Exam3Athena
Two hypotheses about why politicization and shift to agriculture and to large-scale society) occurred : (1) Progress (2) Population Pressure DESCRIBE.
(1) Progress - assumed people abandoned foraging and nomadic way of life because preferred advanced approaches to securing 1. Henry Lewis Morgan - 1877 (a cultural evolutionist) - Societies evolve progressively through 3 stages, - Advancement to next stage involved some technological innovation 2. Leslie White - - 1950s (a neo-cultural evolutionist) - technology drives evolution and progress (2) Population pressure - 1. Mark Cohen - shifts from hunting & gathering occurred when people started to bump into each other as they looked to forage food - forced them to have to travel further and further away for food - they knew how to farm before but preferred to forage - As they moved more and more into each other's territory, then decide they had to do agriculture Farming made life worse (Robbins, p. 33- 36) a. Two examples from hunters and gatherers 1. The Hazda of Tanzania, East Africa a. rich food resources; 20% animal and 80% plants b. Healthy children c. Nutritionally better off than agricultural neighbors d. spent only 2 hours daily foraging b. the Ju/wasi of Namibia and Botswana 1. abundant food supply, 1/2 by fat, nutrient-rich mongongo nut 2. 80 plant varieties in diet 3. 175-200 lb meat/person/ year - equivalent to that of developed countries 4. 2300 calories of well balanced foods daily 5. less than 20 hours/ week foraging
Bodely differeates three different types of "Cultures of Scale." Each type differs from the others in terms of 4 features:
(1) density, (2) adaptive strategies, (3) social and political organization, and (4) type of economic system.
ranked or stratified inequalit (triangles)
- Clear social differentiation with unequal access to material goods and social power Examples (from less to more dense): i.chiefdoms (with rankings) -- such as in New Guinea swidden agricultural chiefdoms i. states (empires and kingdoms) -- such as the early Egyptian state or Inca state in Peru or feudal kingdoms ( Bodely says "classes" exist, but many scholars reserve this term for capitalist systems, simply calling these ranked or stratified societies.)
the Kingston Free Zone
- It was on land that was part of Jamaica, but technically, legally had been defined as a zone that was not really part of Jamaica, and so "free" of legal constraints, laws and regulations, and taxes to which businesses would ordinarily be subject. - the infrastracture to allow for factories to be built and dismantled on the free zone, was financed by a loan the Jamaican government took with the IMF. The businesses had no loyalty to the Jamaican people, under paid them, and then brought in Asian workers to take their jobs. 18000 jobs were lost, the Jamaican government however continued to pay for the loan for the zones until 2010, 10+ years after they were dismantled. In this way, they continued to become more poor, with every negotiation with the global bakers from the west (IMF and WB and their subsidiaries). By the end of 2000, they owed 52 cents interest for every $1 the government had.
Context of Loan
- Jamaica, 1962, gained independence from England as a former colony - 1970s global oil crisis caused imports of needed goods (for hospitals, fuel, basic goods) to kyrocket, making Jamaica unable to afford them. Very serious situation - Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica sought a loan and borrowed from the IMF - Because of Jamaica's poor economic situation, the IMF charged high interest and imposed Touch conditions (SAPs); every time Jamaica was unable to pay, the IMP renegotiated the terms of the loan making the austerity conditions even more austere. - The conditions: devalue its currency; remove trade barriers; require drastic cuts for domestic spending for health, education and welfare; cut number and salaries of federal employees - By 2000 Jamaica was paying off 52 cents of every dollar in interest to the IMF; - That left only 48 cents for domestic expenses - Since the loan and the conditions it imposed, Jamaica was becoming increasingly more poor. - Jamacia kept having to pay out (e.g., by buying imported food, but other countries did not buy from Jamaica, so it was not getting any $ back into the country)
forces of production
- the technology as a component of mode of production (this could include factories and even labor used in factories)
b. Periphery
- those poor nations who were forcibly integrated into the world system for their raw materials and initially as slave labor. - 3rd world, Developing nations - they were the very poor post- colonial nations
Colonialism's intent
-Expanding landholdings and wealth Using resources for European factories -Creating new centers of food production in colonies -Creating dependence of colonial peoples on Europeans
Pre-colonial subsistence
-Hunters and gatherers had abundant food to share -Settled villages had more inequality, but adequate food. -colonialism destroyed the successful balance that traditional societies had achieved for all.
Colonialism's impact
-It destroyed the ability of colonized people to feed themselves -It worsened poverty for most of the world.
Mintz, Sidney
-Sugar the first "world systems commodity" economically integrating the world 1. Mintz asks, "why do people like sugar so much?" a. a natural universal sweet tooth? b. something else or combination of things? 2. History of the production of sugar in the New World a. Columbus first carried sugar to the New World in 1493 b. In 1516 sugar was first produced in the colonies by the Spanish in Santo Domingo (the Dominican Republic) and shipped back to Europe c. Portugal refined and dominated sugar production during the 1500s. d. Just prior to 1600, Britain decided to acquire colonies specifically to produce sugar for itself. e. But by the early 1600s the British, Dutch and French established Caribbean plantations. f. The British sugar industry zoomed beginning in the 1640s in Barbados. g. From 1650-1750 sugar became the single most important import from its colonies. 3. The trade triangle and the production/consumption of commodities at each location a. Shackles, cloth and tools, torture instruments were produced in Britain and sold to African slave traders for consumption by slaves and the slave trade b. Slaves were produced as a commodity in Africa and sold for as - forced laborers on sugar plantationsin the British West Indies. -The slaves "were themsleves consumed in the creation of wealth"(Mintz 1985:43). - Mintz calls slaves a "false commodity" because a human being is not an object even when treated like one"(Mintz 1985:43) c. The sugar from the West Indies was transported to England for consumption there. 4. History of Patterns of consumption a. Sugar was used in Medieval Europe by royalty and spun for used in elaborate decorations b. by 1500 it became important in upper class British ritual feasts c. By 1700 it became commonly available to middle class people as well. d. And by 1750, Mintz tells us(p. 45) that even the poorest English farm worker's wife used sugar in her tea. In short, England had become a nation of sugar eaters. e. From this point (1750) onward, sugar production became increasingly important to England's ruling class, but the reasons had changed. - During this time, the upper classes were actually less interested in consuming it. - Its importance to the upper classes rested in its economic significance in influencing important political and economic decisions. e.g., many members of Parliament were plantation owners, investors in sugar plantations, or otherwise involved in the sugar industry (e.g,, in shipping, refiing, or the slave trade) and influenced government policy concerning the pricing and supply of sugar f. The British working class had acquired a taste for sugar and couldn't get enough of it. The reason was that sugar, together with similar drug foods (such as coffee, chocolate and tea) offered "profound consolations to them in mines and the factories."(Mintz, p. 61) g. By 1850, the English working class consumed more sugar than the upper classes. - Sugar (a simple, nonnutritious carbohydrate) replaced wheat ( a nutritious, comples carbohydrate) as a staple - Meat was also consumed, but restricted to working men, who needed to be in decent physical condition to carry out hard, long labor - Working class women and children were effectively undernourished and the infant mortality rate rose. D. Were plantations a "capitalist enterprise"? 1. Most scholars argue that captialism did not begin as a new economic system until the late 1700s. 2. Mintz, however, argues that the rise of capitalism demanded a system of trade of which the Caribbean plantations formed a crucial part a. They provided commodities for European consumption and b. Markets for European products (e.g., by the plantation owners and families) c. Thus they created considerable profit for Europe. 3. Now, formally, the"capitalist mode of production" is based on free labor (based on a labor contract, which guarantees payment for labor in which the laborer is free to engage). The plantation system was based on slave, or forced labor (Mintz 1985:59). a. Marx himself was aware of this oddity for capitalist labor. Marx wrote that the plantations were commercial enterprises within a capitalist mode of production and that the plantation owners "are capitalists" ..."as anomalies within a world market based on free labor." (in Mintz 1985:59) 4. Now the level of accumulation wrought from plantations was also low in comparison to that of factories (p.60) a. However, their products nourished both capitalist classes and sustained factory laborers who continued to contribute to the capitalist accumulation of wealth for capitalists (Mintz:55). b. And the importance of sugar was so clear to emerging capitalist classes in the early 1600s that they fought powerfully for the rights to invest capital in plantations (Mintz:61). 5. thus Mintz concludes that even if the plantations could not formally be called "capitalist", that they provided an important step toward the development of capitalism (MIntz:55). 6. Sugar was symbolically important in the capitalist transformation of the world system because its ability to stimulate continuous consumer demand ideologically supported the notion of continuous growth a. Thus sugar became the first major consumer product
Adam Smith
-a Scottish Enlightenment economist 1. a reaction to the brutal authority of Church and State 2. science and reason would "free" people from the injustices of Church & State 3. Thus reason became the tool for escaping injustice. - Reason was seen as an aspect of the autonomous individual Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776): -"liberal economic theory" 1. Adam Smith's emic view of capitalism
How did politicization - a shift from an egalitarian social and political system to one that was hierarchical -- occur?
-occurred with the shift from small to large scale cultures. -according to Bodely, "the process that produces and maintains centralized political power". How does this occurs and where does the pressure for this process comes from? - e.g., from within the culture or outside of it (that is forcible pressure, not something people chose.) These issues of great interest to anthropologists and ethno-historians as they tell us what led to class differentiation in the history of human culture.)
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in NY- 1911
. A. 146 garment workers died 1. Mainly immigrant women, mostly Jewish and Italian 2. Tried to escape down stairs but doors had been locked a. owners had locked the doors - feared they would try to sneak out with stolen goods - feared union organizers would sneak in 3. many leapt to their deaths from 9th floor 4. those who managed to get down, found flood of bodies blocking their path out 5. Fire escapes, in ill repair, broke B. A year earlier, workers lobbied for betters conditions 1. better pay 2. better safety 3. to unionize Led to 11-week strike - largest in history C. Management response 1. better pay (up from 13 cents/hr) and shorter hours 2. refused to improve safety - ventilation, locked doors, fire drills 3. refused a union D. Major event in US labor history leading to major reforms for US workers
Control of Developing post-colonial nations (like Jamaica) by remote experts
. A. Experts (bankers and specialists) from a few elite organizations make decisions that affect the lives of poor people throughout the world. 1. on the basis of projected economic growth. 2. Little consideration to the culture or preferences of the people. B. Kinds of assistance to developing nations 1. Multilateral development assistance a. financed by many nations (such as the World Bank and IMF) 2. Bilateral development assistance a. gifts, grants or low rate loans given by one country to another b. political and trade conditions usually attached by donor nation - e.g., anitcommunism by the U.S. -- major basis of assistance programs . - about 1/3 of all aid is military - often to already developed nations like Israel (which receives 1/4 of all aid) - over 1/2 of all funds are sent to strengthen countries whose instability might threaten interests of American elite (like Haiti) 4. U. S. Food aid a. designed to help U.S. farmers find a market for overproduction b. only a small portion is given as free emergency aid c. subsidized food aid actually makes it hard for local farmers to sell products
the 1970s: Second U.N. Development Decade
1. "holistic" or unified approach to inequality 2. Focus again on increased growth (3.5%) per person in GNP a. GNP (Gross National Product) - total of a country's production of goods, services and profits 3. Still focus on conquering world hunger assumed a technological solution: scientific farming (the Green Revolution ) for greater yields (HYVs or High Yield Varieties) a.. Limitations of HYVs or "miracle grains" 1. Required optimum conditions a. Enough, but not too much, water b. large amounts of costly chemical fertilizers 2. Vulnerable to disease 3. Requires chemical pesticides as more vulnerable to pests also 4. Varieties are often short and so more vulnerable to flooding a. limits planting locations 5. Limits those who can take advantage of its high yields a. Largest farmers with best land and best government connections b. only elites who could afford the expensive inputs (like chemical fertilizers) 6. Seeds from miracle grains (e.g., from Monsanto) were often sterile, forcing the poor farmer to have to purchase new seeds every year b. Value of local domestic varieties 1. Grown over many generations a. suited local environmental conditions b. worked well with small-scale production technologies c. Provided variety in the local diet c. Consequences of Green Revolution for small farmers (See movie clip on water temple goddesses and problems from HYV rice) 1. linked them to global political economy 2. lost control over means of production a. Seeds, land, tools removed from village control 3. Fate is determined by remote heads of governments, banks, corporations and development agencies 4. Agriculture production is linked to global-level institutions by way of national ones through series of unequal exchanges with uneven benefits d. Those who gain 1. Elite of donor nations 2. elite of developing nations (govt. officials and those in private enterprises) a. land, cheap labor, profits, food surpluses, even bribes b. They control land and water as well as finances for technological inputs to produce HYVs e. Losses 1. the poor landless farmers who become impoverished a. occurred through increased debt and landlessness 2. increased debts of developing nations to international donors 3. reduced nutrition 4. People forced to sell land to pay off debs a. forced to seek low wages in urban areas f. Malnutrition under Green Revolution 1. monocrop HYV (e.g., wheat) replaced multiple varieties needed for good nutrition a. they forfeited their traditional well balanced diets b. less palatable than traditional diet g. Exploitation by local elites 1. Used political connections to gain technology for HYV 2. Controlled access to modern technology 3. sometimes appropriated land for villagers
Thus, negative consequences of progress through colonialism, globalization and capitalist expansion for indigenous peoples involved WHAT?
1. ***Ecocide*** - destruction of environment with heavy exploitation of resources depletion of resources and tillable land 2. ***Ethnocide*** - destruction of culture - e.g., of the Dreaming of aborigines; Chief Plenty Coups commenting on when the buffalo were gone: "Then there was nothing." - loss of a culture organized around the buffalo 3. ***Genocide***- killing of people through disease of contact, deliberate murder, and ecocide, which left them with nothing to eat. (e.g., the Ona of Tierra del Fuego; Chief Plenty Coups, Crow Indians)
B. Competition/cooperation among capitalists
1. Capitalists compete with one another for a greater share of the market 2. Since the 1970s in the U.S., however, capitalists (the largest corporations) have joined forces as a class to lobby for pro-business tax reform, labor law reform and rolling back the welfare state (including benefits to the elderly) (Myles in Minkler and Estes 1991:293). 3. And beyond the U.S., capitalists also cooperate together. Look at multinational corporations, World Trade Organization, NAFTA
Global Life of a Garment - T- Shirts #2 - Cotton/ Polyester
1. Cotton from El Salvador - workers $2/day 2. Polyester from Dupont begins with oil from oil riggers in Venezuela, working for $6/day - used in a petro chemical mill in New Jersey 3. Burlington Mills in South Carolina workers weave polyester (that began in Venezuela) and Cotton (from El Salvador) into a cotton/ polyester fabric for $10/ hour 4. Fabric is shipped to Haiti - women make t-shirts and tops for $3/day. 5. Garments shipped bakc to US - Sears, Wallmart, Penney's for $20/ garment
Emmanuel Wallenstein
1. Every nation is part of an economic system that integrates the world 2. This occurs without the need for a central state (national government) 3. This occurs on the basis of unequal exchange on an international market. a. Unequal exchange allows the rich industrial nations to accumulate captal at the cost of the poorer nations on the outsie of the core. b. leads to underdevelopment of poor nations, whose resources go to the rich c. Draws on Andre Gunder Frank's 3 types of nations (see below) 4. The key to the success of the capitalist world system is twofold a. a world division of labor that allowed for an unequal distribution of benefits and exploitation of those on the periphery (e.g., multinational corporations and those working in sweat shops) b. Racist or similar divisive ideologies that justify these inequalities in terms of differences in merit of the various groups (African backwardness during colonialism; Greek, Spanish laziness today) - the argument is that the failure of third world nations (or second world, or even 1st world nations that have lost economic power) to become more developed is the result of their the cultural or natural inferiority of groups on the periphery on the periphery
the 1960s :the FIRST U.N. Development Decade
1. Goal: 5% growth in national incomes in developing countries by end of 1960s 2. Led to massive expenditures 3. By 1970 over $2 billion lent to develop infrastructure: dams, power plants, highways 4. Result: income disparities continue within 3rd world countries
The Development Decades
1. Health, education, food, housing and employment inadequate in 1/2 the world's people. 2. Economic and social issues viewed as separate, independent issues a. economic ills due to disease which leads to underproduction b. no association made between social differences (in terms of class) and poverty 3.Modernization approach: Millions of dollars were spent by U.N.on large-scale development projects. 4. U.N. focussed on combatting diseases through modern Western technological interventions a. DDT to kill pests b. penicillin 5. Nutritional diseases, (beriberi, kwashiorkor) ignored as less easily combatted as due to poverty a. would need structural changes (more equitable distribution of income among people) to reverse b. wealthy would have . up some wealth so other would live better. 7. Consequence of development efforts: a. global population explosion due to reduction of death rates (particularly infant mortality) b. Because there was no accompanying income redistribution, the numbers of poor people in the world increased. c. Greater gap between developing and industrial nations d. growth disproportionately went to elites in developing countries - who controlled funds and received foreign aid
Threat to Jamaica's milk production
1. In 1995, a loan with the IMF required that Jamaica lift trade barriers, and accept subsidized milk from the Us as a condition of the loan. 2. The US government subsidized the loan at 137% making Jamaica unable to compete. It had to spill its milk, destroy its cattle, and produced only 1/6 of its former amount.
Development after WWII: a "neo-colonialism"
1. Intent: to increasing rural standards of living 2. Actual outcome of development (similar to colonialism) a. Made small scale cultures dependent on others for subsistence - by removal from their means of production (e.g., their land) - enclosure - by requiring wages to buy food - loss of means of production left them vulnerable to exploitation b. Unemployment or low pay made it difficult to survive c. Development contributed to poverty by placing third world nations in debt
what are the Problems with global scale culture?
1. Millions (even billions) of people can no longer gain access to subsistence goods and are paid too little to live adequately 2. Millions more cannot even find labor 3. People who can neither produce nor consume are dispensable in a capitalist economy 4. Poverty and suffering increase across the globe to unprecedented proportions 5. malnutrition and infant mortality soar
Is modernization and development necessarily deleterious?
1. No, not if used with a respect for local traditions 2. not if carefully implemented to allow for sustainability of local practices 3. not if control not placed in the hands of economic and technical experts who lack an understanding for local knowledge and who impose their own notions of growth (profit/ heightened GDP) as a measure of success. 4. No, not if control is placed in the hands of local people beyond local elites 5. not if it can be carefully implemented (e.g., antiretroviral medications) with efforts to allow sustainable food production
The 1980s: Third Development Decade
1. Reagan Administration Policies: a. Economic growth (increased GNP) remained key goal b. greater emphasis on free market forces through privatization in 3rd World c. Led to commercializing agriculture - pressured poor farmers to produce crops for export, not for subsistence, pushing many off their land (as with Enclosure movement) - massiwe taekover of peasant lands, reason for peasant rebellions throughout South America and Central America 3. Results a. Levels of poverty continued to rise: 1 billion people by 1990: the most ever b. 3rd World nations accrued huge debts to pay for development initiatives - Rich countries lent $927 billion to debtor nations - Rich countries received $1,345 trillion back, gaining $418 billion in interest c. Debts led to austerity measures by Western lenders (Structural Adjustment Programs) that only worsened poverty in the Third World.
What's the History of Cultures of Scale?
1. Small-scale cultures (such as the hunter gatherer societies of the Australian aborigines) have lasted for some 50,000 years or more; other small scale cultures, such as pastoralists have a shorter history 2. Large-scale cultures ( such as preindustrial states and kingdoms) emerged some 6000 years ago a. Why? Various events made it difficult for existing cultures to remain egalitarian and to resist the production of centralized political control b. not very stable as frequently rose and fell, so ill adaptive to human life 3. 200 years ago: industrial capitalism and global scale culture a. the groundwork for global scale culture -- and arguably, capitalism -- began with colonial expansions beginning in the late 1400s.
T- Shirts #1: the "life of a garment"- cotton ***Who asks***: He asks why t-shirts made in China use American (Texas-grown) cotton??? WHY? A win-win situation?
1. To keep costs down a. US government subsidized cotton to help farmers make a profit and so it could be sold cheaply b. Labor is cheaper abroad (outsourcing) ------------------------------------------------------- 1. Actually - not everyone wins equally 2. Winners: a. The producers gain greater profits b. The consumers pay lower prices 3. The losers a. Environment (for everyone) - consumption of oil to transport cotton and garments back and forth between nations - environmental erosion b. Chinese women garment workers in sweat camps - yet for them, they claim "beats working on the farm" - Robbins p. 73 - So as bad as sweat shops appear to us, it may actually be a better "out" for those who work there c. To think about: Is the experience of exploitation relative? - If sweat shops are better than farming for Chinese workers, is that OK? - Or, should conditions improve to a better standard, as they have in the US? (See Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in US in 1911 and Bangladesh Garment Factory Fire in 2012 4. What are the invisible costs of a cheap T-shirt? Who pays for our bargains?
C. Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand" of the market place 1. faith in free enterprise system - natural market forces that should be left alone a. This is what is meant by the "Invisible Hand" of the market place -- that there are natural laws maintaining orderly economic growth - Thus government should stay out of the way - "laissez-faire" economy (literally,"to let to do") - or deregulation b. Social well-being was achieved by individuals' naturally pursuing self- interest without government interference. - through "trickle down economy" (similar to Reagan 200 yrs later) 2. private ownership of land and labor specialists were marks of a market economy a. the land owner received rent for his land and accumulated capital for manufacturing using labor specialists b. labor specialists enabled great increases in production and received a wage 3. Smith argued for a "family wage" to support children and ensure continous supply of future workers a. workers should receive the lowest possible wages that could support 4 people b. This is determined by minimal requirements to maintain a worker and enough to allow him to reproduce future workers - assumption that only two children would survive - Yet wages had to be high enough to give workers incentive to improve production c. Wages were directly linked to the number of workers available -- law of supply/demand equation. The more available workers, the lower the wages. - if wage were too high, too many children (future workers) would be produced, wages would be low and infant mortality would rise. This would result in a shortage of workers and higher wages again. d. Manufacturers were at an advantage in dispute over wages as they had stores of wealth could last about one year; workers could only last about one week. - So while manufacturers had to depend on laborers, they could hold out for a much longer time than the laborers who depended on them 4. The wage was secured in a "legal" social contract a. ideologically supported liberal Enlightenment notions of the autonomous rational individual, supposedly "free" to negotiated the exchange of his labor power for a wage. (This masked the reality that the worker's "free choices" were constrained by the lack of other choices and fear of starvation.) 5. Smith's concept of economy was "disembodied" -- existing apart from society and understood independent of society a. it assumed that people were naturally individualistic and selfish b. social well-being tied to individualistic pursuits that led to economic prosperity c. disembodied economy, instead of a moral economy, embedded in the social life and well-being of the community 6. Thus capitalism, as conceived by Adam Smith had several unique features a. divorced labor from social life (anyone from anywhere worked in a factory) - a form of alienation b. It turned ancestral land (like native American, or the aboriginal land), its products and people into commodities, alienated from their history and social meaning c. it aims to create continuous profits d. the elite new capitalist class profited by far the most from its growth 7. To sum up, features of Adam Smith's liberal economy a. private property b. government deregulation - a "laissez-faire" (to let to do) economy i. "trickle-down" economy c. socially disembodied, not moral economy 8. Adam Smith set foundations for a Neo-liberalism today a. Deregulation of markets - no government interference b. Privitization of public goods -- open to bidding on the global market - health, - schools/ education, -social security - prisons - land (enclosure) - water - bridges (US bridges being built by private Chinese firms) - electricity/ public utilities c. Free trade between countries -- a newer aspect of neo-lieralism - associated with globalization
1. faith in free enterprise system - natural market forces that should be left alone a. This is what is meant by the "Invisible Hand" of the market place -- that there are natural laws maintaining orderly economic growth - Thus government should stay out of the way - "laissez-faire" economy (literally,"to let to do") - or deregulation b. Social well-being was achieved by individuals' naturally pursuing self- interest without government interference. - through "trickle down economy" (similar to Reagan 200 yrs later) 2. private ownership of land and labor specialists were marks of a market economy a. the land owner received rent for his land and accumulated capital for manufacturing using labor specialists b. labor specialists enabled great increases in production and received a wage 3. Smith argued for a "family wage" to support children and ensure continous supply of future workers a. workers should receive the lowest possible wages that could support 4 people b. This is determined by minimal requirements to maintain a worker and enough to allow him to reproduce future workers - assumption that only two children would survive - Yet wages had to be high enough to give workers incentive to improve production c. Wages were directly linked to the number of workers available -- law of supply/demand equation. The more available workers, the lower the wages. - if wage were too high, too many children (future workers) would be produced, wages would be low and infant mortality would rise. This would result in a shortage of workers and higher wages again. d. Manufacturers were at an advantage in dispute over wages as they had stores of wealth could last about one year; workers could only last about one week. - So while manufacturers had to depend on laborers, they could hold out for a much longer time than the laborers who depended on them 4. The wage was secured in a "legal" social contract a. ideologically supported liberal Enlightenment notions of the autonomous rational individual, supposedly "free" to negotiated the exchange of his labor power for a wage. (This masked the reality that the worker's "free choices" were constrained by the lack of other choices and fear of starvation.) 5. Smith's concept of economy was "disembodied" -- existing apart from society and understood independent of society a. it assumed that people were naturally individualistic and selfish b. social well-being tied to individualistic pursuits that led to economic prosperity c. disembodied economy, instead of a moral economy, embedded in the social life and well-being of the community 6. Thus capitalism, as conceived by Adam Smith had several unique features a. divorced labor from social life (anyone from anywhere worked in a factory) - a form of alienation b. It turned ancestral land (like native American, or the aboriginal land), its products and people into commodities, alienated from their history and social meaning c. it aims to create continuous profits d. the elite new capitalist class profited by far the most from its growth 7. To sum up, features of Adam Smith's liberal economy a. private property b. government deregulation - a "laissez-faire" (to let to do) economy i. "trickle-down" economy c. socially disembodied, not moral economy 8. Adam Smith set foundations for a Neo-liberalism today a. Deregulation of markets - no government interference b. Privitization of public goods -- open to bidding on the global market - health, - schools/ education, -social security - prisons - land (enclosure) - water - bridges (US bridges being built by private Chinese firms) - electricity/ public utilities c. Free trade between countries -- a newer aspect of neo-lieralism - associated with globalization
Colonialism made people dependent (through enclosure-like practices). HOW?
1. forcing people off their land, - taking it by force - forcing them to sell land to pay taxes 2. forcing them to work (to sell labour power) to pay taxes in needed cash 3. they could no longer farm and had to purchase food using their wages
Linking colonialism to capitalist growth HOW?
1. gaining control of lands for the capitalist development of resources, cheap labor, markets and expanded trade 2. a coercive military power established and maintained administrative control
GLOBAL------ Just read and understand 1. Highest density: millions/ billions as encompasses the world 2. Adaptive strategy: capitalist global industrial production for profit 3. Social/Political Organizational/ "Social Power": a. class society with greatest degree of social and economic inequality among people both within and between nations b. Most people have been alienated from their land and the labor process, so have the least amount of control over their lives b. centralized control by national leaders have given way to global level institutions related to economic growth (like the World Bank, IMF, WTO, even multinational corporations) 4. Economic system: capitalist exchange on global market a. So production is done for purposes of producing profit globally - centralized political control by nations becomes less critical than global level institutions concerned with promoting economic growth b. Producers must also become consumers as well (as they have no other means of satisfying subsistence needs) c. people lack control over production - Pressure is placed on people to become wage laborers rather than to pursue noncommercial subsistence activities (e.g., by policies that separate them from their land and their means of subsistenc e [or production]). d. All subsistence goods and services have been converted to commodities to sell in the market for profit (thus products are produced for their exchange value).
1. millions/ billions as encompasses the world
Result of efforts of 1st and 2nd Development Decades (1960s and 1970s)
1. no significant reduction of economic inequality found by mid-1970s a. Development was actually helping to create wealthy national elites, while numbers of poor just increased 2. Macro growth policies did not correct income inequality in 3rd World countries. 3. Large scale development projects were degrading environment 4. Positive: Some efforts started to integrate populations at grass roots level in development efforts 5. Goals not reached despite $12 billion in development loans and assistance
Max Weber and the capitalist ethic : The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 1930
1.Calvinism and work ethic as supporting capitalism a. belief that hard work and self denial would lead to salvation b. precisely the behaviors needed in a capitalist economy c. creating wealth replaced good works as an avenue to heaven
1. Henry Lewis Morgan -
1877 (a cultural evolutionist) - Societies evolve progressively through 3 stages, - Advancement to next stage involved some technological innovation
Kerala, India
1920s and 1930s - anti-caste, labor and peasant unions promoted economic restructuring Eat-ins - Brahmins w. untouchables 1969 - land reform food and health services went to poor families
Cultural Evolutionism
1st anthropological theory believed civilizing natives would help them shared views of cultural superiority of European civilization
The Industrial Revolution
A. Both a technological and cultural revolution 1. This term places too much emphasis on technology 2. There also had to have been cultural changes to promote technological innovations - previous separation of universities and industry - now an interest in bringing in research to improve technology for increased production and greater efficiency B. Development of assembly line as a new way to organize labor 1. Scientific method of Rene Descartes (to break down a problem into component parts) and Francis Bacon (inductive) 2. The scientific method paralleled the capitalist labor process a. It provided a formal procedure to be followed without intellectual engagement b. Later in the U.S., 1911 onward FrederickTaylor used a Baconian scientific methodology was used to organize industry in the U.S. and promote capitalist development - productive activity was to be reduced to its "mechanical physical aspect" - the laborer was to be reduced to (in the words of Taylor) "a trained gorilla" C. The Industrial Revolution neutralized the concept of social justice 1. Preindustrial cultures used "subjective criteria" of social justice to regulate wages (This meant the group themselves (like the aborigine hunters and gatherers decided who should get what, and made sure that everyone was well taken care of. As they were accountable for each other and faced each other every day, they tried to be caring and fair.) 2. Capitalism, however, worked by a particular logic -- the logic of profit and accumulation. (Thus it demanded neutral, nonsubjective criteria to regulate wages, not according to what was humanly just, but according to a rational logic (what we today call "liberalism") that would promote capital accumulation by the owners of production. - if this meant wages had to suffer, so be it - the "logic" of capital - an amoral system
The History of Development
A. By end of WW II came the end of Colonialism, 1. As the result of colonialism, much of the world had become poor B. Industrialized nations tried to alleviate poverty 1. for humanitarian reasons: to alleviate suffering 2. for economic reasons: Poor people are poor producers and consumers in a global economy 3. for political reasons: Poor people can create political instability, so it was in the interest of 1st world nations to try to diminish their poverty. C. Assumptions after WW II and during the 1950s about reasons for the poverty 1. Disease and ignorance of the people leading to underproduction 2. Presumed solution: import of technology and knowledge from rich to poor countries for greater economic expansion
. The New Free Market Global Order -- Globalization under neoliberal practices
A. Decentralized global market integrated all nations, rich and poor - Loss of sovereignty of nations over their affairs - control by new global financial institutions, like World Bank B. World is dominated by transnational corporations lacking national loyalties 1. world market under "free" trade 2. fewer controls by national governments 3. International laws like NAFTA (North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement), e.g., permits free movement of commodities across borders C. The Financialization process 1. global finance capital controls wealth through (e.g., stocks and bonds) rather than actual products and services -and responsible for current economic problems (For more, See Robbins pp. 73-81) 2. This increases wealth of financial elites who promote their financial interests 3. most of the world's people can no longer control their own lives and are in extreme poverty
Neoliberalism
A. Driving force behind globalization B. Principles 1. Hands off (deregulation) by sovereign governments 2. Free market forces at global level to get cheapest prices, by cheapest materials and cheapest labor (where slave labor is the cheapest) 3. Privatization 4. Free trade - by removing barriers to trade (lifting tariffs from incoming goods from other nations to compete with domestically produced goods) a. What NAFTA (North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement) and similar trade agreements among nations advocated bankrupt nation borrows money from global banking entities (like the IMF) C. Applying neoliberal principles in trade 1. Deregulation a. began in the US with permitting of use of slaves b. continued with use of tenant farms, given use of land in place of labor, post- slavery c. When shortage of laborers during WWII, continued by allowing deregulation of borders to allow Mexicans to come to US to work in agriculture d. most recently, by US govt refusal to set a minimal way to help the producer e. removing environmental controls 2. Free trade - lifting "artificial" barriers to trading Neoliberal CLAIM: win-win for everyone a. stimulates economy b. alleviates poverty
Events paving the way to the Industrial Revolution
A. Enclosure movement in 1400s 1. to intensify production of wool for a growing market 2. Promoted Europe's developing textile industry B. "Putting out system"/ cottage industry 1. merchants supplied raw materials to weavers to produce cloth 2. Merchants then picked up finish pieces, paying per item 2. Called "proto-industrial revolution" C. Early factories 1. Brought all textile workers - spinners, dyers, weavers together in one place 2. encouraged speed and efficiency and increased production 3. encouraged urbanization, - peasants expelled from land to find work D. Enclosure movement in 1700s 1. Expelled peasants from land, totally disrupting feudal system 2 to intensify production of crops, animals for meat and clothing for growing number of factory workers
Zara
A. Fastest growing, inexpensive fashion production industry in the world 1. Labor violations in Brazil a. 52 people under unsanitary, hazardous working conditions b. 14 foreign workers, incl a 14-year-old girl were set free c. working conditions - "slavelike"; over 16-hour shifts - paid below already low minimum wage
Background to social and economic crisis in Greece
A. The Euro 1. Joined the euro in 2001 2. Credit then became easily available a. Govenment could borrow more $ b. Public urged to buy more using credit cards and accrued debt for first time 3. Public spending soured - increase in wages by 50% by 2007 4. Invested huge expenses in Olympics in 2004 5. Together this raised its debt B. Its corrupt government 1. Enabled tax evasion by the rich, but not middle class and others 2. This only worsened Greece's accumulating debt 3. Govt officials lied about the debt they were accruing 4. Government officials among highest paid in EU and the US C. The global economic crisis 1. In 2008, US banks "too big to fail" affected banks and societies throughout Europe 2. With Greece's accumulating debt, it was hit particularly hard, and (like Jamaica) found it could not pay its public employees and its bills D. Enter the Troika - IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission 1. they bailed Greece out with loans -- 110B euro in 2010, 130 B euro more early this year and another 40B euro in Oct 2012 and more recently 2. This came with austerity conditions (SAPS) 1. Drastic reductions in public spending a. firing employees b. cutting funds to hospitals and medical professionals c. drastically reducing pensions and wages d. Privitizing public utilities -- e.g, state electric supplier worth 40B, sold out to foreign private investors for 2B euro - means a further loss of revenue for the state to pay its employees and creditors - instead private for-profit investors will buy a utility cheaply;make a killing" profit e. Loss of sovereign control by the nation's leaders - now revenues to Greece go directly to an account controlled by the Troika, - - anything left goes to Greece to pay cost of operating government f. The goal is to IMPROVE THE ECONOMY of Greece to get back on its feet g. Paraphrasing the Rastafarian elder, 'The loan is not a gift; it is a trap." h. Greece could have defaulted, not paid its debt, as did Iceland, which is recovering. E. Actual Economic consequences 1. median income declined by 40-50% 2. debt has climbed from 107% of GDP to 170% and is increasing 3. The value of Greek companies has declined 90%! 4. Unemployment is above 30% and for those 25 and younger, 55%! 5. the GDP has declined 100B euro in just 3 years! - fastest reported loss in history F. Social consequences 1. People with cancer cannot get medications 2. People are going without food as safety nets have disappeared 3. in a close-knit society, people have put their children, they cannot feed , up for adoption 4. Homeless has increased 5. People are living without water, electricity, food and shelter -- unheard of conditions for a western European nation\ 6. Suicide, which was the lowest of EU, is soaring a. In April 2012, a 77-year old pharmacist, whose pension had diminished, publicly shot himself, as he could not bear looking for food in garbage cans b. 350 attempts in June alone 7. HOPE: Just a few days ago, a German social activist petitioned the International Criminal Court in the Hague against the IMF for crimes against humanity for imposing austerity in Greece as a condition of its loan
Dhaka, Bangladesh - April 24, 2013 - new Triangle Tragedy AGAIN1
A. Worst deadliest garment-factory accident in history - 1129 died; over 2500 injured 1. deadliest structural failure in modern human history 2. Building not constructed for factory, but offices 3. Hundreds other buildings await similar disaster B. Warnings the day before of structural cracks ignored 1. Workers ordered back to work the next morning, when building collapsed 2. Workers told a month's pay would be withheld if they did not show up $51/ month - standard wages C. Competing pressures from western corporationgs 1. To comply with international safety standards a. Adequate structures, air conditioning, safe equipment, reasonable hours, work breaks 2. However, pressures to meet production deadlines to satisfy orders pressured management to keep workers on job despite unsafe conditions 3. Keep reducing costs inhibiting ability to address safety issues and break even 4. In 2011, Walmart rejected proposals to pay more for products to allow manufacturers to improve safety of workers D. Reactions of employees 1. Before the accident a. Manufacturers claimed workers not worried about safety b. 4 million workers in $20 billion industry c. Income from land use recently declined; factory work provided respectable employment for women d. Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia U: rural workers grateful for the work opportunity 2. After accident a. In May, thousands of workers and family survivors protested for better safety and higher wages and prosecution of warehouse owner b. In June, police opened fire on more protesters demanding back pay promised workers c. Sept. 2013, police fired on protesters demanding $100/ month minimum wage
III. Ways of viewing Progress How?? A. + or - growth? B. C. What did the darker side contribute to?
A.+ As growth B. + As technological development 1. suggests small scale societies are inferior because their technology is simpler (an ethnocentric assumption?) 2. Yet look at the Ju/'hoansi (Ju/wasi) of Botswana, S. Africa - "rich" hunters/gatherers in absence progress - egalitarian bands (small scale culture) in Botswana, S. Africa - foraged only 20 hrs/wk for food - 2300 calories/ day / person - 200 lb. meat intake annually/person - equivalent to developed nation - by early 1980s, they were enclosed in compounds, giving up their land, and living on handouts of one foreign grain -- "mealy meal" - shift not internal, but through external pressures C. - The darker side: contributes to 1. overpopulation 2. pollution 3. ecocide 4. Genocide: The Ona(Robbins pp. 51-2) - Island of Tierra del Fuego, off southern tip of SA - 1870s-80s - ist Europeans - death by disease - systematic murder and bounty hunting - those who survived starved as European hunters depleted game - Argentinians took them to mission stations - 1974 - extinct Today in BRAZil: similar bounty hunting of natives by Europeans 5. Ethnocide: The Crow and Chief Plenty Coup .a. 1850-1880, Crow and other Plains Indians forced onto reservations. b. in 1930, Chief Plenty Coup, of the Crows (Robbins pp. 52-3), c. Counting coup: the ultimate sign of courage - Planting one's coup stick in the ground and defending it against the enemy, and with it right to the buffalo on which they depended. - It marked the boundary which no non-Crow enemy should pass d. Chief Plenty Coup in 1930 dictated his life story, and said about the period after the buffalo had all gone and the Crow were restricted to living on reservations, "After this, nothing happened." - Home work: possible meanings of this statement
Forced migration of young peasants
African peasants who could not make enough money to pay taxes were forced to migrate to find jobs village farms were thus stripped of able bodies, rendering them completely dependent on foreign income Family life was fractured
Why does Bodley call Adam Smith's description of capitalism an "emic" view?
Because he was a founder of its principles and so describes them clearly and honestly in an early view of the capitalist market economy
Threat to banana market
By Lome Agreement = England have preferential tariff-free importation of its bananas Chiquita, Dole, Delmonte had 95% of market but wanted it all, Pres Clinton put a suit with the WTO against England on behalf of the multinationals for unfair trade policies.\ The WtO agreed and Jamaica lost its privileges - Why could it no longer compete?
Nancy Scheper-Hughes
Death without Weeping (1992) A. Plantation sugar workers in Bom Jesus, Brazil , 1980s 1. Growth of plantations pushed off farmers from land (Enclosure of land used to produce sugar for world market) 2. They could no longer grow even the most basic foods, such as beans 3. Forced to depend on wage labor in plantations B. Economic consequences 1. Workers were grossly underpaid a. $40/week required for family of 4 2. $5/week paid to women and $10/week to men 3. Inadequate protein foods were distributed mainly to feed working men a. Children sta*rved on cheaper foods b. Protein deficient diseases - wasting away of body tissues and bain damage in infants 4.Consequences: Chronic malnutrition of children and high infant mortality C. Deceptive statistics 1. Brazil as "miracle"nation 2. National infant mortality rate about 1/20 D. Nancy Scheper-Hughes' in Death Without Weeping: the violence of Everyday Life in Brazil 1. Scheper-Hughes' observations did not correspond with this statistic 2. observations did not support this: found 1/5 infants died in 1997 a. Studied local cemetery b.examined handwritten birth and death records c. obtained reproductive histories from 100 women 3. Irony: Women blamed themselves for their own poor health (not recognizing that it also resulted from malnutrition) a. Angel babies: learned to detach from them and even spot a child headed for death E. Conclusion: 1. loss of one's land (means of production) for subsistence can lead to dependency and poverty 2. aggregate statistics do not tell us the actual diversity of living conditions, and mask poverty
Andre Gunder Frank accepted what theory?
Dependency theory
Centralized power occurs by _____________. How?
Distinct Leaders - leaders make decisions about production and consumption - this takes away power from households (so ordinary people have less power over their lives than in small scale societies)
Dependency theory
Divided the modern world system into a core, periphery and semi-periphery (concepts adopted by Wallerstein)
The example of taking over other people's land and expelling them from their means of survival occurred earlier in Europe during the ______ _______ and the "Tragedy of the Commons."
ENCLOSURE MOVEMENT
Summary: Colonialism
Forced peasants to stop producing their food Forced them to grow cash crops to pay taxes Took the best village land for plantations landless peasants slaves or cheap laborers Forced migration to work in mines or plantations elsewhere. Forced dependence on imported foods.
The term __________ , as defined in Widipedia, is most commonly used to refer to economic liberalizations, free trade and open markets, privatization, deregulation, and enhancing the role of the private sector in modern society. Today the term is mostly used as a general condemnation of economic liberalization policies and its advocates
Neoliberalism
What happened to Jamaica's agriculture sector?
One condition of accepting IMF loans was that Jamaica could no longer have a protected market for its farmers. That meant that it had to allow imported products to come in without tariffs. Since many of them were subsidized by their governments, they could sell their products in Jamaica more cheaply and that destroyed Jamaica's agriculture. 1). No artificial trade barriers (meant no more tariffs) 2) must accept subsidized imports 3) could not subsidize its exports 4) proved UNFAIR - not equal playing field
Creating dependent workers
Plantations needed cheap laborers Colonial governments tried to force peasants from their land -farmers became landless or left with poor soil -Forced to sell their labor and to buy food Peasants were forced to work as cheap laborers on plantations or mines to pay for colonial taxes
The power of taxation
Taxes placed on land, property, and people Coins required to pay taxes. Ways of getting coins: - producing cash crops - working on plantation - working in mines - leasing or selling their land
Karl Polanyi
The Great Transformation 1. Called the technological shift to the Industrial Revolution, "the Great Transformation" 2. Major question was, "what should be the role of government?" 3. Tension between a. government noninterference /deregulation/ free reign market encouraging free markets, disrupting social and natural relations and . b. government regulation to prevent social and natural damages, with the risk that overregulation could destroy markets 4. Advantages of free markets/ Deregulation: the Neoliberal" view a. cheaper, more standard products b. greater efficiency in production c. less government bureaucracy and paperwork d. Adam Smith's perspective in Wealth of Nations 1776 5. Disadvantages of deregulating markets a. Can encourage monopolies b. prevents success of smaller companies that offer variation c. encourages exploitation of workers (leading to poor wages or loss of jobs) d. encourages exploitation of resources without environmental controls (leading to pollution and health concerns)
Forced Peasant Production
Three colonial strategies were used to force peasants to change to cash crops: 1. Economic force (taxation) 2. Physical force ("under the threat of guns and whips") 3. Direct take-over of their land by large plantations
Colonialism's strategy
Transforming agriculture: from local native food production to wealth for the empire Colonies: "agricultural establishments" (factories) for Europe. -To use natives in colonies as laborers to produce wealth for the mother nation. -To extract other natural resources from colonies for European wealth
Core
a. - consisted of rich industrial nations who become richer through the process of unequal exchange at the world system - "first world, developed" nations - typically, the colonizing nations
Low density
a. Bands: 25-50 people (e.g., aborigines) b. egalitarian "dialect tribes": 500-1000 people
Facts: people do not suffer from lack of food but lack of access to food. WHY?
a. Because they lack land to grow it. b. Because they lack money to buy it c. Because they do not have the social power that others in their culture (the elites have) to get it. - elites never die of starvation in famines
Adaptive strategy
a. Early, slash and burn or swidden agriculture (supported 10-15 people/sq. mi) b. intensive agriculture (supported 300 people/sq. mi) - e.g., Inca state, which used terraces, irrigation system
Eonomy: subsistence
a. Everyone in the household has adequate food, shelter, clothing (subsistence resources) as an "inalienable right" (can't be taken away) b. the household controlled its own production and consumption c. exchange was reciprocal (an apple for an orange) d. production was done for use-value
9. Capitalist systems were distinguished in their creating a monetary market in which labor power (free labor) would be sold and purchased
a. This did something remarkable: it alienated a person's labor power as something separate from the person, to be sold on the market, like any other thing. b. The alienation of a person from their labor power was codified in the "neutral" capitalist contract, which exchanged a wage for labor power - this is another example of "fetishism" in which a human quality (ability to work/"labor power") is reduced to the level of a thing (in this case) to be sold on the market for cash - contract drawn up between industrialist and laborer. It required that both parties be "rational" and so this was something they both had agreed to. c. However, capitalist systems emerged when the peasantry were pushed off their land, and means of subsistence and forced to sell their labor power in order to continue to survive - for this reason, the notion of the "neutral" labor contract has been regarded by some as a farce, as the laborer had no other choice 10. Wealth is produced both by consumption and production a. Consumption by buying at a profit to seller b. Production by extracting wealth by underpaying workers ("the labor theory of value") c. those who can neither produce nor consume are expendable in this system
Economic system: tributary
a. Those on bottom of scale paid tribute or tax (in form of food or other product) to those in upper strata (the elites) - tax collectors, nobles, clergy, leaders (chief; king; emperor) b. Economic exchange was thus redistributive (as wealth was differently redistributed within the society in terms of one's status) - still, those on the lowest strata had access to basic subsistence goods c. Production was still done for use-value (as no profit was made in the exchange) d. very unstable- kingdoms, etc. often rose and fell
How did the shift from a foraging adaptation to intensive agriculture (by way of horticulture and swidden cultivation ) occur?
a. horticulture: a shift from nomadic to sedentary socieities - first, semi-permanent settlements of 200-2000 people - from foraging to slash and burn or "swidden" agriculture b. from swidden to irrigation used by intensive agriculture - burned land needed to remain fallow many years; depleted soil - as population grew, swidden could no longer support it - 100 families needed 3000 acres of swidden agriculture - 100 families needed only 90-200 acres of irrigated fields
Social/political organization/ "social power"
a. kin-based b. egalitarian, no political head (acephalous), possible bigman - an informal leader who lacks authority. c. decision-making power occurs at the level of the household/ community (so people have great power over their own lives)
capital:
a. land and tools as the means of production; b. the accumulated wealth returned into the productive process to accumulate more wealth
Commodities
basic products produced for their exchange value in a capitalist market economy to procure profit as accumulated capital (Even people become commodities in capitalist societies.)======> unending accumulation of profit
claimed that trade in the modern era, with heightened globalization depended more on communication links among nations than on formal political control over the colonies. Also, the colonizing nations no longer depended on the colonies for markets.
bodely
Semi-periphery
c. - an intermediate area in which people were integrated into the capitalist system through as very cheap labor - "2nd world," often post Communist nations of eastern Europe d. The periphery and semi-periphery become dependent on the core.
Consequences of European colonialism
exploitation of colonized people and resources Destruction -Murder, death, demoralization (genocide) -Loss of cultural traditions (ethnocide) ---family structure, language, ways of producing and distributing food; self-governance -Cash crops depleted land of fertility (ecocide)
Adaptive strategies:
foraging (hunting/gathering), pastoralism, horticulture (as very simple gardening, cultivation of desriable indigenous species and weeding undesriable ones)
Logic of IMF lending strategy
integrating Jamaica into the world economy - that that would be the only way it could grow - tried to make J become dependent on other nations for $, bood, products - extracted wealth from Jamaica, because it wanted to get its interest and principle back
The environmental stress argument ignores what?
issues of inequitable social distribution
Thus globalization, colonialism and capitalism are all ________-- and we are still feeling the continuing effects of these developments.
linked
Higher density:
many thousands or more
Bangladesh
mostly Muslim nation in northeast corner of India by the opening of the Bay of Bengal 1. By 1990, it was listed by World Bank as one of the poorest countries 2. Statistics supported this a. 4/5 of the nation was undernourished/ b. over 1/2 impoverished & landless c. 2/3 unemployed or underemployed d. high infant mortality e. 90% rural B. The Precolonial state under Mogul empire 1. Peasantry controlled land and were self-sufficient 2. Paid taxes to Zamindars, the local elites collecting tribute for the Muslim state 3. Maintained rich cotton industry that sustained everyone 4. Still, a hierarchical large scale society C. The British colonial period (1765) (See pp. 40-42) 1. The British East India Company became its civil administrator D. The Strategy of the British East India Company 1.British East India Company Turned zamindars to tax collectors and landlords 2. Destroyed cotton industry a. Indian cottons (calicos) in great demand by English consumers b. English textiles poorer quality and more expensive c. British government forbid exporting Indian calicos into England d. Also required import of British textiles tax free from tariffs 3. transformed peasantry into laboreres of new agricultural industry: jute, an export crop for mills in England 4. This is an example of how preexisting inequalities in the social structure -- in this case the Mogul empire -- provided conditions for greater inequality under colonialism and into the 20th century 5. Result: greater inequality between rural elites and the former peasantry during development efforts in the 1970s a. The elites maintained control of the richest land in Bandladesh b. Elites gained profit at the expense of -poorer villagers c. Shows how incorporating one state into the global system can intensify inequalities/ E. Impact of British policy on the US 1. England's pumped up textile industry running out of cotton 2. US supplied 1/2 of its cotton imports by 1807 2. American cotton was cheap because it depended on slave labor a. over 800,000 African slaves were forcibly moved to southern cotton producing states from late 1700s to mid-1800s 3. the Cherokees were forced off their lands for use by slaves for growing cotton a. from 1802 w. Thomas Jefferson to 1828 w. Andrew Jackson's final order 4. Thus many non-western groups (Indians, Africans and Native Americans) were forced to change their ways of life
Conventional Position (technological development and growth (measured in GNP) have not been proven successful IN DOING WHAT? B. Major alternative: Redistribution of wealth and social justice WOULD DO WHAT?
reducing poverty. 1. maximize social equaltiy 2. satisfy basic human needs 3. Problem: resistance from wealthy make it unlikely to implement
increased technology demanded __________ ______ (to build irrigation systems, terraces, storage facilities for food surpluses); sedentary society
specialized laborers
means of production
the means of subsistence (e.g., using land for Agriculture; the Pumpkinville Mystery farmers)
Bangladesh - Nov 2012
the new Triangle Tragedy A. Bangladesh is 2nd largest producer of garments globally 1. after China 2. because of cheap labor costs, following its colonial history leading to poverty B. Factory Fire killed 118 garment workers 1. a supplier of Wal-Mart 2. Poor safety record and hazardous conditions 3. oppression of labor advocates a. Aminul Islam, who exposed horrific conditions, had been brutally murdered 4. Walmart in 2011 reported violations, but took no action C. Globalization and outsourcing labor 1. US companies using outsourced labor perpetuate practices that were outlawed in US over 100 years ago. 2. a way to legally circumvent laws that apply to US laborers a. U.S. laws allowed outsourcing beginning later 1970s and early 1980s to keep labor costs down b. As in Jamaica, companies often do not even pay taxes 3. Abuses continue invisible until another tragedy reaches the news 4. the "hidden cost" of a garment- Again, who pays?
mode of production-
the way a socieity organizes its techology and labor - (sometimes defined as the forces and social relations of production)
social relations of production
the way in which human labor is organized by people (In capitalist societies these are "class relations")
use value Vs. ______ _____
use-value versus exchange value
