Paper short abstract:

This paper looks back at the beginnings of Marxist anthropology in the 1970s, its temporary demise in the 1980s, its subversive continuation under the label of "political economy", and its resurgence as a much broader program in the 1990s-2000s.

Paper long abstract:

If, in the course of crisis and global transformation, we are talking again about a Marxist anthropology, it may be useful to try to conceptualize what that could be, how its intellectual program can be distinguished, and on what existing work it may build. I will look back at the beginnings of Marxist anthropology in the 1970s, its temporary demise as an explicit program in the 1980s, its subversive continuation under the label of "political economy" in Canada and the US, and its resurgence as a much broader program under various (inter)disciplinary guises in the 1990s-2000s, including also my own work. And I will discuss two or three things I know about how and why it must differ from the anarchist and Maussian anthropologies that currently seem to flourish.