I. Capitalism, Communism, and Catholicism: Images from Cuba

A. Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba, January 1998
B. Images from the visit

1. Pope and Castro meeting
2. Shaking hands
3. Exchanging gift
4. Shaking hands after mass

C. Castro's welcome speech
D. Pope's response, University of Havana
E. Popemobile and Che
F. Anti-Uncle Sam billboard
G. Coffee sales work to end the embargo

1. Donate $.15 per pound to Global Exchange
2. Coffee is from Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Mexico
3. Organic
4. Certified by Fair Trade
5. Che Guevara package
6. Pope and Castro package: "The photo represented another sort of revolution: change through civil discourse. If these two icons representing such different points of view could communicate with each other, then violent revolution can be laid to rest in the wake of civil discourse."

 

II. Images of Global Capitalism in the 21st Century

A. Pope's speech: culture is opposed to economics

1. Praises Cuban culture
2. Marxist and Catholic culture as antidotes to capitalism
3. Culture, not economics, makes us human

B. Coffee package: use capitalism to support opponent of capitalism
C. Perceptions of civilizational clashes: religion or culture versus economics as major dilemma of 21st century

 

III. Rethinking Economic Anthropology

A. Economic anthropology: anthropological study of economics

1. Anthropology = study of human beings in all of their diversity

a. organize as members of societies
b. make sense of lives through culture

2. Economics = relationship between humans and material world of goods

a. Institutions
b. Practices
c. Decisions
d. Production, circulation, consumption

B. Economic anthropologists see links between economics and culture
C. Capitalism has become dominant
D. Salvage ethnography

1. Cultural institutions disappearing
2. Cultural institutions change to support capitalism, as in prosperity religion (Freeman)

E. Kula and potlatch seem less economic today than they did in the early 20th century
F. Ongka and moka

1. Member of parliament/moka recipient: waste of time and resources
2. Ongka: value in human relationships
3. Local traditions survive only if they adapt to capitalism: money, truck as key items of value alongside pigs in Ongka's moka

G. Examples of how capitalism uses or destroys culture

1. Taussig: Tio will disappear once miners become truly capitalist
2. Ong: Spirits will disappear once women's factory work is normalized
3. Besky: tripartite moral economy gives way to bisnis
4. Freeman: entrepreneurial personhood and emotional labor 5. Leshkowich: tinh cam as business strategy and aspect of normative femininity

H. Consensus: culture can resist capitalism, but ultimately loses

 

IV. Capitalisms, not Capitalism

A. Capitalism is different in different places

1. Malaysia: opportunity to increase status, delay marriage, and consume, yet profound concern about femininity and piety
2. Barbados: reputation and respectability
3. Wall Street has specific cultural values that aren't simply a direct representation of capitalism, different from corporate values
4. Not capitalism, but locally specific capitalisms

B. Economic anthropology's role in resisting capitalism

1. In theory: asserted that capitalism is a cultural system
2. In practice

a. Marxist viewpoint: capitalism as unique system of production ==> focus on other systems of production with different logics
b. Maussian viewpoint: system of market exchange ==> focus on other systems of exchange, i.e. kula, potlatch

C. Recent developments: look at capitalism in West, consumption

1. Desire as source and result of production
2. Fair Trade and Geographical Indication for Darjeeling tea
3. Mintz: production-consumption feedback loop links white industrial workers in England to enslaved black laborers in Barbados
4. Barbadian women entrepreneurs as producers/consumers, discipline/pleasure--> self-actualization

D. Goals for 21st century

1. More economic anthropological studies of capitalisms
2. More focus on personhood: affective, moral, economic

E. Pope isn't right in seeing opposition between culture and economics

1. Capitalism is fundamental to our culture
2. We are products of capitalism
3. Links between capitalism and culture have been naturalized through habitus (Ho, following Bourdieu)
4. Understanding these links is best way to change economic system

F. Finally realize Marx and Weber's goals of seeing capitalism as a culturally and historically specific system