KEYWORDS AND DEFINITIONS

Part 1: Basic Concepts (lectures 1 & 2)

Materiality Anthropological approach exploring the
principles of the material world (e.g. our
environment, tools): how it shapes the
human experience (culture, societal
organisation) and vice versa.
(Harris, Steward)
Idealism  In philosophy: reality is
indistinguishable and inseparable from
human perception and understanding
 Hegel: ideas determine the material
world

 In anth.: Our ideas and mental

structures impact our cultural and
societal development
(Douglas – pork taboo)
Historical materialism Historical events happen due to economic
development. Developed as a criticism to
Eurocentric capitalism
(Marx, Childe)
Dialectical materialism Material conditions (base) underly social
issues (superstructure); we must rearrange
 social organisation to deal with issues (Marx)

Influenced: Harris- disregards dialectic,

renames base to infrastructure, adds
superstructure
Cultural materialism Physical conditions (environment, material
plane) determine cultural development
(Harris)

Social Evolutionism Using Darwinism to explain societal changes

through history: creating hierarchies between
social organisations in present & justifying
racism
J.G. Frazer: savage->barbaric->civilised
Cultural Evolutionism  Same idea but for cultural change e.g.
 E.B. Tylor: religion:
animism->polytheism->monotheism
 Leslie White: cultural dev. ~ energy
body power -> solar power -> fossil
fuel -> nuclear power
Diffusionism To understand the distribution of culture in
terms of
- The origin of culture traits and
- Their spread from one society to another.
In opposition to Evolutionism’s
Eurocentricity
(Boas)
(Structural) Functionalism Society is a complex system whose parts
work together to promote solidarity and
stability (Durkheim, Radcliffe-Brown)
Structuralism Uncover the structures (modelled on
language) that underlie all the things that
humans do, think, perceive, and feel; how
they connect to form a system.
(Levi-Strauss)
Symbolic structuralism/ anthropology How cultural symbols contribute to
understanding society (Mary Douglas,
Clifford Geertz)
Post-structuralism Critiquing structuralism in different ways,
usually pointing out its simplicity:
- Deconstructing its dichotomies e.g.
Latour,
- Critique of essentialisation & power
dynamics in knowledge & science e.g.
Edward Said).
Associated with post-modernism; self-
reflective.
(Schaaning – Foucault; Law – Latour; de la
 Cadena)
Critical theory A philosophical approach to culture, and
especially to literature, that considers the
social, historical, and ideological forces and
structures which produce and constrain it.
To unmask hidden structures of power,
dominance and exploitation; related to neo-
Marxism
(Bourdieu, Foucault)
Marxist anthropology  Followers of the political and
economic theories of Marx e.g.
historical materialism (Childe)
 Neo-Marxism: resurgence in the 70s;
based on Marx but independent,
includes new ideas; postmodern
(Wolf)
Cultural ecology The study of the adaptation of a culture to a
specific environment and how changes in that
environment lead to changes in that specific
culture (Steward)
Anarchist anthropology A critical reading of social processes in the
world, based on the choice of objects, the
analysis of domination processes, their
naturalization or deconstruction.
 More practice (ethical discourse about
revolution) than theory-oriented
Marxism (theoretical or analytical
discourse about revolutionary
strategy)
 And yet, it’s a hypothetical field
altogether see Graeber’s pamphlet
(Mauss, Scott, Sahlins, Graeber)
Semiotic anthropology Explores the role language and other sign
systems plays in the way the human animal
 inhabits the world and our bodies.
Phenomenological perspective Using senses to observe world
Ethical anthropology Reflects general moral principles (what is
good/bad) > in the sense of what individuals
should do/not do professional in the discipline
Anthropology of marginality People/group of people who live ‘in the
margin’ of society or are situated ‘between’
social classes/ethics/cultural groups without
being fully integrated in either of them
Political ecology Environmental studies > focus on power
relations as well as the coproduction of nature
and society
Capitalism  A mode of production (see below)
 An economic and political system in
which a country's trade and industry
are controlled by private owners for
profit, rather than by the state.
Socialism A political and economic theory of social
organization which advocates that the means
of production, distribution, and exchange
should be owned or regulated by the
community as a whole
Neoliberalism A political approach that favours free-market
capitalism, deregulation, and reduction in
government spending
(Appadurai)
Taboo Social or religious custom >
prohibiting/restricting practice or associations
with people/groups of people, place and
objects/things.
Part 2: Ethnoscience, Knowledge, Body (lectures 3&4)
Ethnoscience The study of a culture's system of classifying
knowledge
(e.g. Posey: the apete of the Kayapo = ethno-
ecological units

the categorisation & management of their env.:

rational and sustainable)
Ecocentrism  Objective values in nature, which are
independent of human interests.
 All species and natural features of Earth’s
eco.sys., refusing to place any
aspects/species above the other
Anthropocentrism Humans as the central and most important
element of existence
Local knowledge  Knowledge systems embedded in the
cultural traditions of regional, Indigenous,
or local communities
 e.g. ethnobotany, traditional medicine,
subsistence, ethnoastronomy, craft
 In opposition to Western science
 Often uses tacit/wordless teaching
(Muller)
(Steward, Posey, Rappaport)
Cosmology The way a culture conceptualises the world
Cosmopolitics Inclusion of questions about the world
understandings, and of other cosmologies and
ontologies (natures in being) in political life
 (De la Cadena)
Phenomenology Making the subjective an objective:
the study of consciousness and the content of
conscious experiences such as judgements,
perceptions, and emotions froma 1st person PoV
(Muller, Bourdieu, Mauss, Ingold)
Ontology A branch of metaphysics
The study of being: existence, being, becoming,
and reality
Epistemology The study of knowledge: the nature, origin, and
scope of knowledge, epistemic justification, the
rationality of belief, and various related issues

Cognitive models
Embodiment Describing
 Visceral
 Felt
 Enlivened
bodily experiences, in and with inhabited worlds

Tacit knowledge The knowledge you’ve gained through living

experience, both in your personal life and
professional development.
It is often subjective, informal, and difficult to
share or express because it is affected by our
personal beliefs and values.
 Characteristics:

- Use of the body

- Imitation
- Iconic, non-linguistic signs
- Individual

Important in ethnoscience, local knowledge

(Muller)

Habitus  Mauss: socialisation affects the body

(e.g. people mimicking the way people

act on film)

 Bourdieu: agents subconsciously

develop strategies adapted to social

structures which they inhabit

Part 3: Language, Materiality of Discourse

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis The structure of a language determines a native
speaker's perception and categorization of
experience.
- Relativist
- anti-Evolutionist
Sign Any unit of language used to designate objects or
phenomena of reality (e.g. the word “book”
representing a book the object)
 Saussure: a correlation between an
expression (signifier) and a content
(signified)
 Peirce: something someone holds for
something (the OBJECT) in some respect
or capacity;
It addresses somebody = it creates in the
mind of that person an equivalent sign, or
 perhaps a more developed sign =
INTERPRETANT of the first sign

sign system Saussure:

- The sign is arbitrarily / culturally defined:

determined by conventions (e.g. green =
leaf-like)
- The meaning of the sign cannot be
explained from the object, but from a
system of distinctions / contrasts
Signifier The form of a sign. The form might be a
sound, a word, a photograph, a facial
expression, a painting of a pipe, etc.
Signified The concept or object that’s represented.
The concept or object might be an actual
pipe, the command to stop, a warning of
radioactivity.
Binary opposition The system of language and/or thought by which
two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and
set off against one another. It is the contrast
between two mutually exclusive terms.
(Saussure, structuralists especially Levi-Strauss)
Langue Universal grammar (~ deep structure Levi-
Strauss) - principles that make parole possible
Parole A meaningful utterance; relative to individual,
 culture, class, etc.
The Triadic Model (Peirce)

Infinite semiosis: several interpretants

Symbol

No resemblance between the signifier and the

signified. The connection between them must be
culturally learned -> unmotivated
Index

Shows evidence of what’s being represented;

motivated
Smoke > fire
Icon

A physical resemblance to the signified, the thing

being represented; motivated
e.g. map – landscape, photograph
Motivation (signs) The resemblance that a signifier has towards its
meaning.
(e.g. a yellow circle with lines around it –
motivated; the word “sun” - unmotivated)
The less motivated the sign, the more cultural
knowledge is needed by the interpreter
Statement A sentence that says something is true (like "Pizza
is delicious.")
Discourse The verbal or written exchange of ideas. Any unit
of connected speech or writing that is longer than
a sentence and that has a coherent meaning and a
clear purpose
Materiality of discourse Includes not just the physical character of the
signs themselves but also in the ways they are
used,
1. To make a reference to the world in which
interaction take place
2. To construct consequential action
Hinterland (of statements)  Other related statements (is it consistent w/
these? do they support it? Y -> authority) –
literary
 Inscription devices (are practices
reproducible? Y -> authority) – material
(Latour)
Inscription devices Sets of devices for naming, counting, marking,
categorising, comparing -appearing as the
 ‘registration’ of something already existing, which
is made visible and manipulable
(Latour)
Part 4: Technology & Science, Nature vs Culture
Technology The means and agencies by which human
societies cope with and transform their material
environment, including
- the materials that are acted upon,
- tools,
- knowledge
- operating procedures
to affect the desired action
- Marx: tech. is a means of production along
with resources and land
(e.g. Shoshonean traps for hunting - Steward;
Zafimaniry carvings - Bloch)
Technological determinism  Tech. determines culture
(Materialist)  all human behaviour has a hidden techno-
economic rationality & material aim. (see
Harris on pork taboo)
 Disregards social and political relations in
which people engage with tech.
(Harris, in Pfaffenberger)
Technological somnambulism Tech. Is independent of culture/people, morally
neutral (e.g. “guns don’t kill people, people kill
people”).
(Langdon Winner, in Pfaffenberger)
Total social phenomenon Any behaviour (e.g. technological) is also
political, social and symbolic. (Mauss, co-opted
by Pfaffenberger). Technology isn’t an
independent variable.
E.g.: Sri Lanka’s irrigation settlement schemes
(Pfaffenberger); compulsory villagisation in
Tanzania (Scott)
Fetishisation  Anth.: giving objects supernatural forces,
objects inhered by supernatural beings
 Marx: when objects become commodities,
value is inhered in the objects themselves,
 rather than in the amount of real labor ->
obscuring social relations
 Pfaffenberger: disguising the social
relations behind technology (both tech.
determinism & somnambulism does this)
Blackboxing Scientific and technical work is made invisible by its
own success
the better S&T run -> more opaque & obscure they
become
(Latour)
Nature  Defined in opposition to culture; the wild,
untamed side of humans
 = essence (Aristotle)
culture  The arts and other manifestations of human
intellectual achievement regarded
collectively
 “Technology, organisation and ideas” -
Wolf
 A biological adaptation to our env.
(~Steward, cultural ecology)
Nature vs Culture debate  Western society has a strong dichotomy that
many other societies don’t
 e.g., Kayapo ethno-ecological units
Part 5: Landscapes
Landscape The human interpretation and manipulation of the
physical surroundings in which our individual and
collective lives unfold.
Dennis Cosgrove  Dominant cultures have the most
(Landscape, myths, gods and humans) influence in shaping a landscape.
o One is also likely to see evidence of
alternatives, or subcultures in the
landscape, legibility of landscape, what
landscape tells us.
 Alternative cultures is a type of culture
 that exists outside or on the fringes of
mainstream or popular culture, usually
under the domain of one or more
subcultures.

Howard Morphy - Triadic relationship between the

(Landscape, myths, gods and humans)
Tim Ingold
(Globes and spheres: The topology of
individual, the ancestral past, and the
world in which he/she lives.
- Relationship between structure and action
in terms both of social theory and of
Aboriginal metaphysic -> Interaction with
the landscape is part of the process
whereby the Dreaming as a component of
the cultural structure of Aboriginal
society is reproduced
Modern concepts of the environment - Instead
of being where we ‘live’, by being in the ‘centre’

environmentalism) we are eventually separated from the

environment.
The world as a sphere -> Seen from the
experience-based centre The world as a globe ->
seen as in itself complete, separated from life
Sphere VS Globe  Globe is a more distant view of the world.
as an object, at a distance, depending on
distance, both physically and mentally.
 A sphere uses all senses, like hearing,
smell, taste, presence, depending on the
continuous physical presence in the
environment
Part 6: Economic anthropology
Substantivism  Economy embedded in all social spheres
 Economic behaviour is constructed
Polányi through non-economic practices
 Centres society – anthropological
characterised 60s anth. debate approach
 Focus on informal economies, outside
econ. institutions; single purpose money
Formalism  Economy determines all other aspects of
life
 Model-based thinking: universal laws
 Economic man: rational egoism
 Economic sphere removed from rest
 Focus on formal economy only, general-
purpose money
Embededness (of economy, in social The degree to which economic activity
relations) (provisioning) is constrained to non-economic
institutions (kinship, religious and political
institutions).
Polányi
More in non-market societies, less in market
societies
(disembededness = economy rationalised, has own
logic, model)
The Great Transformation 1. reciprocity, 2. redistribution, 3. householding

Polányi >
Market society
Reciprocity  Symmetrical form of exchange between
Polányis persons or groups of equal standing
 e.g., Kula rings (Malinowski)
 associated with: egalitarian “primitive”
societies; simple technologies
Mauss: reciprocal gift giving
Levi-Strauss: reciprocity = basis of all human
culture, a general principle
Redistribution  A principle of centricity, whereby
Polányi resources were pooled and handed out
through a hierarchy
 e.g., potlach in American NW
  Ass. with: storing surplus; social
stratification
Market society Market economy (capitalism) + the nation-state
Polányi (liberalism) is linked; and evolved together after
industrial revolution.
shows that economics are embedded in social &
political spheres
Provisioning Providing a supply of commodities
Regimes of value  Exchange does NOT depend on a "complete

Appadurai, in High and Graeber cultural sharing of assumptions”;

 instead, the degree of value coherence may be
highly variable from situation to situation and
from commodity to commodity
e.g. High: Mongolian gold rush money being worth
less because of its fragile materiality
Graeber: highly critical – rejects Marx, disregards
social totality (see Mauss) and structures of meaning

Fragile materiality The appearance of money informs where it came from

-> moral judgements -> less valuable
(Dirty, crumpled -> polluted by gold rush):
value of currency depends on its materiality

Alienable Able to be transferred to new ownership. Has a

price, can circulate.

Miller: the gift Characteristics:

 Calculation
 Individualism
 Monetarisation
 Explicit rationalism

Inalienable Unable to be taken away or to be given to another

Mauss: The Gift
Weiner: Love
Miller: Commodity
Commodity A product that can be bought and sold (= can enter
 the market); objects of economic value
(Appadurai)

Miller: involves a transcendent goal -> inalienable

Gift Mauss: a material object that create social ties
when exchanged, via obligations to
 give,
 receive
 return
Miller: involves calculation & classification of
social relationships -> alienable
Value - In economics: the benefit provided by a good or
service to an economic agent
- In Marxist theory: 4 attributes of a commodity
 Labour value (this is mainly what “value”
means in Marxism)
 Use value (utility)
 Exchange value
 Price: money price, ideal price
Labour Theory of Value (LTV) (Marx) the economic value of a good or service is
determined by the total amount of "socially
necessary labour" required to produce it
= how much work is involved
(Marxist: Kalb, Wolf)
Use value (Marx) The tangible features of a commodity (a tradeable
object) which can satisfy some human requirement,
want or need, or which serves a useful purpose
Exchange value (Marx) The proportion at which a commodity can be
exchanged for other commodities
Creative consumption of value (Formalist) Value established through exchange & ind. desire
= how much ppl are willing to pay
(Appadurai, Simmel)
Production (Marx) "Complex set of mutually dependent relations
among nature, work, social labour and social
 organisation” - Wolf
Mode of production “Mode of allocating social labour to nature” - Wolf
combination of the:
 Productive forces: these include human
labour power and means of production (tools,
machinery, factory buildings, infrastructure, technical
knowledge, raw materials, plants, animals, exploitable
land).
 Social and technical relations of
production: these include the property, power and
control relations (legal code) governing the means of
production of society, cooperative work associations,
relations between people and the objects of their work,
and the relations among the social classes.
Wolf defines 3 modes:
 Capitalist
 Tributary (tax-based)
 Kinship-based
(Wolf)
Capital Wolf : Wealth (money or assets) that controls the
means/conditions of production (Marxist)

Bourdieu: sums of particular assets put to productive

use
-> includes non-economic kinds:
 Cultural capital (Embodied, objectified,
institutionalised)
 Social capital
 Symbolic capital
Part 7: Political ecology
Practice theory  Society and culture as the result of
structure (internal & external) and
individual agency
 Opposing Structuralist view: human
behaviour and organization systems as
products of innate universal
structures that reflect the mental
structures of humans
(Bourdieu, Ortner)
Field A structured social space with its own rules,
schemes of domination, legitimate opinions
 (Bourdieu)
Political polarisation Political attitudes away from the centre,
towards ideological extremes
Social status/mobility An individual’s standing or importance in
relation to other people in a society
Identity The fact of being who you are and who you
associate with
Taboo Social or religious custom
restricting/prohibiting a particular practice or
forbidding association with certain people,
groups of people, place or objects/things.
Holiness Linked: wholeness and perfection in both
nature and the individual > human beings
must reflect/recreate the holiness of God in
their own life situation
(Douglas)
Rural All population, housing, and territory not
included within an urbanized area or cluster

SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGISTS
Lecture 1: Materiality vs Idealism
Marvin Harris  Cultural materialism: Originator of
Ethnography: ‘Forbidden Flesh’ cultural materialism, strategy aimed at
 Explains taboo by energy and providing casual explanations for
environmental constraints: culture as differences and similarities in cultural
an adaptation to the environment behaviour.
 Technological determinism: all
human behaviour has a hidden techno-
economic rationality
Mary Douglas Structuralism/symbolic anthropology:
Ethnography: ‘The Abominations of Daily life in western and non-western world,
Leviticus’
 Explains taboo by mental process/
cosmology necessary for it
(holy=whole=order=prosperity)
Maurice Godelier
Ethnography: ‘The mental part of reality: the
role of thought in the production of social
relations’
Lecture 2
Julian Steward
Ethnography: ‘The Great Basin Shoshonean
Indians: an example of a family level of
sociocultural integration’
rituals, symbolic deviations, classification and
meaning systems, social boundaries and
comparison of cosmologies.
 Discrepancy between ideal (dogma)
and real (practice)
 Differentiates from Levi-Strauss (Hard
structuralist): ‘Soft’ structuralist >
does not apply hard-and-fast binaries
and strict rules to all cultures.
Synthesis between materialism & idealism
 Marxist: interested in social relations,
not matters or symbols
 Ideas (representations, principles and
rules) condition social relations, but
must be acted upon to cause social
relations
Influenced: Marxist anthropology
Cultural Ecology
 Environment determines culture
 Two-way: humans affect env.
Influenced: Harris’ Cultural Materialism
Pierre Bourdieu Within Structuralism/symbolic

anthropology school
Ethnography: Berber house of the world reversed Main ideas:
 Dichotomic, structuralist approach (light
 Non-economic (cultural, social,
vs dark, female vs male, inside vs outside)
symbolic) capital
 The house is arranged like the reverse of
 Cultural reproduction
the outside world
 Habitus

 Practice theory

The agent is socialized in a "field", an evolving

set of roles and relationships in a social

domain, where various forms of "capital" such

as prestige or financial resources are at stake.

 In economic anth. (Graeber):

economising model = self-interest -

Maurice Bloch
Ethnography: The resurrection of the house
amongst the Zafimaniry of Madagascar
 Famous for woodworking
formalist
Structuralism/symbolic anthropology:
 Deals with religions, kinship, economic,
politics and language.
 His research has been much influenced by
French Marxist ideas.
Influenced: cognitive anthropology, ethnoscience

Claude Levi-Strauss Structuralism

 Dichotomies
 Deep structures
 Kinship -> reciprocity
Influenced: structuralist school; Godelier
Karl Marx  Capital, capitalism
 Historical materialism
 Dialectical materialism
 Labour, production
 Influenced: Marxist & Marxian anthropology
(Childe, Mauss, Wolf)
V Gordon Childe Technological evolutionist:
tech. enables societal change: neolithic and
urban revolutions
Influence: Marx
Leslie White  Cultural dev. ~ energy
body power -> solar power -> fossil fuel ->
nuclear power
 Technology = more efficient use of energy ->
increases use of energy -> allows for more
cultural development

Hegel Father of modern philosophy, huge influence on

Lecture 3: Ethnoscience, Body & Language
Darrell Posey
Ethnography: ‘Indigenous management of
tropical forest ecosystems: the case of the
Kayapó indians of the Brazilian Amazon’
Marx and structuralism
 Dialectical logic
 Geist
 Absolute idealism
Ethnoscience: studies the way living things are
treated or used by different human cultures
& "People-biota-environment" interactions
Kayapo Indians change their environment to
suit their needs (e.g. apete).
 Constructive management of
environment
 Building plant communities suited for
diff. purposes (food, medicine) & diff.
env.s (shade/light, rocky/soft soil)
Ethno-ecological units: symbiosis between
man and nature – contradicts nature-culture
dichotomy

Marcel Mauss
Text: ‘Techniques of the body’
socialisation affects the body
Ferdinand de Saussure (in Mertz)
Peirce (in Mertz)
Apete growth & management
1) new, 2) 5-10yrs, 3) 10-20yrs, 4) 20-40yrs
 Habitus: socialisation affects the body
 Total social phenomena
 The Gift
 The sacrifice: a gift; relationship
between sacred & profane
Structural linguistics
Tripartite model of language, between sign,
object & interpretant
 Lecture 4: Knowledge, the materiality of discourse, technology
Hanne Müller Tacit knowledge:
Cultural learning: wordless
Foucault (in Schaaning) Not signs but statements
- Not just expressions of, or
representation. > not autonomous field
nor arbitrary
- Both linguistic and material
dimensions > NB! Such distinction is
problematic since it serves one from
the other
Bryan Pfaffenberger Technology: neither determine society or
independent of society – instead it is a total
social phenomenon
e.g.: Sri Lanka’s irrigation system
Lecture 5: Science, Modernity, Nature/Culture
Bruno Latour & Steve Woolgar (in Law) Study of science and scientists (laboratory).
Discussion about the concept of modernity
James Scott Ujaama in Tanzania, 1970s

~ Sri Lanka in Pfaffenberger

Marisol de la Cadena Cosmopolitics
Lecture 6: Landscape, Environment & the Globe
Dennis Cosgrove
Tim Ingold Phenomenological perspective:
Globes vs spheres
Howard Morphy Anth. Perspective on landscape:
Ancestral landscapes in Australia:
 Tripartite interaction between the individual; the
world/landscape; and the ancestral past:
interaction with landscape reproduces society via
myth/The Dreaming
 Ancestral forces/memories fixed in land: Yolngu
taken over by the land, not vice versa. - illusion of
continuity

Class 7: Substantivist/Formalist Debate (1960s)

Karl Polanyi Economic anthropologist. Democratic
Socialist. Focus on integration, distribution
and exchange. Key ideas:
 Substantivism
 The Great Transformation: formation
of market societies
 Double Movement
 Embededness
 Money: token & commodity
Influenced: historical sociology, economic
democracy
Chris Hann / Keith Hart Analysis of Polanyi
Han: post-socialist economies in Hungary &
other Eastern European countries
Hart: informal economies in Western Africa
e.g. housekeeping, work without wages, gift
economy
Marshall Sahlins Hunter-gatherers were the “original affluent
society”:
 resources adequate for their limited desire
  3-5 hr workday
 Perfectly adapted to their env. (mobility;
changing env. To their needs ~ Kayapo in
Posey)
Class 8: Money and Debt
Paul Bohannan Tiv in Nigeria:
Change from generalised medium of exchange to
unicentric economy:
> breaking down of pre-existing spheres of
exchange (subsistence, prestige,
kinship/marriage)
> social disregulation
Mette High  All-purpose money can still be contextually
differentiated and restricted in
convertibility
 'Regimes of value' (Appadurai): value
depends on social context/scenario
 Fragile materiality ~ historical use of
black tea -> local value modifications based
on notes' appearance
 'Black footsteps': polluted ~ morality,
money must be kept in circulation, spent on
perishable goods
Deborah James Borrowing & lending in South Africa

Class 9. Gift, Exchange and Value

Anette Weiner (in Miller) Maori taonga: inalienable object that has become a
commodity
Love = inalienable but exchanged
Daniel Miller In Western society
 Gifts can be alienable
 Commodities can be inalienable
 Shopping is sacrifice
David Graeber Exchange and Value – diff. approaches:

Arjun Appadurai (in Graeber, in High)
Margaret Weiner (in Graeber)
Marilyn Strathern (in Graeber)
Don Kalb
Class 10. Production, Circulation, Consumption
Eric Wolf
Caroline Schuster & Sohini Kar
Lecture 11: Climate Change
Nancy Scheper-Hughes
 60s: Sub. vs Form.
 70s: Neo-Marxist - LTV
 80s: Creative consumption: ind.
Desire
Neoliberal approach, rejecting Marx
Focus: globalisation
 Regimes of value
 Politics of value
 Creative consumption
 “Neo-Maussian”
 “Neo-Maussian”/”Saussurean”
Emerging countries after collapse of USSR
(e.g. Poland): “really existing socialism” ->
“really existing capitalism”
Marxian approach
 Material (mode of production)
determines social org.
 modes: capital-based; tax-based;
kinship-based
 “Subprime empire”:
Colonialism > ‘emerging markets’ in
global south
 Micro-finance institutions producing
(Paraguay) & protecting (India) value
from critique
 Bush-admin.: Attribution of
destruction and death (Hurricane
Katrina ‘05)
  “Exit plans” > race & class: the poor
and African Americans were hit the
hardest
 Negative circulation: rumours of mass
death, riots and rape
 Military controls > to protect private
properties: access to water, food,
shelter and medication was dispersed
 People were prevented to flee on foot
by the military > President advised to
seek help from private charities
See Levinas (philosopher) > understand
further about victim guilt
Marcela Vásquez-León  Climate change: severe draught > third
major draught since 1900s > use of
underground water (irrigation)
 Climate change > contrast: Spanish
and Anglo-Americans dealt with, and
were affected differently
 Marginality: networks based on ethics
and cultural identity
 Contrast and vulnerability: Hispanic
farmers vs farmworkers vs Anglo-
Americans
 Class, ethnicity, education &
production:
- Hispanics: agriculture (diversified),
farming (community-based), small
scale, flexible social network (kinship)
- Anglo-Americans: agriculture
(specialised), capital-intensive

Chalotte Bruckermann
Ethnography: “Carbon offset forests in
China”
 How financial practices of risk
speculations extended into climate
change
 ‘Fix’ for the crises of financial capital
rather than meeting environmental
imperative
 Environmental dispos. connects
financialized extraction to labour
exploitation
technology, large scale, dependent on
institutional support (loans, credit,
subsidies, technological assistance)
 Hispanics > dense exchange networks:
mobilise critical resources/
information. Historical roots > older
than governmental strategies
 Anglo-Americans > Network: weak
internal ties, great institutional support
(false sense of security)
Bourdieu: ‘social capital’ is the foundation to
VL’s article
1949 > Rule of the Communist Party
 Extractive and predatory actions: e.g.,
land grabs, commercial rezoning,
housing expropriation, borrowing
from banks
Rural vs. Urban areas
 Rural areas seek decarbonisation
goals: reduction of pollution,
increasing renewable energy,
expanding green spaces
 Financialization (economy): ties local
state and regional development to
financial actors/instruments > credits
and bonds
 State: legitimacy > fighting
greenhouse gases and anthropogenic
climate change
2016 > “Green finance system”
  Ecological dimensions over profit
 Notion of ‘carbon’: standards for
evaluation ‘greenness’
 Solutions: market > global
environmental degradation: exchange
of emissions rights through ‘carbon
markets’
 In practice: Developing coun. > issue
and sell ‘carbon credits’ to developed
coun. > seeking to “offset” emissions
through renewable energy, filtering
systems, or greenhouse gas
 ‘Carbon trading’: era of environmental
governance > China spearheads this
dynamic
Lecture 12: Political Ecology
Igoe
Tsing
Franquesa