The Modern System

1. 23 The Modern System Anthropology:The Exploration of Human Diversity 11th Edition Conrad Phillip Kottak

2. The Modern System • The Emergence of the World System • Industrialization • Stratification • The World System Today

3. The Emergence of the World System • World system and the relations among the countries within that system shaped by world capitalist economy • Modern world system—world in which nations are economically and politically interdependent

4. The Emergence of the World System • Modern word system • In 15th century Europe established regular contact with Asia, Africa, and eventually the New World Opened way for major exchange of people, resources, diseases, and ideas

5. The Emergence of the World System • Capitalist World Economy—single world system committed to production for sale or exchange, with the object of maximizing profits rather than supplying domestic needs • Capital—wealth or resources invested in business, with the intent of producing a profit • Wallerstein’s World System Theory

6. The Emergence of the World System • Wallerstein’s World System Theory • Capitalist World Economy • Core nations—strongest and most powerful nations in which technologically advanced, capital-intensive products are produced and exported to the semiperiphery and the periphery

7. The Emergence of the World System • Periphery nations—nations whose economic activities are less mechanized and primarily concerned with exporting raw materials and agricultural goods to core and semiperiphery nations • Wallerstein’s World System Theory • Capitalist World Economy • Semiperiphery nations—industrialized Third World nations that lack power and economic dominance of core nations

8. Industrialization • Industrial Revolution—historic transformation (in Europe, after 1750) of “traditional” into “modern” societies through industrialization of the economy European industrialization developed from domestic system of manufacture

9. Industrialization • Began in cotton production, iron, and potter trades • Widely used goods whose manufacture could be broken down into simple routine notions that machines could perform • Causes of the Industrial Revolution

10. Industrialization • The French did not have to transform domestic manufacturing system to increase production because it could draw on larger labor force • England already operating at maximum production so innovation was necessary to increase yields • Causes of the Industrial Revolution • Industrial Revolution began in England but not in France

11. Industrialization • Causes of the Industrial Revolution • Weber argued pervasiveness of Protestant beliefs contributed to spread and success of industrialization in England, while Catholicism inhibited industrialization in France

12. Industrialization • Location of England (United Kingdom) and France • Insert Figure 23.1

13. Stratification • Initially industrialization in England raised the overall standard of living • Industrial Stratification Factory owners soon began to recruit cheap labor from among the poorest populations.

14. Stratification • Bourgeoisie owned the means of production and promoted industrialization to maintain their position • Intensified dispossession of the workers • Process called proletarianization • Industrial Stratification • Marx saw trend as expression of fundamental capitalist opposition: bourgeoisie (capitalists) versus proletariat (propertyless workers)

15. Stratification • Developed model with three main factors contributing to socioeconomic stratification: wealth, power, and prestige • Industrial Stratification • Weber argued Marx’s model oversimplified

16. Stratification • Class consciousness (Marx) is recognition of commonalty of interest and identification with other members of one’s economic stratum

17. Stratification • The distinction, core-semiperiphery-periphery, used describe worldwide division of labor and capital ownership • With modification, recognized that combination of Marxian and Weberian models can describe modern capitalist world Growing middle class and existence of peripheries within core nations complicate issue beyond the vision of Marx or Weber

18. Stratification • To combat rural poverty, the Malaysian government encouraged large international companies to set up labor-intensive manufacturing operations in rural Malaysia • Factory life contrasts sharply with traditional customs of rural Malaysians • Asian Factory Women

19. Stratification • Severe contrasts between work conditions and culture of women generate alienation, which results in stress • Stress manifested as possession by weretigers, spirit possessions,which expresses the workers’ resistance, but it has effected little change in overall situation • Asian Factory Women • Aihwa Ong studied effect of work in Japanese electronics factories on Malaysian women employees

20. Stratification • Asian Factory Women • Aihwa Ong • Ong argues spirit possession is form of rebellion and resistance that enable factory women to avoid direct confrontation with source of distress Spirit possessions actually may help maintain current conditions by operating as safety valve for stress

21. Stratification • Most factory workers women between 15 and 18 years old • Female workers had to wear uniforms • Harsh physical conditions • Asian Factory Women • Nike relied heavily on Asian labor in Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Thailand, and Pakistan for shoe labor

22. Stratification • Asian Factory Women • Nike • Vietnamese workers adopted union tactics, including strikes, work stoppages, and slowdowns Managed to improve working conditions and salaries

23. Stratification • Location of Malaysia and Vietnam • Insert Figure 23.2

24. Stratification • Formalized inequalities have taken many forms, such as caste, slavery, and class systems • Open and Closed Class Systems

25. Stratification • South African apartheid comparable to caste system in that it was ascriptive and closed through law • Open and Closed Class Systems • Caste systems—closed, hereditary systems of stratification often dictated by religion Slavery—humans are treated as property—is most extreme form of legalized inequality

26. Stratification • Vertical mobility exists only in open class systems • Open class systems more commonly found in modern states than in archaic states • Open and Closed Class Systems • Vertical mobility—upward or downward change in a person’s status

27. The World System Today • World system theory argues present-day interconnectedness of the world generated global culture, wherein trends of complementarity and specialization manifested at international level

28. The World System Today • Imperialism—policy of extending rule of a nation or empire over foreign nations and of taking and holding foreign colonies • Colonialism—political, social, economic, and cultural domination of territory and its people by foreign power for extended period of time • Product of European imperialism and colonialism

29. The World System Today • The spread of industrialization and overconsumption takes place from core to periphery

30. The World System Today • The World System in 2000 • Insert Figure 23.4

31. The World System Today • Industrial Revolution greatly accelerated encompassment of world by states, all but eliminating previous cultural adaptations • Industrial Degradation Expansion of world system often accompanied by genocide, ethnocide, and ecocide