Eugen Peter Schwiedland: Psychologie des primitiven Menschen (1922)

Schwiedland’s review of Richard Thurnwald’s Psychologie des primitiven Menschen explains economic development through psychological motives, technical capacities, and political power. He commends Thurnwald’s ethnological account for distinguishing the economies described as “primitive” from contemporary ones, emphasizing limited technique as a decisive condition of behaviour.

OBSERVATION of primitive peoples shows the importance of psychic conditions, of technique and of political features for the evolution of economic life.

This opening frames the review’s movement from subsistence to valuation and domination. Food and habitation are provided directly and individually, although labour is often communal. Economic motivation nevertheless exceeds necessity: luxury possessions confer distinction, while associations with supernatural powers give objects value beyond practical uses. Shell-money, beads, and stones illustrate how such valuations can produce tokens of value.

There is everywhere and at all times something in men that aims at things beyond mere utility, and this striving may be one of the most important instruments of progress.

Non-utilitarian aspiration thus becomes a force in economic development. Schwiedland then turns from symbolic valuation to unequal control over labour. Slavery and the subjection of women and children enable those commanding their work to cultivate larger areas and obtain greater crops and revenues. Tribute compels dependent groups to intensify their efforts, while ruling-class expenditure contributes to the differentiation of castes and professions.

Political expansion supplies another condition of development: enlarged territories establish peaceful relations among larger populations and extend marriage and commerce. Improved technique strengthens transport and exchange. Economic change consequently depends on both organized authority and the material possibilities of production.

Schwiedland concludes by praising Thurnwald’s treatment of tools, portrayal of mentality, and illustrations. The review connects desires for distinction with coercive relations of production, presenting economic life as technically constrained, socially valued, and politically organized.