Marxism

The Marxist Theory -- Marx created the theory of Marxism which believed that the motive for all social and political activities was for gaining and keeping economic power. --Theories of Marxism are categorized into a group called “Dialectal Materialism” which consists of lots of thoughts and the way one looks at life. As well as one’s outlook and emotions on different things. --Marxists believe in “Empirical Evidence” which consists of using the truth in every aspect of a situation. This methodology was led by Marx and Engels. However later they reveal that not all of their “theories” were true and that they were based more on scientific theory rather than concrete facts. --Another component of Marxism is Determinism which explains that all processes are pre-thought and determined by natural laws. Therefore all processes should be able to be predicted.

Marxist Theory Marxist theories are categorized into reality of society, economics, working classes, and politics. Dialectal Materialism, Historical Materialism, and the Labor Theory of Value are the “Famous Three Component Parts” Of Marxism.

Karl Heinrich Marx Karl Marx was born on may 5, 1818 in Germany to a middle- class family. At the age of seventeen he enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Bonn then transferred to the University of Berlin. He was a member and leader to many clubs some being the Young Hegelian movement,the Communist society, and the Communist League. He became known for his writing and theories, he began writing for the Rheinsche Zeitung,Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbucher, and writing famous writings such as the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, The German Ideology, The Poverty of Philosophy,the Communish Manifesto, The Neue Fheinische Zeitung, the Class struggles in France, The 18 th Brumaire of Luis Bonaparte, The Grundrisse, The Civil War in France, and more. He Married Jenny von Westphalen and had 6 children, 3 whom lived. After fighting illnesses in the later years of his life and going through the death of his wife and eldest daughter he died on March 14, 1883.

Marx Contribution of Theories Karl Marx was a strong communist advocate and even lead a group that overthrew the French Government and took over for two months. Marx felt that the separation was more significant in socioeconomic classes than differences between religion, ethnicity, race, and gender. The Marxist belief established classes in America from the homeless, poor, financially established, well-to-do, and extremely wealthy. These were established as the underclass, lower class, middle class, upper class, and aristocracy.

Main Point of Marxist Theory The main point of Marxism was to demonstrate how a capitalist society wouldn’t function and how there was a need for a classless society

Marxist Anthropology  essentially an economic interpretation of history based on the works of Karl Marx and Frederich Engels  posits a materialist model of societal change  developed as a critique and alternative to the domination of Euro- American capitalism and Eurocentric views in the social sciences.  Change within a society seen as the result of contradictions arising between the forces of production (technology) and the relations of production (social organization).  Such contradictions are seen to emerge as a struggle between distinct social classes

The Communist Manifesto (1848)  shows the basic struggle between classes, and recommends action against the 'spectre' of capitalism Capital (1867)  shows how the capitalist system is exploitative in that it "transfers the fruit of the work of the majority...to a minority”  1880 reads Henry Morgan’s Ancient Society (1877) and became interested in his evolutionary ideas of society  1883 dies before he can write a book based on his literary exploration on the topic

Marxist Theory 1. social relationships are generated by exchange 2. a person can produce more than he requires for his own subsistence 3. the power conferred by the ownership of money is the power to buy other people’s labor 4. while supply and demand may cause the value of a good to fluctuate, its true or natural value is determined by the cost of the labour required to make it.

Marxist Theory  Wrote Capital during the Industrial Revolution in Britain  Much of his analysis is directed at explaining the processes which give rise to capitalist society  One of the primary concerns with modes of production  Each mode of production has three aspects.  A distinctive principle determining property  A distinctive division of labour  A distinctive principle of exchange

 Marx regarded social systems as inherently unstable, rather than normally existing in a stable condition.  He found the driving force of instability in the capacity of human beings to produce, by their own labor more than they needed to subsist on.  He found that the way in which a social system controlled people’s access to the resources they needed was equally fundamental.  Marx argued that the market created inequalities

 History is marked by the growth of human productive capacity, and the forms that history produced for each separate society is a function of what was needed to maximize productive capacity.  Much of the work of Marx and Engels examined the conflict generated by the increasing wealth of the capitalists (Bourgeoisie) at the expense of he working class (proletariat) who only sunk deeper into poverty  Marx and Engles viewed history as a sequence of evolutionary stages, each marked by a unique mode of production

 the history of Europe seen in terms of the transition from feudalism to capitalism and eventually to communism  Under the feudal system, which preceded capitalism, surplus was secured by the legal power of the feudal lords over the serfs and peasants who worked in their lands.  Violence and repression could reinforce legal power if the peasantry resisted handing over the surplus.  Under capitalism, the extraction of surplus is managed more subtly through the mechanism of the wage.

 The wage is only equivalent to some of the value of the worker performed but the labourer;  the remaining ‘surplus value’ is taken by the capitalist in the form of profits.  Thus, in a capitalist society, the power and wealth of the dominant class is seen as legitimate, rather than simply backed by coercion as it was in feudal societies.  What is going on is concealed from the labourers under the idea of a fair wage for a fair day’s work. – bourgeoise ideology - class have a vested interest in maintaining their power and will seek to resist such change  especially through elaboration of mystification in the ideology, which results in the false consciousness of the lower class

 Marx and Engles viewed social change as an evolutionary process marked by revolution in which new levels of social, political and economic development were achieved through class struggle  A class is defined in terms of the relationship of people's labour to the means of production  each mode of production produced characteristic class relationships involving a dominating and a subordinate class.  These two classes were linked together in a relationship of exploitation in which the subordinate class provided the labour and the dominant class then appropriated the surplus

Evolutionary Marxism  Engles states that socioeconomics develops in a series of stages from primitive communism, slave society, feudalism, capitalism and finally communism unilineal evolutionism T  The first stage, primitive communism was an aspect of savagery  characterized by a public control and ownership of the means of production  and an absence of exploitation and social class.  The next stage, slave society is related to barbarism.  Property is identified with people, to own people is to have some control and ownership to the means of production.  Yet, the notion of private property in relation to land did not exist at this stage of development

 The third stage, feudalism can be seen in Medieval Europe  There is a class distinction made between aristocrats, those who own land and serfs the subjects of the aristocrats.  Aristocrats own the land and distribute it among their loyal serfs. Thus, there is property related to land, and to control and own this property is related to the control and ownership to the means of production (i.e. the serfs)  The capitalist stage is the current stage of society. The final stage (Communism) is yet to come  At this stage there are two classes: the bourgeoisie, the ones who control and own the means to production;  and the proletariat, those who most sell their labor to the bourgeoisie..

 believed that Morgan’s evolutionary stages of human culture with material achievements and technology validated their evolutionary theory  Marx and Engels gave currency to the idea of primitive communism.  argued that the real basis of social and political inequality was property,  and that since there was no private property in primitive societies, there was no state and no class or inequality

STRUCTURAL MARXISM  mid 1960s in France, the Netherlands and Britain, structuralism was the dominate theory in anthropology  French philosopher Louis Althusser and sociologist Maurice Godelier merged Structuralism with Marxism  introduced into British anthropology by Jonathan Friedman in 1974, with his article “Marxism, Structuralism and Vulgar Materialism  Friedman believed, like Marx, that society is formed by the conflict (or absence of conflict) between the infrastructure, the forces of production and the relations of production; and the superstructure, the juridico- political and the ideological  Thus we have the binary opposition

Neo-Marxists  Neo-Marxists argued that polarized classes analogous to those detected by Marx and Engels under early capitalism could also be detected among across virtually the whole range of pre-capitalist societies.  Thus African societies, presented in harmonious coherence by earlier functionalist ethnographers were now shown to be riven with conflict and class struggle.  To the extent that male elders appropriated the surplus labour of their juniors and of women, they were seen to be exploiting class (or at least they could qualify as a class)in itself,  This work valuable in exposing the implicit bias of functionalist accounts

Many contemporary theories have come to rely on Marxists insights particularly true of cultural ecologists, and neo-materialists, feminist and postmodern thinkers Characteristics of Marxist studies 1. A focus on issues of structures of power and exploitation 2. A concern with conflict and change 3. A starting point in the material system of production and ownership of property 4. An analysis of action as political power struggles between social groups defined by their control of property 5. Various ways in which class, identity, and local struggles intersect