Developmental ‘Paths’ and ‘Civilizations’ in Africa and Asia: Reflections on Strategies for Integrating Cultural and Material Explanations of Differential Long-term Economic Performance

In addressing the theme ‘Economic Performance of Civilizations’, I take as my starting-point Timur Kuran’s recent paper setting out a research strategy for explaining the economic performances of ‘huge populations’ over ‘long periods’ (Kuran 2009: 600). Kuran rejects solely cultural and solely material explanations, both in practice (he critiques specific examples) and on the general presumption that, in the long run, cultural and material variables must interact. He concentrates his criticism on materialist explanations, evidently because most of the scholarly literature now rejects purely cultural accounts. He suggests that research should focus on social systems of durable ‘complementary traits’ linking elements of cultural and material life, as a means of uncovering unintended and long-term as well as intended and immediate effects of particular cultural beliefs on the economic performance of the societies concerned. He argues that the unit of analysis within which this research can best be framed is about the broadest available: the ‘civilization’, which encompasses and links regions and states.