GIVE ANSWERS - Français

You're welcome!

You were absolutely right about the two "main" meanings :
- in the house of / country etc
- "in the work of"

(In french "chez" never gives the idea of "in the style of", as you said it would be "à la...")

And in the explanation I gave myself, it's more or less the first meaning which is used (in the house of) but in a metaphoric way (in the ..head.. of Marx, his intimate way to consider things) - more than the 2d one.

"Somewhat" doesn't disturb me at all. I said "mix somehow.." in my last message. The "chez" here, according to my interpretation of it all, is about an operation done by the author (not by Marx) -> and he can not put himself -entirely- in the thought of someone else. That's how I read it. But here, I may be mistaken by my limited knowledge in english.

In English there are a lot of borrowed words (loan words) from French. Chez is one of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_French_origin_(A-C)#C

Since 'chez' usually means (in most cases) 'in the house of/place of/ country of' etc., I couldn't make sense of chez Marx except if he meant 'in the writing/work of'. But even this doesn't entirely make sense given the context. So I thought maybe the author made a mistake by using 'chez', and meant to say à la Marx (in the style of Marx) instead.

Your suggestion of meaning 'in light of' Marx makes more sense. But the author says 'somewhat' chez Marx, which still confuses me. However I think you are on the right track, the more I think about it.

So maybe we can say: The author wants to reconstruct the idea (i.e. independent domestic economy) of Karl Bucher and earlier writers and relocate them (combine?) into (with?) Marx's works.

Thanks again for your help.

Ok !

Then it means that the author will try to mix somehow Bucher & others' theory and Marx's thought.

He's telling that his own analysis of the "independent domestic economy" is to be thought in the logic and paradigm of Marx's work, which inspired him.

In french we would literally say that he "reads Bucher's work 'in light of' marxism" (of what Marx's theory brought new...)

I help myself with the word "relocated" in the original sentence. -> the idea of taking some thought and bring it in the circle of another one.

BUT I personally think that this is some mistake in his sentence. I never saw this word borrowed (I even misunderstood it was actually a borrowed word, despite you wrote it in your title, cause it seemed to me very unlikely) I mean, I don't know which french words are commonly borrowed in english, especially in such essays, but your example let me think this one has nothing to do here. The sentence is not very clear with it, and even if the reviewer used the same word, I am very very doubltful whether it is correct or not...

Thanks for your reply. It's not in French, it just borrows the word chez.

The sentence I cited is actually a paraphrase. The original passage, which I avoided for brevity, is here in full:

"In brief, to explain the observed disposition toward underproduction in primitive economies, I would reconstruct the 'independent domestic economy' of Karl Bucher and earlier writers--but relocated now somwhat chez Marx, and redecorated in a more fashionable ethnography."

A commentary about this, written by a reviewer, said," Although he states clearly that his analysis of primitive economy is meant to be chez Marx, his conclusions and those of Marx are irreconcilably opposed."

This is why I'm confused about what 'chez Marx' is supposed to mean. I'm having difficulty gleaning the meaning from the context.