Cultural anthropology topic on class and inequality PDF

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12/1/18 Cultural Anthropology Class and Social Inequality Topic Class 1  Social sciences are invested in these categories  Answering 2 questions o Whether inequality is a natural part of human culture and inevitable?  Is it intrinsic to human nature?  Archelogies have been useful in answer these questions o How do anthropologists analyze class and inequality? History of humanity and how history has dealt with inequality  One of the first things that archeologists noticed was that most parts of human history had been characterized by egalitarian societies o Sharing resources o Relative absence of hierarchy  It is only with the development of agriculture that hierarchy started emerging o Gathering and hunting is the social structure o This social structure is characterized by developing egalitarian social structures  This has to do with relating with each other  Archeological evidence therefore suggests that the human evolutionary success relies on cooperating and sharing not based on hierarchy o We have avoided inequality for a while  Hierarchy has come about with capitalism in recent times o This can definitely be avoided o Anthropologist study how hunters and gatherers now organize themselves  The stream and stratification that we live with today is something very recent and anthropologists trace the origins of this social inequality to the emergence of agricultural and the market o With agriculture, there is the development of market as well as the small groups of landholders that start to accumulate wealth o Capitalism and the growing emergence of globalism has also influenced this  Archeologist consider that central for evolutionary success has been cooperation o Humans have lived most of their time in the earth without hierarchy o Means that hierarchy isn’t intrinsic in our nature How to understand class and inequality  People are divided into class  Anthropologists draw on 2 traditions to understand class and inequality o Williams- shows that the meaning the term has shifted over tie

Development of the concept is linked with modernity Started during industrial revolution which reorganized society in a social way  The things that have brought this about are thanks to democracy  Before this time, relations were not on class but regarding blood  Two thinkers stared to theorize which have philosophical views on what history and capitalism and class is  They have become forerunners of different strands of economic thinking  They are Marx and Weber o Mark- economic philosopher  Class has to be understood by looking at the organization of production  Didn’t develop theory of class  He developed theory of value but reflects on class in his writings  His definition of class and class struggled lies scattered throughout of his writings  Organization of production allows us to understand human history  Transformation in the organization of production show different periods of human history o Capitalism has particular way of organizing production, and so does feudalism o Main historical factor of change are these things  Transformation of production is typically linked to labor  Marx believed that in order to understand any type of social phenomena, you must look at the material circumstances that determine human labor first  Labor is universal experience because everyone needs certain things to survive  Therefore, places labor at the center of understanding history and class and organization of production  Class is determined by the way production is socially organized  There are different groups who do certain things in these structures  Capitalist (bourgeois)- they are the owners of the means of production  Proletariat (working class)- they don’t have any property and the only thing they have to sell is their labor power o Must sell labor to capitalism in order to survive  Private ownership is the foundation of capitalism  This is why they want to disregard private property because this is the foundations of class exploitation  Workers create surplice value when selling their labor power  This is the basis of class exploitation  Relationship between surplus value and worker wage shows hierarchy  

Capitalist usually gives worker a wage and in doing so the capitalist is appropriating surplus values is they are receiving more than the worker is receiving  Social classes must have subjective awareness in organization of production  This refers to class consciousness  There is no class unless it is aware of itself  Considered that future of humanity will lead to social revolution  Workers and owners will be opposed in polarization which will puts an end to capitalist system  End of history for them is communism o Capitalism leads to communism  Proletariat embody the aspirations of transformation of whole society  They are chosen group of people who will lead us to social change  Status, consumption patterns, beliefs, ideas are all secondary  They are part of what he considers to be the super structure of society  Basis of society is always organization of production  Materialism approach which underscores relation between relation to determine class standing  He thinks multiple things are responsible for this  Rooted in basic economic relations (of productions) o These are the real foundations of classes  Class is in itself and for itself o They have consciousness of their own interests o See themselves as constituting a common class o If there is no consciousness or identity, there is no class  Struggling o Classes are formed thru struggle o Always a relational concept o They develop consciousness through relationships o Struggle leads to communism in the end  Lass is something that is centered or rooted in production, not on consumption o Weber- has more ideational response to class differences  Also wanted to criticize capitalist system  Both thoughts critique but they steam from different  Starts from moral and ethical method that are central to critiquing individualism  Believes transformation into large capitalism has transformed into large capitalism  Capitalism has drawn on other math things  Property is important for the finding of class specifications 

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 However he says that it shouldn’t matter what property we have  These things only create unequal distributing within marketplace  Property has comparative advantage  Class can also be defined and emerged by particular market conditions that follow consumption of foods for people in either and lesser degrees  believes that consumption is more important than production when it comes to the public o Marx thinks this can change with revolution while Weber just wants a change in the market  Weber has more nuanced way of understanding stratification  Weber is not antagonist  All about expectation and life experiences than other people and how they work since they are from different social classes Status is another important source of social structures o Economic factors are not the only thing that defines social structure o Weber says that status consist of every typical complement of the live-fate of men that is determined by specific social estimation of harm  Has to do with lifestyle which is expected by those we know from a particular circle  Status has to do with external factors (marriage, education, etc.) which creates different social structures Methods that the two people develop in understanding of class o Marxist method starts with account of concrete reality s how it appears at first glance to the analyst  The most visible objects in the marketplace are the commodities  The first thing he sees in market place o Weber starts from abstract concepts  Borrows from Kant that considers concepts to be cohering tools that are useful in understanding reality  Anthropologists are always struggling with abstraction

Class 2 Recap  Most important characteristics of Marxist approach to class o Class is rooted in production and how production is organized o From production, we can look at the different ways in which the social groups relate to classes o We therefore have 2 class: working class (owned) and the bourgeois (owners) o Working class only has labor power since they don’t own the means of production  Webber has still importance on production but also emphasis on consumption

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o Therefore, there are more consequences due to consumption o There is also emphasis on status  We have different access to different goods o Stats and prestige defines class standing o Class cannot be explained only by existence of two groups; there are many Now we are going to see how these perspectives allows us to understand class in US

Political economy  Area of concentration which is political economy o This area is not a subfield o People do this if they are interested in class and equality o This area recognizes that economy is central but conceptualizes economic processes within cultural and political processes and values  Most of these people are Marxist and has been dominated by Marxist o David Harvey is the most famous field  Three basic topics that emphasized from political economy o Economic forces of oppression  Study society and the market in relation by focusing on the economic means of oppression Understanding class and inequality here in US  Marxist oppose to idea of American dream o American dream is narrative of upward mobility  You come to US and you are able to succeed and climbs social latter o National myth referring to US as classless society  Anyone who is hard working has open access to upward mobility  Potential to rise from rocks to riches in single generation o Says that class is something you can achieve  If you haven’t achieved a good class position, that means you are lazy o Marxist believes that this is very wrong and only a myth o It is very had to change one’s life chances if you are born into certain race  Thomas Piketti is French economist o According to him, there is an emphasis on inheritance o Concentration of wealth is based on inheritance o Class is inherited  You can’t change this o This idea is opposed to American dream  Different ways of reading and understanding class o Competing models and definitions o Marxists thinks there are 2 classes: ruling and the ruled o There are more complex modes that involve many more classes  Weberians believe that social class stratification is based on several factors: wealth, income, educational attainment, occupation, social networks

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o This is what makes class for Weberians very complex o All these must be considered to describe class in US One model of social class is based on income o The upper class is 3% of population and they normally earn hundreds of millionsbillions per year o Middle class is 40% and they earn less than upper-class (up to 80,000 per year) o Working class is 30% earns around 20,000-45,000 a year o Problem with this model is that there is no middle ground between middle and higher  This model is very simplistic and doesn’t account for variation which is not based on economic factors (like education/profession) o Says there is correlation between income and status  This is not always the case o Those with high incomes will likely have better education and power thru social networks, but not necessarily a higher status  Status transcends economic factors  Status is the quality of admiration  Status has to do with legacy and Another model of social class o There is upper-class which has accumulated wealth and also control over corporations and political institutions  They have money and political power  Also acknowledges the privilege of upper-class is inherited o Corporate-elite is the class below the higher-class  Consist on highly salorized stockholders who didn’t necessary inherit it but have achieved it thru their carriers  These CEOs have les political power than upper-class o Upper-middle class consists of highly-educated salorized professionals  Occupations are held in high esteem (like lawyers)  They don’t earn as much money as cooperate elite o Middle class is largest class  Includes people in mid-level managerial positions  Occupations don’t have the same prestige as lawyers and this is why they are middle class o Working class is lowest level  Composed by those without college degrees with low-level service work  Has incomes that are below the poverty line These models are made by economists, so they are very limited and do not reflect what happens in reality o This is why anthropologists call about a continued radiation when they talk about class o There are no specific categorizes that can dictate class o Anthropologists therefore talk about a continuum

Some people have higher living standards than others But there is no clear place that can define one class from another Classes are not discrete groups All social classes expect from highest class consist of tens of millions of people  Only class we can ever describes in better way is upper-class because there are so few Models help us have idea of how classes work o But they are never able to account for diversity that exists in society o Internal diversity within different classes as well o These models are broad generalizations which are helpful sometimes but also limited    

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How anthropologists have approached class  Studying and focusing on effects of class position o We personalize numbers and put faces to these effects o Emphasis of effects on how these numbers are lived in daily life o Bring real-life stories o Ethnography is very important  Katherine Newman o Has focused on downward mobility since most stories highlight upward mobility o Studied counter-narratives of American dream o Falling from Grace is most famous book  Explores economic and psychological struggles of 150 families who strive to maintain their class position in US culture  Interviewed women and men who work mostly in home and traced their vulnerability in the process of which they are moving down o Interested in looking at psychic regarding class  That is why always taking into account personal stories o Asks why a nation of great prosperity how people who work full time are still poor  Highlights the struggles the working poor experienced o Focuses on urban poverty o Oppose to the idea of “culture of poverty”  Idea that there are certain traits which are ascribed to people who are poor  There is a poor work ethic that this is referring to  If you are poor, it is because you have certain traits  If you are poor, it is because you want to  Problem with this explanation is that it ignores the structural problems that cause people to be poor

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o She believes there is lack of understanding of how urban environments and inner-city economies work in order to understand why people make certain choices  Believes that there are hard-working people who are not able to climb ladder and cannot provide for family o Structural barriers that are between those who have money and those who don’t Study-Up o This is studying the elites o Karen Ho is famous anthropologist that has studied up  Studying economic decisions that these elites make  She got access to these elites was by working in Wall-Street before studying anthropology  Pays attention to why, in a time of record corporate profit, we see rapid layoffs and downsizing  There is contradiction  She sees by working with these people is that there is no contradiction at all o They need to downsize people in order to make huge profits because when they do this, stock prices and investments go up  Studies the corporate culture o Continues need and desire to making profits o This desire is what makes these firms disconnect with workers o Not everyone can study up  Depends on the resources and status you have  Usually most people study marginalized groups because access to them is easier Discussion o Neo-liberalism is term for liberal perspective with capitalistic intentions  Illusion of being for certain changes but in reality, not  Puts emphasis on reproduction of state  Believes that everything state does is very inefficient o Accumulation by disposition  Companies maximizing process  Centralizing power in the hands of few corporations  Functions that the states usually do is now done by corporations by commodifying  Process of commodification  Corporations are making money by shrinking of state  State gets to be redistributed and only had to do with the very basic functions  State shouldn’t be important economic player

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Coca-Cola has big hold over political economy  Companies wind up being important political actor...