I. Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) and His Critique of Capitalism

A. The Hau: Giving, receiving, and reciprocating
B. Critique of capitalism

1. Forgotten hau
2. Social security

C. Value emerges through human relationships
D. Total social fact

1. "all kinds of institutions are given expression at one and the same time -- religious, juridical, and moral, which relate to both politics and the family" (3)

 

II. Evaluating Mauss

A. Armchair anthropology at its best: detailed, meticulously researched, theoretically powerful
B. Possible limitations

1. Too rule-oriented
2. Over-emphasizes distinction between gifts and commodities, personal and impersonal goods
3. Social security doesn't necessarily create direct relations of mutual dependence, social solidarity

 

III. Use Value, Exchange Value, and Gender

A. Karl Marx, Capital

1. Use value: value of an item comes from its function
2. Exchange value: "The proportion, in which use-values of one kind exchange for use-values of another kind."

B. Barter: immediate exchange of use values
C. Capitalism: money extends exchanges over time and space

1. Exchange value predominates
2. Money as dark force, corrodes social relations

a. Labor theory of value
b. Alienation of labor (compare to Mauss and hau)
c. Money as universal equivalent, everything has a price: example of women, housework, and feminism in the US
d. Radical leveler: destroys social bonds of mutual dependence

D. Carstens: women in Malay fishing village "cook" the money men generate by transforming it from exchange value to household use value