ABSTRACT
A good hundred years ago Karl Marx introduced into his system the concept of ‘Asiatic society’ as a special form of societal organization, based upon a low level of ‘civilization’ and large-scale irrigation-works, occurring in the desert areas between the Sahara and the high plateaux of Asia. Wittfogel’s history of the theory would also have been more valuable had he reported on the discussions among scholars in China, Japan and India, and the occurrence of the theory at the present time within the Soviet orbit. Objectionable from the methodological point of view is Wittfogel’s failure to distinguish between institutional and functional data, as well as his incomplete evaluation of their interaction in time and space.
