards presentist methods surprise. Fieldworking deal say societies, innovative foundations. shall concentrate latter, though view ‘new ethics’ feature discipline's neoliberal present. am exploring tensions societies own terms, institutional contexts. structured follows. following section, introduce most influential anglophone explorations rural transformation Soviet Union Eastern Europe. highlight Yulian Konstantinov's concept sovkhoism capture heart these revolutionary formations. third section present study Kiskunhalas State Farm southern Hungary. After returning probe dimension deeply respect theft resistance managerial power under socialism, demise institution recalled generation later. conclusion abstracts field studies locate concrete realizations world history. moved on, discipline Durkheimian establishing frameworks progressive moral remains. brief coda, argue implicit complemented economy basic Marx's philosophical writings. For century, primary hallmark ethnographic method. sub-field anthropology, conventional assume action embedded range well normative orders. Little history, let interplay ethics.5 Marxist-Leninist-Maoist (hereafter M-L-M) worlds century provide excellent terrain revisit interplay. These generate large discipline, partly because foreigners’ access highly restricted (and many regions remained difficult 1989-93). available heavily biased countryside. expected backwardness M-L-M countries, mention prevailing assumptions (both within them) concerning appropriate subject matter anthropological (ethnological) research. Comparative analysis pioneered Caroline Humphrey, adapted Max Gluckman's traditional African land tenure (Gluckman 1965) depict collective Buryatia (southern Siberia) complex rights over were significant things (Humphrey 1983). Humphrey showed central planning depended actors’ negotiation ‘manipulable resources’ rather market signals. An ideology nominally derived liable periodic correction established formal management. facto working system different. Some resources managers manipulated merely illegitimate illegal.6 They nonetheless crucial enabling meet plan targets secure goodwill co-operation workforce. flexible implementation planned allowed continuity Buryat gifting practices. Shamanism lingered counterculture rational narratives development. Overall, spite individualizing secularizing trends associated modern education mobility land, concluded basis her fieldwork 1960s 1970s Buryats managed integrate novel worldview. Long-term continuities interaction enterprise ‘private sector’ constituent families workers investigated Sami reindeer herders Kola Peninsula, northern Russia. Already familiar native Bulgaria, Konstantinov (2015) eschews comparisons colonial Africa. Like prime goal grasp actually functioned, facto. key sovkhoism, theorizes distinctively way combine interests private households outcome dynamic ‘private-in-the-collective socioeconomic order’ (Konstantinov 2015: 181; 2020), assets organization underwrite personal/private interests, usually non-transparent, informal ways. Property objects (in reindeer), defined ideologically personal distinguish capitalist property, gradually come resemble latter. morphs guaranteeing existential security ‘servicing ambiance mutual accommodation’ 2020: 20, emphasis original). Sovkhoz Russian term farm. distinguished (kolkhoz), owned members, sovkhoz, which, urban enterprises, state. According property dogmas, latter higher road communism. distinction upheld regimes. convergence farms ‘on ground’ meant types workforce came factory rhythms pension entitlements. There considerable regional national variation, example allocation kinds household plot, extent used commodities. Both forms persistence multiple (also referred officially individual commonly everyday speech property). investigate performance took shape Second World War. Despite vicissitudes again formula combines herd ownership centralized survived down day. Herders value arrangements exposed risks. symbiosis allows enjoy ‘cultured’ lives settlement while periodically animals tundra. compromises benefit whole. Konstantinov, collectivization, imposed seemingly draconian ways, exemplified totalitarian ideological monologue agency grass-roots, through dialogical holders. Reindeer illustrate ‘laboratory-like clarity’ 17) ease gains expense remote extended beyond stockbreeding agriculture virtually any job division labour, countryside town alike, intersect. recent application German-Polish border, confined work ‘comprises expectations publicly hands vis-à-vis management, prominently entitlement obtaining home oneself one's family’ (Habeck 136). last decades plot eliminated. Instead, members allocated kind. function same, namely facilitate sale commodities (Swain 1985). mature variant found villagers interest infringed collectivization earlier. What mattered incomes satisfaction consumption aspirations (Hann 1992). sense, contract, details varied countries regions, fluctuated time. common factor that, addition eliminating risk, regimes buttressed consent modifying ostensibly rigorous collectivist open spaces individuals goals freedom, economic. Sovkhoism thus universalism assuring [1893/4]) located philosophies, pragmatic approach particularly suited underdeveloped conditions countries.7 Compared USSR, several European states bloc researchers rule collapse. Katherine Verdery's (2003) decollectivization process ethnically Romanian village Transylvania builds dating back 1970s. She drew Gluckman stressing ‘fungibility’ deployed extensive networks accomplish goals. Wherever persons things, boundaries fuzzy. differed Western ownership, Verdery insists (contrary [neo]liberal critics) recognized distinctive property. different value, technical fix introducing institutions. Romania, difficulties accentuated chronic underfunding agricultural sector, repressive politics decade chaotic corrupt processes 1990s.8 Similar conclusions emerged socialist-era David Kideckel (1993) another region Transylvania. class distinctions removed replaced inequalities contempt excessive bureaucracy. Atomized combined industrial employment farm, sharecropping basis. worker-peasants similarly other uniquely unsuccessful generating productive synergies. Romania demonstrates ‘private-in-the-collective’ no means successfully implemented everywhere, Hungary (Bell 1984; Hann 1980; Lampland 1995) Bulgaria (Creed 1998) furthest realize potential enterprises. Yet evaluations themselves ethnographers emphasize negative, ethically unpalatable aspects mix. Martha (1995), western 1980s, paints vivid picture ‘second economy’ society’ contradicted representations. Market-orientated reforms encouraged ‘naturally’ governed utilitarian individualism: is, maximization selfish (personal, best familial) objectives. legitimation János Kádár's regime almost constantly enlarging accumulation. ambivalence relations emphasized Gerald Creed (1998) Bulgarian study. Through calls ‘conflicting complementarities’, succeeded moulding serve worker-peasant accumulation strategies. Echoing tone Lampland, then highlights long-term flaws complementarities: ‘[W]hile integrations adjustments achieved routes adaptive locally empowered villagers, detrimental As labor rendered expanding activity, practical foundations further weakened’ (1998: 217-18). Collective similar ways across China 1950s). difference cases examined central, main focus production. cases, Stalinist amounted replacement set principles, originally kinship (clan ownership), another, kolkhoz sovkhoz. contrast, middle entrenched (though semi-feudal pockets dominated estates continued hinder modernization). Even Hungary, industry advanced neighbouring Balkan states, ‘surplus’ population vast. War, level forces low. rationale imposing throughout worlds: accelerate industrialization, simultaneously realizing economies scale productivity agriculture. Europe, when embraced private-in-the-collective path, immediately ran against rooted ideologies peasant (smallholder) ownership. investigations performance, varying branches production, beliefs practices local level. below, turn now my (Transdanubia) characterized rolling hills, east Danube Great Plain unremittingly flat. Danube-Tisza interfluve driest hottest country. Soils generally poor high yields arable farming. sandy soils, suitable vineyards orchards. country's wine-producing hills ravaged filoxera disease late nineteenth wine zone major rivers expanded considerably. occupied Ottoman Turks half. Feudal re-established eighteenth medieval network settlements fully restored. animal breeding uninhabited tracts puszta. With expansion abolition serfdom led parcellization land. Colonists penumbra towns such (Fig. 1) built isolated homesteads. Most settlers struggled, especially sand produced dune-like effects landscape. preceding differentiated nowhere greater scattered settlement. Socialist policies focused initially consolidation hamlets villages investments infrastructure. holders afford eliminate small orchards dotted Agricultural followed course general model. Village allowed, later increasingly encouraged, produce goods commoditization, aided abetted flexibility Hungary's ‘market socialist’ path 1968. By time began doctoral Tázlár 1976, farmers abandoning centre, electricity piped water. belonged ‘specialist co-operative’, continue small-scale farming 1980). type co-operative extreme discussed previous section. Alongside dairy hogs branch boomed labour-intensive contributions supplemented supplies cheap fodder co-operative, provided transportation marketing services. 1980s ‘goulash socialism’ Economic decentralization, opening stimulation petty commodity differentiation pressing questions, inside ranks Communist Party members. intensified gave authentic market-based 1990. state-owned enterprises privatized, remembered ‘wild capitalism’ (vad kapitalizmus). Many richest pickings went former Party. capital welcomed governments hues, ground there condemnation foreign firms cherry-pick, sectors alike. plundering chaos, economic, decades, until country nadir global financial crisis 2007-8. Viktor Orbán since 2010 brought certain stability, hear citizens current one-party experienced Critics allege populist manipulation sphere cronyism management exceeds anything witnessed earlier (Magyar 2016). argued elsewhere, perspective Polanyian ‘disembedding’, unbridled domination partially corrected ‘re-embedded’ 2019a; 2019b). continuing visit dwindling number friends Tázlár, started projects (population around 30,000 declining steadily), 15 km away. industrialization place 1960s, Budapest required establish subsidiaries Halas. (It abbreviate town's name.) Success limited numbers employed order. decline accelerated dramatically wild capitalism Halas closed 1995. Farm, represented opposite end spectrum specialist exception. peak, 2,000 managers, cultivating surface nearly 10,000 hectares, far important employer. laid People's Republic. Parts vast puszta surrounding Halas, soil quality low, redistributed post-war reform, nationalized. 1949 lacked machinery, mostly proletarians lacking know-how, outcomes predictably poor. Gradually, thanks made. Several fragmented units merged assumed enduring contours 1961. farming, produce, poultry, hog complex, invested vineyards. laboratories co-operated ente