ANTH 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Somatization, Arthur Kleinman, Agribusiness
8 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Socio-Cultural Anthropology ANTH 202
Class 15 – Structural & Symbolic Violence / Migrant Labor
PIERRE BOURDIEU – Theory of Practice
Social Reproduction = how social and symbolic structures lead to reproduction of whole social
sys, including inequalities and hierarchies
Social rules influence ind behavior
o Not in a rigid way
o Rules subject to argument, manipulation, multiple interpretations, evasion
Types of rules and norms of conduct:
o Explicit: may be written into law, subjected to debate…
o Unconscious: may be related to feelings – absorbed into the body / unspoken, taken for
granted and unquestioned (ex: forms of greeting, acceptable behaviors…)
1. HABITUS (cf Bourdieu)
Historically accreted dispositions and habits of the body
→Realm of unconscious, patterns, set of rules and feelings that guide behavior – Daily
practice, they are embodied & dynamic
Bodily comportment is influenced by social world – Habitus dvt in social position / world,
culture-based
VIOLENCE as continuum (cf Bourdieu)
o Political violence: targeted physical violence / terror administered by official
authorities and those opposing them
o Structural violence: social inequalities / hierarchies, along social categories of race,
class, gender, sexuality (at the end have injurious effect on body // physical violence)
o Symbolic violence: internalization / legitimation of hierarchy “exercised through
cognition and misrecognition, knowledge and sentiment, with unwitting consent of
the dominated”
o Everyday violence: “normalized micro-interactional expressions of viol on domestic,
delinquent and inst levels producing a common sense of viol / humiliation
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Naturalization – Internalization of social asymmetries.
SYMBOLIC VIOLENCE
Experiencing the world through doxa (mental schemata) and habitus issued by social world –
making social order seem natural
Oppression is misrecognized as natural because of our mental / bodily schema through which
we see it
Acts with the process of perception, hidden from conscious mind
HOLMES – Fresh fruit, broken bodies (Reading)
Holmes considers ethnicity, labor and health as various forms of viol and hierarchy structured in
agricultural migrant labor.
Worked on family-owned berry farm → Triqui indigenous people
Different levels of vulnerability at each level of work – depth is variable // different health
issues depending on hierarchy + different understandings of “race”
Structure of labor hierarchy along race, class and citizenship
1. Farm executives
o Owners, business professionals
o Concern for pay and treatment of laborers
o Vulnerable to global and agribusiness competition, other states, urbanization, demand…
o Vulnerability of family farms in USA
2. Administrative assistants
o White & Latina women, paid min wage
o Live at home, work in office
3. Crop managers
o White men, uni degrees
o Check field
o Details of production of specific crops
4. Supervisors / Crew bosses
o US Latinos, few US white citizens, Mexicans…
o Responsible for crews of 10-20 pickers, live in camps
o Some racism against Ind Mexican pickers
5. Checkers
o Local white teenagers – positive values of agriculture and diversity
o Minimal wage, allowed to talk-break-sit
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Class 15 structural & symbolic violence / migrant labor. Social reproduction = how social and symbolic structures lead to reproduction of whole social sys, including inequalities and hierarchies. Social rules influence ind behavior: not in a rigid way, rules subject to argument, manipulation, multiple interpretations, evasion. Historically accreted dispositions and habits of the body. Realm of unconscious, patterns, set of rules and feelings that guide behavior daily practice, they are embodied & dynamic. Bodily comportment is influenced by social world habitus dvt in social position / world, culture-based. Experiencing the world through doxa (mental schemata) and habitus issued by social world making social order seem natural. Oppression is misrecognized as natural because of our mental / bodily schema through which we see it. Acts with the process of perception, hidden from conscious mind. Holmes considers ethnicity, labor and health as various forms of viol and hierarchy structured in agricultural migrant labor. Worked on family-owned berry farm triqui indigenous people.
