Confronting Capital: Critique and Engagement in Anthropology

281 Pages·2012·1.62 MB·English

by  Pauline Gardiner Barber

Confronting Capital
Routledge Studies in Anthropology
1 Student Mobility and Narrative
in Europe
The New Strangers
Elizabeth Murphy-Lejeune
2 The Question of the Gift
Essays across Disciplines
Edited by Mark Osteen
3 Decolonising Indigenous Rights
Edited by Adolfo de Oliveira
4 Traveling Spirits
Migrants, Markets and Mobilities
Edited by Gertrud Hüwelmeier
and Kristine Krause
5 Anthropologists, Indigenous
Scholars and the Research
Endeavour
Seeking Bridges Towards
Mutual Respect
Edited by Joy Hendry and
Laara Fitznor
6 Confronting Capital
Critique and Engagement in
Anthropology
Edited by Pauline Gardiner
Barber, Belinda Leach and
Winnie Lem
Confronting Capital
Critique and Engagement in Anthropology
Edited by
Pauline Gardiner Barber,
Belinda Leach and
Winnie Lem
NEW YORK LONDON
First published 2012
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2012 Taylor & Francis
The right of Pauline Gardiner Barber, Belinda Leach and Winnie Lem to
be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for
their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Confronting capital : critique and engagement in anthropology / edited by
Pauline Gardiner Barber, Belinda Leach and Winnie Lem. — 1st ed.
p. cm. — (Routledge studies in anthropology ; 6)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Marxist anthropology. 2. Political anthropology. I. Barber,
Pauline Gardiner II. Leach, Belinda, 1954– III. Lem, Winnie.
GN345.15.C66 2012
306.2—dc23
2012002883
ISBN13: 978-0-415-89629-0 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-10632-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by IBT Global.
This book is dedicated to the memory of
Krystyna Sieciechowicz

Contents
Acknowledgements xi
1 Introduction: Confronting Anthropology—The Critical Enquiry
of Capitalism 1
PAULINE GARDINER BARBER, BELINDA LEACH AND WINNIE LEM
PART I
Politics
2 Making Connections: The Politics of Intellectual Labor in
Colombia 17
LESLEY GILL
3 Security Anthropology and Northern Morazán, El Salvador:
Confronting the Present There and Elsewhere 36
LEIGH BINFORD
4 Eff ective Politics: Band Elections and Decision Making in a
Northern Onario Anishnaabek Community 53
KRYSTYNA SIECIECHOWICZ
5 The Soviet Revenge: How the Unrecognized Soviet-Style
Mechanisms of Contemporary Finance Capitalism Cause
Social Crisis and Catastrophe in the West 76
DON KALB AND OANE VISSER
viii Contents
PART II
Histories
6 To Die in the Silence of History: Tuberculosis Epidemics and
Yup’ik Peoples of Southwestern Alaska 97
LINDA GREEN
7 Not the Same Old Stories: Labor Anthropology, Vulnerabilities,
and Solidarity Struggles 113
BELINDA LEACH
8 Native Livelihoods and Capital Punishment in the Carolinas
and Labrador 130
GERALD SIDER
9 “They Say We Aren’t From Around Here”: The Production
of Culture Among a Displaced People 147
GASTÓN GORDILLO
PART III
Livelihoods
10 Global Connections and Disconnections: Space and Labor in
Mumbai’s Slums 163
JUDITH WHITEHEAD
11 Ghostly Figures Outside the Domain of Political Economy:
Class Analysis and the Invisiblized Livelihoods of an Andean
Export Zone 187
CHRISTOPHER KRUPA
12 Humanitarian to Livelihood Approaches: A View from the
Dadaab Refugee Camps in Kenya 208
WENONA GILES
13 Gender Mainstreaming and Market Fundamentalism in
Rural Yucatán, Mexico 222
MARIE FRANCE LABRECQUE
Contents ix
14 Alternatives to Expanded Accumulation and the
Anthropological Imagination: Turning Necessity into
a Challenge to Capitalism? 239
SUSANA NAROTZKY
15 Afterword: In Defense of Historical Realist Anthropology 253
GAVIN SMITH
Contributors 259
Index 265