Define the Concept of Mode of Production, and Describe and Discuss

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The Answer is Wolf's three modes of production have been particularly important in human history: (1) a kin-ordered mode (Figure 11.5(in the text ), in which social labor is deployed on the basis of kinship relations (e.g., husbands/fathers clear the fields, the whole family plants, mothers/wives weed, children keep animals out of the field); (2) a tributary mode, "in which the primary producer, whether cultivator or herdsman, is allowed access to the means of production while tribute [a payment of goods or labor] is exacted from him by political or military means" (Wolf 1982, 79); and (3) the capitalist mode, which has three main features: the means of production are private property owned by members of the capitalist class, workers must sell their labor power to the capitalists to survive, and surpluses of wealth are produced that capitalists may retain as profit or reinvest in production, to increase output and generate further surpluses and higher profits.

Define the Concept of Mode of Production, and Describe and Discuss

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