anthropology - the world system, colonialism, and inequality

cash crops

sugar, rice, cotton, tobacco, tea, rubber, etc.

triangle trade

between Europe, Africa, and the Americas forever changed life on both sides of the Atlantic

colonialism

political, social, economic, and cultural domination of a territory and its people by a foreign power for an extended time

imperialism

policy of extending the rule of a country or an empire over foreign nations and/or taking and holding foreign colonies

settler colonialism

form of colonialism that seeks to replace the original population of the colonized territory with a new society of settlers

white mans burden

victorian era; legitimated British control and possession of parts of Central Asia and Asia

Industrial Revolution

historic transformation (in Europe, after 1750) from handicraft and agricultural mode of production to industry and machine manufacturing

Karl marx

a key theorist of class and history, saw socioeconomic stratification as a sharp division between two opposed classes

bourgeoisie

own the means of production (factories, machinery, land, etc)

proletariat

working class; have only their labor to sell, and no control over the products of their labor

primitive accumulation

privatization of common land disenfranchises and prevented subsistence, thereby creating the proletariat class

class consciousness

true awareness of one’s position in the social class hierarchy (and solidarity with others in the same class)

Max Weber

was writing during the second phase of the Industrial Revolution, and added to Marx analysis

Prestige

the reputation, influence, and deference bestowed on certain people because of their membership in certain groups

Dependency theory

a critique of modernization theory arguing that despite the end of colonialism, the underlying economic relations of the modern world economic system had not changed

world systems theory

idea that a discernible social system, based on wealth and power differentials, transcends individual countries

core

industrialized former colonizer nations that dominate the world system

periphery

least developed and least powerful; often formerly colonized nations exploited for raw materials, cheap labor, and markets

semi-periphery

intermediate position between the core and the periphery in the world system; some attributes of core countries, but with less of a central role in the global economy

fordism

the dominant model of industrial production for much of the twentieth century, based on a social compact between labor, corporations, and government

flexible accumualtion

the increasingly flexible strategies that corporations use to accumulate profits in an era of globalization, enabled by innovative communication and transportation technologies

neoliberalism

an economic and political worldview that sees the free market as the main mechanism for ensuring economic growth, with a severely restricted role of government

Adam Smith theory

argued that free markets and free trade, being liberated from government intervention, would provide the best conditions for economic growth

John Maynard Keynes/ Keynesian theory

advocated for the government to have a role in moderating the excesses of capitalism and ensuring basic welfare for all citizens

The “American Dream”

the United States has a national myth of a classless society in which all have equal opportunity for upward mobility, but this has never been true

Lewis “culture of poverty” theory

argued that poverty is the result of attitudes of helplessness and dependency that make and keep people trapped in poverty and hinder upward mobility