«SOCIETY OF THE EXTERMINATION OF WEALTH» IN THE WORKS OF GEORGES BATAILLE

Abstract

This article examines Georges Bataille's interpretation of the tribes of northwestern America (Indians), ancient Mexico (Aztecs), and similar archaic cultures as examples of a «society of the extermination of wealth». The reasoning is based on the analysis of such a basic binary opposition in the philosophy of the French writer as the profane «order of things» and the sacred «intimate order», moving later to the interpretation of sacrifice and potlatch as useless «unproductive waste». Special attention is paid to the second ritual practice, which, according to Bataille, most clearly shows the fact that wealth in archaic society is understood in connection with waste, and not with the accumulation and multiplication of goods, which is already characteristic of capitalism. The author, based on primary sources, as well as domestic and foreign interpretive literature, connects the useless waste of surplus production in the «society of the extermination of wealth» with Bataille's interpretation of glory as likening the immensity of the sun and his idea that the ultimate goal of any flow of energy is annihilation. In the finale of the work, a comparison is made between capitalism and the «society of the extermination of wealth».

The article is of interest to readers interested in twentieth-century French philosophy, archaic cultures, social anthropology.