ANTHRO 104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Settler Colonialism, Cultural Evolution, Wage Labour
19 Nov 2016
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Market capitalism: unlimited desires and scarce resources, individual compete over resources. Hunter gathering: limited desires and plentiful resources; sharing plentiful resources. Gift: obligation to give, receive and reciprocate; generous and coercive, selfless and sometimes self-interested; gifts deepen social relationships. Market: no further obligations, just pay and go. Shostak suggests cultural processes beyond the population she is working with, beyond and influencing san culture. Encroachment of foreigners into their land, moved people into marginal places. Forced out of their lifestyles and cultural practices were undermined. Forced to take low-end wage labor jobs, gov handouts, diseases from foreigners, wars, and recruitment for wars. Culture is relatively cohesive, bounded, static group with shared values, beliefs, and practices. Cultural evolution - cultural stages ranking from simple to complex, primitive to sophisticated, ,lower intelligence to higher intelligence. Shostak is against the theory of cultural evolution. Representing the san: represent the image of positive hunter-gathering societies.
