Date: Mon, 01 Apr 1996 16:19:34 -0700
Subject:  marxism and anthropology


Dear marxism2, here's a thought for some threads, which I forward
with Rahul's permission.
Lisa

>>> Rahul Mahajan <rahul-AT-hagar.ph.utexas.edu>  3/29/96, 03:08am >>>
[snip]
I think the idea of both reading the same thing is a good one. I
don't know at what pace I'll be able to go, because of time, but I
will try to plug away at it. I'm not familiar with any of the books
you mentioned.

Also, I have no knowledge of anthropology other than what I've picked
up here and there (Harris, Frazer, some Levi-Strauss and Polanyi), so
I'll have to rely on you to pick. 

There are two main things I'm interested in: one is to inform marxist
political  analysis by some considerations of rational choice theory
(which is problematic but IMO can't be ignored), energy/time
constraints, etc., so as to develop a picture of how to create social
institutions with the primary goal of enabling a nonhierarchical
collective society to exist and be successful without a need for
coercion.

It would have to be stable for example against the noncooperation of
10 or 20% of the population, which traditional communist societies
have not been, thus leading to repression. 

The second is to understand the evolution of hierarchy, class, and
caste right from basic tribal societies and secondarily to understand
things such as the origin of the family and private property. I think
a broader development of these two themes would be a crucial and
necessary widening of Marxism as a whole. Maybe from this you can
divine what specific anthropological issues we should address.

Oh, yeah. I very much like in broad terms the project of Harris and
of Frazer of comparing a wide range of societies at different stages
of development to shed some light on the evolution in time of certain
institutions (hierarchy for Harris, myth, ritual, and religion for
Frazer).

Probably more recently anthropologists have found that they reified
an artificial notion of "higher" vs. "lower" societies, misidentified
the linear sequence of development, etc., etc. I still hope something
can be salvaged from those projects.

Have you read Marxism and Anthropology by Maurice Bloch, and if so,
what do you think?

Looking forward to it. Take care,

Rahul






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