Connections and contradictions: Eric R. Wolf and the political ecology of value

Abstract

Eric Wolf is conventionally credited with reframing the term “political ecology” through the lens of political economy in the early 1970s. However, he never engaged with what by the 1980s was already a growing transdisciplinary field. An inspiring book in the genealogy of political ecology, Europe and the people without history said little about the emerging approach. Nevertheless, I argue that despite its limited focus on ecological issues, the book’s vision and method can still provide insights for envisioning an anthropologically minded political ecology of value that combines the heuristic skills of ethnographic research with the systemic analysis of global capitalist-driven environmental change. To this end, the arti- cle brings Wolf ’s strategic use of Marxian frameworks into conversation with the Marxian ecological critique of value.