Towards a Non-Eurocentric Social Theory

In this podcast episode, the host discusses Samir Amin's book Eurocentrism, focusing on part 4, which explores a non-Eurocentric view of history and social theory. Amin's work challenges the idea of a universal path of development, arguing that the transition from communitarianism to slavery, feudalism, and capitalism is not a universal process for all societies. He critiques Marx's theory of historical materialism and argues for a non-Eurocentric conception of development. Amin emphasizes the need to look at the entire world division of labor and understand capitalism as a global system. He also discusses the concept of tributary mode of production and its prevalence in different societies throughout history, including European feudalism as a peripheral form of the tributary mode.