Lecture Notes: Poverty and Wealth in Anthropology

Introduction

• Speaker: David Fazzino
• Course: Anthropology and World Problems, Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania
• Focus: Overview and history of economic thought related to poverty and wealth
• Key Questions:
  • How do we define poverty and wealth?
  • Should there be limits to poverty or wealth?
  • What are potential actions for distribution?
• Topics Mentioned:
  • Economic anthropology
  • Redistribution
  • Food security
  • Alf Hornberg's redistribution system

Part 1: History of Economic Thought

Pre-Adam Smith

• Key figures: Aristotle, Plato, Saint Thomas Aquinas
• Agriculture as a source of wealth
• Economy associated with household management
• Money viewed negatively
• Hierarchical societies with divine order

Adam Smith

• Known for 'The Wealth of Nations' (1776)
• Codification of capitalism
• Political economy: relationship between state and economy
• Importance of regulation: weights, measures, currency
• Utilitarian perspective: greatest good for majority
• Invisible Hand concept: market self-regulation

Other Influential Thinkers

• Francis Quesnay: Physiocrat, value in nature
• John Locke: Individualism, labor theory of value
• Bernard de Mandeville: Society functions like a beehive

Karl Marx

• Critique of capitalism
• Class conflict and worker exploitation
• Communist Manifesto
• Economic anthropology: understanding human nature, history, economics

Max Weber

• Protestant ethic and capitalism
• Wealth accumulation as a sign of divine favor
• Class, status, and party analysis
• Critique of Marx's economic determinism

Conclusions

• Discussion of early capitalist system underpinnings
• Understanding of wealth and poverty
• Broader cultural and global implications in contexts of globalization

Upcoming Topics (Part 2)

• Measures of wealth and poverty
• Human development index, Gini coefficient
• Absolute and relative deprivation
• Impact of Covid-19 on poverty
• Wealth aggregation in the U.S.
• Ethnographic examples of debt
• Neoliberalism and its impacts
• Social commentary on wealth disparities and Occupy Movement