SC2218: Anthropology and the SC2218: Anthropology and the Human ConditionHuman Condition

Lecture 8: Culture and Lecture 8: Culture and CommodificationCommodification

Eric C. ThompsonEric C. Thompson

Semester 1, 2010/2011Semester 1, 2010/2011

MONEY

Where Are We Going?Where Are We Going?

• Part 1: What is Anthropology?– Strangers Abroad, Race, Culture

• Part 2: What do Anthropologists Study?– Kinship– Gender– Economy– Community

• Part 3: Current Debates and Trends– Representing Others, The Poetry of

Culture, World Anthropologies

YOU AREHERE

Last Week…Last Week…

• Cultural Contexts of Economics and Exchange:

• !Xharo exchange (Making/Maintaining Social Relationships)

• Potlatch (Status; Redistribution)

• Kula Ring (A Complex System)

• Wholesale Sushi (Further Complexity)– (Continued This Week)

This Week (Lecture Outline)…This Week (Lecture Outline)…• Further Anthropological Perspectives on Economics

and Exchange…• Modern Economics as a Cultural System

– Wholesale Sushi

– Branding; Production of Value through Consumption

• Commodification of Human Relationships– Money as a Cultural System of Values

– Commodity Fetishism

• Bureaucratic Organization & Patron-Client Networks: A Clash of Cultures

Practical Application andPractical Application andFood for ThoughtFood for Thought

• What kinds of exchanges to you participate in?– Think of shopping at 7-11, birthday presents, little red

packets, what else??– What is important in these, the people you are

exchanging with or the things being exchanged?• Next time you are standing in line at Fair Price, 7-11 or

wherever, look at what you are buying.– Reflect on “Wholesale Sushi”. Can you imagine all the

cultural meanings and social relationships that brought the thing you are buying to market?

– Pay attention to the clerk at the register. Have you ever considered your social relationship with him/her?

Modern Economics as Modern Economics as a Cultural Systema Cultural System

The Magic of MarketsThe Magic of Markets• Culture in “primitive” exchange/economics:

– !Xharo, “Red Packets” (about relationships)– Potlatching, Feasting (about status)

• What about industrial, capitalist societies?

• Our economy runs on rationality, right?

• “Laws” of supply and demand (rational, “natural laws” – not cultural?).

• There’s no magic, no arbitrary symbolism, nothing mysterious or irrational in our economy… is there?

““Wholesale Sushi”Wholesale Sushi”

• Tsukiji Fish market (Ethnography of a Place)• History• Social Organization• Food Culture (What is “Japanese” Food?)• Industrialization• Domesticity (Family/Kinship) and Cuisine• Authenticity, the “Invention of Tradition”• Temporal Patterns (“Time to Eat”)• Tradescapes, Culinaryscapes, “Webs of Significance”

ToroToro (Tuna Belly) (Tuna Belly)• How is “value” created?

• Before the 1950s, toro was “not fit for cats”?

• Now, toro is considered premium sushi.

• How did this happen?– Changes in technology (refrigeration)– Changes in taste preferences (marketing)– Transformed “cultural” values (taste) =

transformed “economic” value (price)

BrandingBranding• How does branding create (surplus) value?

• Traditional, “Means of Production” theory:

– Surplus value is created in the production of products (commodities)

– “Value Added” in modifying/manufacturing

– Labor of workers “exploited”

• Newer, “Means of Consumption” theory:

– Surplus value is created in the consumption of products (commodities)

– “Value Co-Creation” between consumers and producers of products

– Labor of consumers “exploited”

Creating Value through Creating Value through ConsumptionConsumption

• Value Co-Creation

• Ways that Producers (Companies) draw on (exploit?) value created by consumers:– Feedback and marketing research.– Personal relationship between consumer and

product; products become part of a consumer’s identity.

– Brands sell at a premium (surplus value).

• If value is “Co-Created” who owns it?

Trademark, Copyright and Trademark, Copyright and Intellectual PropertyIntellectual Property

• Value is “co-created” but Producers “own” the brand – enforced through trademark and copyright.

• Case of Sharad Haskar and Coca-cola (2005 billboard critiquing water shortage in Chennai)

Questions for ReflectionQuestions for Reflection• What brands do you consume?

• Why do you value those brands? How is that value created? Does it translate into price… do you pay a premium?– Do you signal something about yourself through branded

goods?– Does the brand have personal (nostalgic) meaning to

you?

• What does it mean if the brand “says something about you” is part of your identity… but you don’t “own” the brand?

Modern Economic Modern Economic Culture and the Culture and the

Commodification of Commodification of Human RelationshipsHuman Relationships

Commodification of Human Commodification of Human RelationshipsRelationships

• Two Examples of the Culture Values of Modern, Economically “Rational Markets”:

• Money– Arbitrary symbolic value based on shared

beliefs

• Commodity Fetishism– Valuing the relationship among goods;

devaluing relationships among people

““Two Sides of the Coin”Two Sides of the Coin”(Keith Hart, optional reading)(Keith Hart, optional reading)

• Token of authority– Of states; top down

• Commodity with a price– In markets; bottom up

• Cultural governed by rules, norms, shared ideas

• Social mediated by exchange, interaction, relationships

MoneyMoney

• Money is a “pure commodity”; symbolic; cultural

• It has no use value, only exchange value

• Money is a “fetish” of (stands in the place of) social relationships

SMARTSMARTa poema poem

by Shel Silversteinby Shel Silverstein

QUARTER (25 cents) DIME (10 cents) NICKEL (5 cents) PENNY (1 cent)

SMART!SMART!

My dad gave me one dollar bill‘Cause I’m his smartest son,And I swapped it for two shiny quarters‘Cause two is more than one!

SMART!SMART!

And then I took the quartersAnd traded them to LouFor three dimes – I guess he don’t knowThat three is more than two!

SMART!SMART!

Just then, along came old blind BatesAnd just ‘cause he can’t seeHe gave me four nickels for my three dimes,And four is more than three!

SMART!SMART!

And I took the nickels to Hiram CoombsDown at the seed-feed store,And the fool gave me five pennies for them,And five is more than four!

SMART!SMART!

And then I went and showed my dad,And he got red in the cheeksAnd closed his eyes and shook his head - - Too proud of me to speak!

Commodity FetishismCommodity Fetishism

What is a Fetish?– A fetish stands in the place of something else

(to the point that the ‘something else’ disappears).

– Religious fetish: An object of worship; a representation of a clan.

– Sexual fetish: Sexual attachment to or gratification from an object in place of a person.

What is a Commodity?What is a Commodity?

• Use Value vs. Exchange Value

• “Commodity” = A Thing with Exchange Value

Commodity FetishCommodity Fetish

• A commodity stands in the place of the social relationships between exchange partners.

• “A commodity is … a mysterious thing… because the relationship of the producers … is presented to them as a social relation, existing not between themselves, but between the products of their labour.”

-Karl MarxCapital Vol. 1

The Cultural Nature of The Cultural Nature of Commodities (and Money)Commodities (and Money)

• Markets are SYMBOLIC systems of VALUE

• Money – mediator of value• Social relationships are

abstracted into money and commodities.

• Social differentiation based on relationships mediated by money & commodities = Class

Patron-Client NetworksPatron-Client Networks and and Rational BureaucraciesRational Bureaucracies

Comparing Two Cultural SystemsComparing Two Cultural Systems

(A Clash of Cultures)(A Clash of Cultures)

Patron-Client NetworksPatron-Client Networks• Patron: From “patri” (father). A person who

provides support to (takes care of) others.• Client: The ‘lesser’ in a relationship. One

who receives support from a patron and at the same time “serves” the patron.

• Many different cultural forms (for example):– European Patrimonialism (father as ideal)*– Chinese Filial Piety (son as ideal)*– Malayo-Polynesian “Big Men” (orang besar)**

*Julia Adams, “Rule of the Father: . . . In Early Modern Europe”** Benandari community in “A Man without Pigs”

““Rational” BureaucraciesRational” Bureaucracies

• Bureaucratic Rationalism (Max Weber)

• Displacement of “Patrimonialism” in Europe.

• Shift from Feudal Relationships (Kings, Lords, Peasants) to Nation-States (Government, Citizens) and Industrial-Capitalism (Owners, Workers)

A Clash of CulturesA Clash of Cultures

• Culture: Learned, Shared Knowledge. Systems of Meaning – Ideas, Beliefs, Values

• Patron-Client Networks (PCN) and Bureaucratic Rationalism (BR) are culturally different schemes for ordering human relationships

• From the point-of-view of PCN, BR is cold, impersonal and de-humanizing.

• From the point-of-view of BR, PCN lead to corruption and nepotism.

Comparing Comparing Patron-Client NetworksPatron-Client Networks to to Rational BureaucraciesRational Bureaucracies

Patron-Client Networks

• Personal Relationships

• Treat People as Individuals

• Individual Judgment

• “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”

• Limits to “personal touch” (hard to treat masses as individuals)

Bureaucratic Rationalism

• Categorical Relationships

• Treat People as Categories

• Bureaucratic Rules

• Fairness and Meritocracy (what, not who you know)

• Effective for organizing relationships among “the masses”

Comparing American and Comparing American and Minangkabau Business CulturesMinangkabau Business CulturesAmerican Business Ideals

• Greed is good.• Competition (always beat

the other guy)• Work Hard• Be the Biggest• Make the most Money

(Profit Oriented)• Individualism (I am out to

maximize my benefits)

Datuk’s Business Secrets

• Treat people well.• Cooperation (work with

the other guy)• Work Smart• Be the Best• Work with the Best

(People Oriented)• Collectivism (I rise and

fall with my network)

Is a “Bureaucracy”Is a “Bureaucracy”an Economic System?an Economic System?

• Economy: a system of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services.

• Bureaucracies determine “who gets what”.

• Socialist, welfare, national states.

• “Neo-liberal” capitalism: State bureaucracies set rules of exchange (e.g. monetary policy)

• Modern corporations operate on the cultural principles of “bureaucratic rationalism”

Question for ReflectionQuestion for Reflection

• Do you relate to people as a you a bureaucrat or a patron (or client)?

• Do you interact with people as people (whole persons) or as categories (clerk, teacher, student, taxi uncle, etc.)?

• What are the social and cultural conditions leading you to one or the other?

A Final Thought . . .A Final Thought . . .

• Who understands economics better?“Primitive” Foragers or “Civilized” Consumers?

• !Xoma broke into a broad smile, “I see what your problem is! /Tontah, you don’t understand our way . . . You see, we don’t trade with things, we trade with people.” (Lee, p.119)