Critical Perspectives on Colonialism and Economic Systems

Question 1)

Eric Wolf provides a deep analysis of usual areas like politics, money, and social studies. He
affirms that often these subjects don't pay attention to the world's links between cultures and
history. This can cause them to favor a view of things called Eurocentrism (Wolf, 1982). Wolf
argues that politics and the study of economics often make things too simple. He believes these
subjects often miss the complex parts of human history and social life. Wolf believes that these
areas hurt our understanding of human societies and their past by not properly dealing with the
problems of different cultures and the impact of colonialism on societies outside Europe.
Wolf doubts the usual way of studying different economic systems. He maintains that the main
views from Europe limit the study and ignore the efforts and problems of societies outside
Europe. To help people understand history better, Wolf says we should change how we study. He
wants us to question the limits of different study areas and focus on a more joined-up approach
that includes everyone.

Question 2)
Geography, history, and colonialism greatly affect how we understand economic systems.
Geography controls where resources are found, which impacts economic actions and trade ways.
History explains how economic systems change. It shows how new technology, culture trade,
and power plays affect economies. Colonialism, an old power linked with geography, leaves a
permanent mark on money systems by making trade channels, taking advantage of tools, and
making wealth go around the world. To understand money systems, we need to know how things
like where we live and what happened in the past - like contacts from old colonies - still affect
wealth divides, imbalance of trade, and ways places grow all around the world today.

Question 3)
Eric Wolf studies and reviews various cultural economies carefully. He looks at the intricate
ways production, trade, and spreading are connected using a method that compares different
things. Wolf recognizes that different societies were influenced by different historical paths,
moving beyond Europe-focused views (Wolf, 1982). He looks at the complex connections
between money systems, social talks, cultural rules, and worldwide effects to make clear the
difficult way humans use money. Wolf looks at colonialism and the blending of non-European
groups into the global money system very carefully. In this way, he shows how the power
differences in money connections work by looking at how central and outer regions interact.
Wolves avoid simple choices and give a deep understanding of the complicated links connecting
different cultures across time and place. They dissect the complexities of money systems within
a bigger historical picture.

Question 4)
Making things is related to social and money connections. This shows how societies order and
accept the creation of products and services. These ways involve the links between different
groups in a community. They show the jobs and power parts among people who control how to
make things and the workers. Beyond money systems, the ways we make things use resources,
improve tech, and how society puts things together. People have been making things in every
society in history. This includes slave-made economies from ancient civilizations, farming
communities in old Europe, and capitalism and socialism that brought about our current world.

Question 5)
The main idea of Eric Wolf's theory about how cultures, politics, and economy grow is that they
are all connected. We have to look at them all at once to fully understand the complexity of
human society. He sets importance on a worldwide history view that goes beyond the borders of
different studies (Wolf, 1982). This rejects ideas from Europe. Wolf says that the stories of non-
European and European people are connected. Studying how each one has affected and mixed
with the other is very important to understand how they all affect each other. He talks about
"world systems", focusing on how societies are linked all around the world and how colonialism
impacts the growth of money systems.
Wolf's view says that changes in culture, politics, and economy all happen together. They make
each other. He says that people's interactions and cultural settings are built into economic
systems. He also thinks that changes in these economic systems often happen because of shifts in
politics. Through looking closer at how communities and groups change over time due to
interactions, Wolf asks if straight stories and easy divides are correct. This big-picture look helps
us understand history. It shows how politics, money, and culture all work together to shape the
direction of human society over time.

Question 6)
Frances Moore Lappe and Joseph Collins highlights about how old farming systems were ruined
by colonialism. This caused hunger and the need for help to become common. They say hunger
is not due to natural problems in poor societies, but because colonial powers started it over time
(Lappe & Collins, 1977). The writers say that making people grow crops for money, which is
done by using force and taxes, made it hard to grow their food. Colonial powers, who wanted
money, used force to make farmers grow crops for selling. This often took away from basic food
for people themselves.
Lappe and Collins show how, on purpose, indigenous farming growth was stopped. This was
done to be sure that people working on farms stayed cheap and dependable. They talk about how
big powers took the best farmland for export crops, forcing strong workers away from village
fields. The writers show how relying on foreign food hurts local food making. This made native
people weak due to shortages in the food supply. Furthermore, there was a strong effort to limit
competition from local creators. They could show greater efficiency and cost-cutting compared
to large plants. Lappe and Collins say that knowing about colonialism is important because it
helps to answer why people can't feed themselves. They believe that colonial rules destroyed old
social groups and led to backward development.

Question 7)
Colonialism hurts the social, financial, and cultural aspects of controlled cultures. This causes
various deep-rooted problems (Lappe & Collins, 1977). Making local economies change against
their will to help big powers is one of the main issues. It's usually done by forcing people to
grow business crops instead of their normal food plants. This hurts the ability to grow your food
and makes these places more dependent on buying things from other places. This makes them
vulnerable to changes in the cost of items worldwide. Also, the use of good farmland for export-
focused plants and making healthy workers do low-paid jobs on these estates create a bad cycle
of poverty and unequal money situations. Another big problem is when colonial forces put their
ideas and rules on native people. This can sometimes hurt or remove their traditions.
Colonialism's big impact on old colonized countries' growth, continued fighting and continual
unfairness are parts of its lasting effects.