Political Economy

Anthropologist Eric Wolf defines three modes of production that affect social evolution. Kin-based exchange is limited to strength of kinship ties. The tributary mode centralizes tribute to wealthy landowners from individuals who own the means of production. Finally, capitalism puts the means of production in the hands of few while others work for wages. In rural Bangladesh, peasants and landowners alike, work to increase their own wealth. Slow production and unequal distribution of wealth slow economic growth. Disparity in wealth forces villagers to suffer a day-to-day cycle of producing the bare minimum. Long-time beliefs about rights to land seize advancement in the strength of Katni's political economy. A Quiet Violence reveals how peasant income has stalled if not, deteriorated, while wealth is mobilized to a small elite. An analysis of the economy in a Bangladesh village reveals the presence of all three of Eric Wolf's modes of production: kin-based, tributary, and capitalism.

History's earliest form of production is evident in the village of Katni. Kin-based production is characterized by a society where kin organizes exchange. This is likely to occur in stateless societies and societies where separation between kin is evident. In Katni, neighborhoods are separated by "internal kinship ties," (page 61, A Quiet Violence) as well cultural differences. Exchange is done primarily with kin and increasing the strength of ones kin is done through marriage. People in Katni see the benefits of marrying into well-off families because their own wealth will increase as a result. When a family is deciding on whom to marry their daughter, dowry offers are closely compared. This is an obvious display of kin-based exchange because not only does the daughter's family receive a higher dowry, they now have a set of people to exchange with that has more wealth than their own.

Wolf's kin-based mode of production is further shown in Katni through inheritance. Children inherit their parent's wealth, particularly the land that the family owns. An important component of kin-based exchange is that the wealth one inherits likely determines their social class for life. Each successive generation inherits a smaller portion of land than the previous one, decreasing social mobility. When a person inherits a larger piece of land and is a landowner, he owns all rights to his land. This becomes a vehicle of Wolf's second mode of production.

Bangladesh peasant villages have been largely tributary-based societies. The overwhelming effects of economic stagnation linger in the village of Katni in particular. Wealthy landlord, Nafi owns 70 acres of land, 15 of which he tends to on his own; he sells the rest as sharecrops to middle peasants. When it is revealed that though Nafi only tends to 15 of his total 70 acres, but his access to the rewards are 50/50, we see an obvious example of how a landlord extracts tribute from his sharecroppers, a characteristic of Wolf's tributary mode of production. His inheritance to the land gives Nafi the right to demand such a high portion of crop.

Wolf's tributary mode of production is often described by a flow of wealth starting at the low and middle peasants and moving upward to the minority landlords. Consequently, stagnation in economic growth is inevitable. Sharecroppers save their individual surplus for themselves; hired laborers worry about their individual wages, and since any increase in production would predominantly benefit Nafi, there is no incentive to do so.

The landlord's wealth should not be confused with capital. Capital would imply that the money Nafi extracts from his sharecroppers is used to increase the overall production of his land. However, since the peasants are responsible for their own means of production, they cannot afford to increase their physical capital or technology, thus they cannot increase productivity. This keeps them on the "economic treadmill" (p. 198, QV) the authors allude to.

The government intends to improve the roads of Katni on Nafi's land by giving him 10,000 taka. Better roads would undoubtedly help productivity for obvious reasons such as faster and safer mobility. Instead of using the taka for its intended purposes, Nafi pockets most of the government's taka, using only 1000 taka to improve