WEBVTT Kind: captions; language: en-us NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 79% (HØY) 00:00:01.299 --> 00:00:13.350 alright finally we're moving on to the text and the ideas of Anna Tsing now I want you to consider 00:00:13.350 --> 00:00:23.049 the Taussig text the devil and commodity fetishism as a bit of a heavy lifting and I think NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:00:23.049 --> 00:00:33.300 that we have to do some intellectual heavy lifting in order to get fit so consider that text 00:00:33.300 --> 00:00:42.200 as an exercise, I know that it's kind of a tough one but keep going read through it see what you get 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:49.349 from it pick up parts of the argument and remember that you are in a process of getting 00:00:49.349 --> 00:00:53.450 intellectually fit. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 86% (HØY) 00:00:53.450 --> 00:01:01.200 Just to recap the key argument for Taussig is that the devil worship that emerged in Latin America 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:07.700 was an expression of what it means to lose control over the means of production what it means to 00:01:07.700 --> 00:01:17.500 become a wage worker the devil in this sense dramatically represents 80 Nation people becoming alien 00:01:17.500 --> 00:01:23.300 to the products of their own labor and I'm just reminding you about this NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 87% (HØY) 00:01:23.300 --> 00:01:32.500 as a way to say that you can use this text to discuss others that we have on the syllabus what other 00:01:32.500 --> 00:01:42.400 texts we have discussing alienation markets disembedding well this should say ding ding ding in 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:43.700 your head NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 78% (HØY) 00:01:43.700 --> 00:01:55.200 alienation David Harvey his critique of Milton and Rose Friedman disembedding the work of Karl 00:01:55.200 --> 00:02:03.700 Polanyi, see if you could use this text and indeed any other text we're working on again as a 00:02:03.700 --> 00:02:12.800 way to create links on syllabus and as for this complicated term that we just 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:13.400 went through NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:02:13.400 --> 00:02:22.300 commodity fetishism if you struggle to understand it just remember every time you hear this 00:02:22.300 --> 00:02:27.200 word commodity fetishism think of your computer screen or another commodity that you have close to 00:02:27.200 --> 00:02:32.000 you and remember that you don't walk around and wonder about the human relationships that went into 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:37.900 producing this computer screen that you're looking at right now you know you know you're not walking around 00:02:37.900 --> 00:02:43.000 thinking about how are they doing these people in China who produce this technology who are they 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:43.500 what do they owe NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 75% (MEDIUM) 00:02:43.500 --> 00:02:46.200 you what do you owe them NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:02:46.200 --> 00:02:54.000 there's you don't think about all this because these very real human relationships that went into 00:02:54.000 --> 00:03:03.300 the commodity have been transformed through the commodity process into a relationship between things 00:03:03.300 --> 00:03:10.100 your money and the computer that moves across a counter. So human relationships have been 00:03:10.100 --> 00:03:11.700 transformed into NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:03:11.700 --> 00:03:17.250 relationship that seems to be only about things NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 64% (MEDIUM) 00:03:17.250 --> 00:03:20.500 this is commodity fetishism. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:03:20.700 --> 00:03:28.200 If Taussig I'm trying to help you out here with the Taussig text, if he is a bit 00:03:28.200 --> 00:03:36.900 of a heavy lifting on the syllabus, I want you to consider Tsing as your ethnographic 00:03:36.900 --> 00:03:43.800 treat for this week you should try to enjoy this text go along for the ride into the world 00:03:43.800 --> 00:03:46.350 that Anna Tsing describes NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:03:46.350 --> 00:03:51.050 okay so now we have this NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:03:51.050 --> 00:03:59.700 run down this distinction between gift exchange and commodity exchange and by the way isn't it kind 00:03:59.700 --> 00:04:05.500 of nice that some things are allowed to be binary NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:04:05.500 --> 00:04:15.399 in anthropology, you know we're always talking about how things are hybrid fluid non-binary here is 00:04:15.399 --> 00:04:21.050 a fundamental distinction in this course that I think holds something NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 70% (MEDIUM) 00:04:21.050 --> 00:04:23.300 Very true NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:04:23.400 --> 00:04:30.100 what Chris Gregory calls extremes on a continuum NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:04:30.700 --> 00:04:37.850 however things do get more interesting than just NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 76% (HØY) 00:04:37.850 --> 00:04:45.900 binary saying some certain things belonging this category other things belong in that category it's 00:04:45.900 --> 00:04:52.800 more interesting than that because you could you could on the one hand think that we could use this 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:58.800 distinction between gifts and commodity to organise the world around us everything in the world into 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:01.300 two categories let's say NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 74% (MEDIUM) 00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:06.100 coffee belongs here NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:05:06.100 --> 00:05:13.900 love marriage belongs here in the gift category NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:05:15.700 --> 00:05:24.000 in other words we could ask if this conceptual distinction between gifts and commodities translates 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:31.500 into a material distinction a categorisation of things in the world NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:42.500 no this is not the case. Okay so this is a conceptual distinction that is not translatable into NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:51.000 material distinction in the world in other words we cannot know if a cup of coffee is a gift or a 00:05:51.000 --> 00:06:01.200 commodity without knowing something about this social context about history study it in its NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 88% (HØY) 00:06:01.200 --> 00:06:06.100 form in real everyday life. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:06:06.900 --> 00:06:15.200 This fluidity of the gifts and the commodity form is something that Chris Gregory 00:06:15.200 --> 00:06:22.700 alerts us to already in his own opening chapter saying the gifts and commodities come in and out of 00:06:22.700 --> 00:06:29.000 being they can shift they transform and remember this is the work that goes into distinguishing all 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:36.100 the time what mode are we in now are we doing gift exchange or are we in commodity mode NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:06:36.500 --> 00:06:43.200 this is what the dialogue between Corleone and Bonasera is bout NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:53.800 and the cup of coffee that I have here in my left hand can be a commodity in one instance NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:06:53.800 --> 00:07:03.900 I get let's say the porcelain of the coffee cup in a convenience store I get the coffee beans I 00:07:03.900 --> 00:07:10.200 purchased them over counter and then I turn it into a gift NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 82% (HØY) 00:07:10.200 --> 00:07:18.900 by making it in my kitchen, giving it to someone who comes to visit saying certain things NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:07:18.900 --> 00:07:23.549 assuming certain things about our relation NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:07:23.549 --> 00:07:26.800 creating a debt NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 81% (HØY) 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:37.400 that potentially can make Vito Corleone and his goons break the kneecaps of my enemies when they've 00:07:37.400 --> 00:07:40.800 done me an injustice NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:46.200 when they when they molested my daughter or what have you. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 89% (HØY) 00:07:46.400 --> 00:07:54.799 So gifts and commodities can come in and out of being. Tsing alerts us to the same thing NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 87% (HØY) 00:07:54.799 --> 00:08:01.400 gifts and commodities do not stay gifts and commodities forever there's a dynamic relationship 00:08:01.400 --> 00:08:03.000 between them NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:15.650 and her empirical study is of the Matsutake mushroom and how that journeys NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:08:15.650 --> 00:08:25.600 between these distinctions between the gift logic and the commodity logic, how it turns into a 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:40.250 commodity and returns to being a gift in a value chain that stretches from Oregon United States to Japan 00:08:40.250 --> 00:08:42.700 across the other side of the world. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:08:43.500 --> 00:08:46.000 so NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 73% (MEDIUM) 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:57.500 Tsing's question is or her assertion is that NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 74% (MEDIUM) 00:08:58.100 --> 00:09:05.200 capitalist value is made through gifts that is the NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 77% (HØY) 00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:18.400 title of her piece capitalist value is made through gifts what does she mean by that NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 86% (HØY) 00:09:18.600 --> 00:09:32.700 let's follow the empirical case that she is laying out for us here, let's see what her case study is. 00:09:32.700 --> 00:09:40.900 Tsing is a part of this research project that follows and studies matsutake mushroom commodity 00:09:40.900 --> 00:09:48.350 chain this is a mushroom that grows in certain forests in the United States and I thought we would NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:09:48.350 --> 00:10:01.650 have a look at what it looks like when people pick it and how they talk and and how they go about as 00:10:01.650 --> 00:10:09.800 they said pick these mushrooms up from the ground and set it off on this journey that Anna Tsing NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:10:10.900 --> 00:10:19.100 researchers and turns into an anthropological argument so let's hear from these mushroom pickers for 00:10:19.100 --> 00:10:20.900 just a minute. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 74% (MEDIUM) 00:10:23.700 --> 00:10:28.100 There it is NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 72% (MEDIUM) 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:35.250 so you just kind of have to keep open the area if you walk by these two probably three or four times 00:10:35.250 --> 00:10:43.200 and missed them till I was just coming back now when you found that big flag all right here we are 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:48.900 we just made it out of the woods about four o'clock and we had a great day, the weather has been 00:10:48.900 --> 00:10:54.900 fantastic and we found a good amount of Matsutake mushrooms between the two of us along with other mushrooms 00:10:54.900 --> 00:11:00.400 we're going to take these on down to the wire and whatever ones aren't market we will take home. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 77% (HØY) 00:11:00.400 --> 00:11:07.700 Be sure to check out the story Outdoor Adventure Journal.com where the adventure is yours. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 71% (MEDIUM) 00:11:08.800 --> 00:11:11.500 all right NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:11:15.700 --> 00:11:18.000 so NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:21.900 there's the NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 86% (HØY) 00:11:22.100 --> 00:11:30.400 stuff Anna Tsing is writing about is interesting because it is a value chain it is a 00:11:30.400 --> 00:11:44.500 chain of calculus value production that starts in these forests where pickers who are not employed 00:11:44.500 --> 00:11:52.450 by anyone they are not wage workers they come to the forest NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:11:52.450 --> 00:11:57.200 to find these mushrooms NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:11:57.200 --> 00:12:09.250 and Tsing says that the first stage of the Journey of the matsutake mushroom is a freedom project 00:12:09.250 --> 00:12:16.100 many of these who come to pick mushrooms in the forest she says live out their traumas in the forest 00:12:16.100 --> 00:12:24.500 and even though you don't hear that in the tape that we just saw you heard how this is 00:12:24.500 --> 00:12:27.550 about having an outdoor experience NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:12:27.550 --> 00:12:32.900 how it is about being yourself in wilderness NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 88% (HØY) 00:12:34.100 --> 00:12:44.100 doing stuff that you want to, giving you something beyond a salary beyond the wage even though that 00:12:44.100 --> 00:12:54.600 is part of the the motivation and they could work in Walmart they could go find a job at a 00:12:54.600 --> 00:13:02.300 gas station but nonetheless they are out here in the forest picking NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 82% (HØY) 00:13:02.700 --> 00:13:12.600 because they want to because they are considering themselves drawn to what the forest has to offer 00:13:12.600 --> 00:13:20.750 the matsutake hunts and so they interpret their own hunt their own labor in something else in it 00:13:20.750 --> 00:13:22.750 than a commodity logic NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 74% (MEDIUM) 00:13:22.750 --> 00:13:31.700 Tsing says it is a freedom project and Vietnamese immigrants are also among these pickers talking 00:13:31.700 --> 00:13:42.450 about how the the pick and the participation and in the sale to buyers NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:13:42.450 --> 00:13:46.700 allows them to participate in the free market NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:13:46.700 --> 00:13:53.099 the different kind of a freedom project that Tsing interprets as NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 67% (MEDIUM) 00:13:53.099 --> 00:13:55.800 the gift logic NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 77% (HØY) 00:13:55.800 --> 00:14:06.300 so it starts out these the journey of these mushrooms they start out as being part of people's NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 81% (HØY) 00:14:07.300 --> 00:14:20.200 willingness to go into the forest and find them based on different kind of logic than the what you 00:14:20.200 --> 00:14:27.600 would have if it were a wage labor relationship and that is the key here for the first stage of the 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:29.400 mushroom hunt.