Anthro and marxism

Free labour:

•  A workforce readily available for exploitation from the disposition of people from their land following the Industrial Revolution 

Engles:

• Understanding the historical emergence of private property, the evolution of family structure and the role of the state in these 

• Used work from Morgan in the Iroquois to examine how society works when they don’t have a govt

• Marxist theory emphasises modes of production as the central driver of historical change

• Internal contradictions arise within modes of production and these drive historical change 

• This view emphasises constant change, contrasting primitive societies

Primitive accumulation:

• Dispossessing people of their land and transforming them into a free labour force

Marxist theory:

• Composed of the base: economic foundation of society and the superstructure: all other aspects of society e.g. politics etc…

• The core idea is that the economic base fundamentally shapes the superstructure 

Maurice bloch:

• Applied concepts like modes of production to understand the complexities of social organisation in diverse cultural contexts

• French anthropologists sought to apply class analysis to societies traditionally studied by anthro like non-western, and examined these societies to attempt to categorise them into capitalist, pre-state or pre-capitalist

Julian stewerd:

• Non-western societies were not “primitive” or “traditional” but were deeply integrated into the global capitalists system

• Emphasised the global reach and historical depth of the capitalist world system, highlighting the decision between core and periphery nations/ 

Capitalism and slavery:

• Development of capitalism in Europe was intricately linked to slavery and the exploitation of colonies and the Global South

• Mintz: traced the transformation of sugar from a rare luxury into a staple of the working class diet, linking this to the rise of industrial capitalism, colonial exploitation and the slave trade

Wolf:

• Challenged Eurocentric views of history, emphasising the global nature of historical processes

• Rejected the “primitive cultural accounts: of history (sahlins) who argued that history should be understood solely from the perspective of the culture being studied

• Argued that understanding history requires considering the interconnected global processes and neglected broader global forces that shaped historical events

Marxism:

• Provided a framework for understanding how social institutions can both integrate and exploit individuals

• challenged the notion of a perfectly functioning and harmonious society

• Emphasised the dynamic and ever changing nature of society, highlighting processes of tension, conflict and transformation

• Marxism provided both analytical tools and strong political motivation for addressing social inequalities and working toward a more just, equitable world

• Taussig: examined the entry of money and its symbolic significance in Colombian society, focused on how capitalism impacted diverse communities

Criticisms of french marxism:

• Overly focused on classifying societies into ridgid categories, leading to a deterministic exercise neglecting the dynamic nature of historical transformation