ATH 175 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Original Affluent Society, Adaptationism, Consumerism
16 Dec 2016
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Sheryl crow soak up the sun = cultural critique. Marshall sahlins the original affluent society = scientific argument: sahlins makes 4 main points. What about basic human needs: food, shelter, companionship. Why not maximal exploitation of ecological niches. Distinction between needs and wants is artificial. Needs shift with position in social field. Needs: food, shelter, clothing: what is wearable, edible, etc. is culturally patterned. No forager goes hungry unless all go hungry. With agriculture comes surplus and hierarchies of haves and. Poverty = social relationship between those who have more and those who have less. There is more than one strategy for meeting wants. Want much and produce much: consumerism. Want little and produce little: minimalism. Skeptical about universalizing claims of any type: 2. Prefers empirical data gathered through direct observation to census, surveys, etc: 3. Assumes economic processes are historically contingent, not universal: 4. Assumes economic practices are and will exhibit different forms in different contexts: 5.
