I. Marxism as a Reaction against Formalists/Substantivists

A. Substantivists vs. formalists

1. Universal human nature vs. specific cultures
2. Substantivists: universal assumptions = ethno-centrism
3. Formalists: humans do seem to operate in similar rational, economic ways

B. Unresolved questions: where do culture and social organization come from? Why does change occur
C. Karl Marx (1818-1883)

1. Similar to substantivists

a. economic systems embedded in social formations
b. capitalism is historical condition
c. people make economic decisions based on social institutions

2. formalist logic: production and class structure shape human economic behavior universally
3. Formalist logic with substantivist details

 

II. Marxism: The Connection between Modes of Production and Culture

A. Grundrisse (Foundations of Political Economy) and Precapitalist Economic Formations (1857-8)
B. Goal: laws and mechanisms propelling economic development, appearance of capitalism
C. Mechanism: change in the social relations of production

1. Historical stages result from relations to property, means of production
2. Work creates human consciousness
3. Consciousness is created by social existence
4. Two aspects of society

a. Economic base, infrastructure: tools, technologies, skills, social groups, relations of production (inequality, classes)
b. Superstructure

1. legal and political system
2. ideological superstructure: religion, ideology which justifies economic system

D. infrastructure determines superstructure
E. Contradictions between superstructure and infrastructure propel history

 

III. Lewis Henry Morgan's (1818-1881) Anthropological Support for Marx

A. Darwin and evolution of human society
B. Morgan, Ancient Society (1877)

1. Kinship naming systems reflect past conceptions of biological relatedness
2. Evolution of kinship systems from simple to complex
3. Society develops through development of "arts of subsistence" and accumulation of knowledge
4. Three stages of human civilization

Stage	Technology	Marriage System
Savagery	hunting/gathering	primitive promiscuity, group marriage
Barbarism	tools, agriculture, animal husbandry	pairing marriage, polygamy
Civilization	industry, writing	monogamy

5. Morgan interested in details, not theory

 

IV. Engels Interprets Morgan

A. The Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1884)
B. Uses Marx's notes to interpret, simplify Morgan
C. Morgan: who and what; Engels: how and why
D. Evolution of family structures = narrowing of marriage to one man, one woman pair

1. Savagery: group marriage, no jealousy

a. incest avoidance "naturally" occurs
b. pairing family, women respected
c. women "naturally" want monogamy

2. Barbarism: pairing marriage develops

a. domestication of animals, agriculture ==> property
b. men enforce monagamy to ensure paternity, transmission of property, "world historical defeat of the female sex" (120)
c. patriarchal family, women as property

3. Civilization: monogamy is victorious

a. men = property-owning class
b. women = domestic slaves, proletariat
c. eliminate private property ==> equality between sexes, individual sex love

E. Links between Engels and US women's movement
F. Problems with Engels (and Morgan)

1. kin terms don't reflect conceptions of biological relationship
2. simple and complex
3. assumptions about what is natural

G. Legacy: domestic mode of production, investigate households as unit of production, gendered divisions of labor, intra-household relationships

 

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