A Critique of Ty's Post on Marxism

In anthropological theory the concept of Marxism is a philosophical one used to analyze human history, societies, and cultures. The analysis is based on the assumption that class struggles and the manipulation of labor is the driving force for all of these human activities. Instead of applying these ideas to anthropological theory Ty established an anti-Marxism post focused on why there is no room for Marxist thought in today’s society. I believe that Ty was very enthusiastic in his post but he is missing the point on how Marxism relates to the way anthropologists theorize on human activity.  I would like to build on Ty’s post, mainly to discuss the analytical tool that is Marxism and how it can help all sub-fields of anthropology draw conclusions in their research.

My favorite sub-field of anthropology is archaeology, and although archaeologists theorize on past peoples and cultures, Marxist thought can offer an explanation on why we see the evidence we see in the archaeological record. My favorite example of Marxist archaeology has to be the phenomenon we see with the Chumash people on the pacific coast. From the archaeological record we see a high rate of specialization in chert blades on one island just off the coast and shell bead construction on another island nearby. There is too much construction going on in these respective locations to only belong to these people. In fact, there is evidence found on the mainland that these very blades and beads were used as luxury goods by the past mainland inhabitants.

There is limited evidence to suggest a concrete explanation on why there was such an effort to construct luxury goods for others, and that is where theory comes in. Now of course there are hundreds of theories on how this could have happened, but the most plausible explanation is a result from applying Marxist theory. According to this theory people on the mainland manipulated the mass luxury good constructions by controlling the amount of food they traded with the islanders. The mainlanders were secure in their food production but the islanders found hard times when their limited land offered limited food.

By taking Marx’s ideas on understanding class struggles and labor manipulation, anthropologists are able to explain a phenomenon that offered little explanation in the archaeological record. In this matter it is a valuable tool for explanation.