WEBVTT Kind: captions; language: en-us NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 88% (HØY) 00:00:01.400 --> 00:00:10.400 then Tsing notices something that catches her attention something she considers curious these 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:20.200 mushrooms get sorted again and again after they are picked they get sorted to produce different 00:00:20.200 --> 00:00:29.900 grades of quality to produce different categories of mushroom but there seems to be a surplus NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 82% (HØY) 00:00:29.900 --> 00:00:38.900 of sorting out these mushrooms why is it that they are sorted again and again when they are leaving 00:00:38.900 --> 00:00:45.800 the hands of the pickers to the first buyers in the parking lots or in places outside the forest and 00:00:45.800 --> 00:00:55.200 they're sort of again and outside the warehouses she interprets this sorting and resorting of the 00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:59.900 mushrooms as the work that goes into trans- NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:00:59.900 --> 00:01:06.500 forming these mushrooms from gifts to commodities NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:01:07.100 --> 00:01:15.200 they are separated from people we could say Polanyi does not feature in Tsing text but he is 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:21.300 in the background here, being disembedded from NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:01:22.600 --> 00:01:34.500 the people who pick them from The Social Network social relationships that created them and they are 00:01:34.500 --> 00:01:40.000 sorted by people who care less and less about the mushrooms who know less and less about the story of 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:51.000 the mushrooms and in sorting them they get separated from the mushroom hunters they 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.150 are no longer trophies and NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 81% (HØY) 00:01:53.150 --> 00:01:57.450 parts of this freedom project NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:01:57.450 --> 00:02:01.700 they get ready for export NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:02:01.700 --> 00:02:04.550 as commodities NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 89% (HØY) 00:02:04.550 --> 00:02:11.500 Tsing says that the Sorting of the mushrooms disengages the mushrooms it breaks their social ties 00:02:11.500 --> 00:02:20.300 thus transforming the mushrooms into Commodities in the belly of an airplane headed for Japan NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:02:21.200 --> 00:02:23.550 so NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 75% (MEDIUM) 00:02:23.550 --> 00:02:27.900 she keeps following this commodity chain NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 86% (HØY) 00:02:27.900 --> 00:02:30.850 further to Japan NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:02:30.850 --> 00:02:39.500 once they're sorted out they're shipped to Japan they get sorted again for and categorise them for 00:02:39.500 --> 00:02:48.300 different markets some of the poorer quality mushrooms get turned into frozen products and some are 00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:54.300 shipped to China some are picked again by NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 80% (HØY) 00:02:54.300 --> 00:03:04.200 knowledgeable specialists intermediaries who shipped them and whose job it is to NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:03:05.200 --> 00:03:15.000 connect the highest quality mushrooms to certain gift stores or certain delicacy stores or 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:18.750 even certain top-notch restaurants NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:03:18.750 --> 00:03:34.850 and you see then in this third stage of chain in Japan how the sorting re-imbues the mushrooms with 00:03:34.850 --> 00:03:37.450 history with personality NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 88% (HØY) 00:03:37.450 --> 00:03:47.850 the history of the buyers are specialists the intermediary specialists that creates value that 00:03:47.850 --> 00:04:04.200 turns these mushrooms back into gifts they emerge in gift stores wrapped in nice paper sold for high 00:04:04.200 --> 00:04:06.950 prices fresh goods NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:04:06.950 --> 00:04:10.450 and they again NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:04:10.450 --> 00:04:13.450 take on this quality NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:04:13.450 --> 00:04:20.350 that allows them to create personal relationships this is the NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 81% (HØY) 00:04:20.350 --> 00:04:28.300 what we expect from gifts having read Mauss right, so on arrival in Japan the mushrooms are 00:04:28.300 --> 00:04:32.300 transformed back into gifts NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:04:32.700 --> 00:04:35.900 fascinating stuff. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 88% (HØY) 00:04:36.400 --> 00:04:52.000 What can we learn from this story and from these empirical examples in general? Anna Tsing 00:04:52.000 --> 00:05:00.900 is making a case both about what is happening with the matsutake mushroom but more importantly also 00:05:00.900 --> 00:05:03.100 about capitalism NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 81% (HØY) 00:05:04.400 --> 00:05:13.900 she again returns to the title of her piece capitalist value is made through gifts. How 00:05:13.900 --> 00:05:21.950 do we understand that? first it's obvious now if we thought otherwise now we are cured of that 00:05:21.950 --> 00:05:30.500 misconception that all commodities come in and out of commodification there's no such thing as a NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 78% (HØY) 00:05:30.500 --> 00:05:40.100 as a gift or a commodity that stays gift or a commodity forever or that belongs to that either 00:05:40.100 --> 00:05:45.250 of those categories forever. This is a dynamic NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 73% (MEDIUM) 00:05:45.250 --> 00:05:53.700 process that is an interesting and possible to study as anthropologists NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:05:53.700 --> 00:05:56.500 and NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 76% (HØY) 00:05:57.400 --> 00:06:07.300 they're hybrids we could say, some commodities also can retain certain gift qualities you can think 00:06:07.300 --> 00:06:13.800 and I've been thinking about these mittens that we've been talking about that these beggars 00:06:13.800 --> 00:06:23.200 knit outside grocery stores and sell to the people who pass by in a sense that is a commodity right 00:06:23.200 --> 00:06:28.100 there's a commodity exchange that is part of a why they choose NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:06:28.100 --> 00:06:34.900 to start to sell products instead of asking for gifts they want the same thing but 00:06:34.900 --> 00:06:45.299 they're taking the detour into commodity production in order to get money from people who pass by 00:06:45.299 --> 00:06:52.000 Beggars they want to give them something it's more comfortable for the givers to buy the commodity 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:58.000 than it is to give a gift to this person we've been talking about this a few times but still these mittens NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 83% (HØY) 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:07.350 that the beggars knit or the magazines that you buy from drug addicts they are nonetheless 00:07:07.350 --> 00:07:19.700 very good candidates for gift exchange they have certain part of the producer in themselves at least 00:07:19.700 --> 00:07:25.000 when it comes to the mittens, you see the person sitting there knitting and NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:07:26.100 --> 00:07:33.600 you can imagine when giving this away as a gift there's a story that you could tell I met this woman 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:43.299 outside kiwi we engaged in a commodity exchange but nonetheless the commodity that you got had some 00:07:43.299 --> 00:07:46.600 gift qualities NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:07:46.600 --> 00:07:53.400 it lends itself easily to being a gift it has both the gift and the commodity 00:07:53.400 --> 00:07:59.750 logic within itself so this is just to say that you know take away pointers that you know there's a 00:07:59.750 --> 00:08:05.350 fundamental distinction between gifts and commodities but all commodities NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:08:05.350 --> 00:08:08.250 and potentially also gifts NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:08:08.250 --> 00:08:10.800 come in and out of NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 80% (HØY) 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:20.100 their own category, things move across categories and there's work that goes into finding and 00:08:20.100 --> 00:08:27.600 creating gifts that separates from commodities as separate from gifts NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:08:28.500 --> 00:08:40.400 A second important general point that Anna Tsing puts forward based 00:08:40.400 --> 00:08:47.600 on this. Capitalism requires non-capitalist social relations to accomplish its goals what does she 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:53.900 mean that by that? Capitalist value creation springs out of non capitalist relations and this is 00:08:53.900 --> 00:08:58.600 basically the same point that Polanyi is making in that NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:08:58.600 --> 00:09:06.000 you could say Taussig is making in very different ways but still the basic truth is the same. To 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:12.400 understand what she means by this let's consider the cup of coffee I have next to me here 00:09:12.400 --> 00:09:21.100 this is a commodity that I bought in a grocery store I went to a corporation that's called Friele or 00:09:21.100 --> 00:09:28.849 whatever and it made someone a bit richer the owners of the means of production Friele NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:09:28.849 --> 00:09:39.100 or whoever shareholder in that company, but Tsing says that if you go back in the 00:09:39.100 --> 00:09:48.200 value chain at some point someone had to give something that was not a commodity up in order to 00:09:48.200 --> 00:09:55.350 produce this value, someone let's say in the countryside in Guatemala who gave their labor 00:09:55.350 --> 00:09:58.900 something their labor being not a commodity NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 69% (MEDIUM) 00:09:58.900 --> 00:10:05.100 but a part of yourself NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:10:05.100 --> 00:10:15.300 your time your your efforts your physical strength someone had to give up this and invest it into 00:10:15.300 --> 00:10:25.700 a machine or a plantation in order to produce capitalist value so there is a gift exchange there's a 00:10:25.700 --> 00:10:33.100 gift being given one individual coffee pickers sweat NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 78% (HØY) 00:10:34.400 --> 00:10:42.900 In order for capitalist value to be produced there's also a piece of the land that has been turned 00:10:42.900 --> 00:10:49.500 into a commodity again land not being a commodity land being a fictitious commodity if we follow 00:10:49.500 --> 00:10:57.500 Polanyi and it is turned into private property into a commodity in order for some NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 88% (HØY) 00:10:57.500 --> 00:11:06.900 company to produce coffee on it produce a surplus transfer coffee beans to Norway NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:10.800 inserted into the market NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 79% (HØY) 00:11:10.800 --> 00:11:18.800 put it on the grocery store shelf where I came in and bought it. So capitalism requires non-capital 00:11:18.800 --> 00:11:24.800 social relations to accomplish its goals the matsutake mushroom starts off as a freedom project 00:11:24.800 --> 00:11:34.900 starts off as a hunt that follows gift logic and is transformed into a commodity NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 87% (HØY) 00:11:34.900 --> 00:11:41.000 as part of its capitalist value production says NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 71% (MEDIUM) 00:11:42.900 --> 00:11:45.300 Tsing NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 78% (HØY) 00:11:46.200 --> 00:11:54.200 and this is perhaps a good point on which to end that in order to understand how this function how 00:11:54.200 --> 00:12:03.300 all commodities come in and out of commodification and how capitalist value production relies on non 00:12:03.300 --> 00:12:11.400 capitalist relations in order to understand this we shouldn't look at this list that we grew up of 00:12:11.400 --> 00:12:15.000 gifts and commodities as NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 82% (HØY) 00:12:15.500 --> 00:12:22.200 Eternal we shouldn't get tempted into thinking that there once and for all such a thing as gifts and 00:12:22.200 --> 00:12:27.800 Commodities and that our job as researchers to kind of sort the world into either of the two boxes 00:12:27.800 --> 00:12:33.900 no we need to understand that gifts and commodities in the gift logic and the commodity logic is a 00:12:33.900 --> 00:12:41.900 dynamic process things come in and out of being. Gifts can be gifts in one context in turning to 00:12:41.900 --> 00:12:45.450 Commodities in another etc. there are gray zones NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 73% (MEDIUM) 00:12:45.450 --> 00:12:56.200 This shift is what Tsing is studying and yet I think we could end by saying 00:12:56.200 --> 00:13:02.000 that the distinction still holds, the distinction between the gift and commodity that is what we've 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:11.100 been talking about since Mauss we've been talking about it this whole lecture NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:13:11.100 --> 00:13:17.900 that this distinction is still a fundamental one the conceptual distinction that people struggle 00:13:17.900 --> 00:13:23.900 with it's one that people struggle with and make sense of anywhere in the world are we in Kula now 00:13:23.900 --> 00:13:32.650 or are we doing Gimwali should I expect you to break the knee cap of my enemies because my 00:13:32.650 --> 00:13:39.600 wife was invited to coffee at your place or do you want me to do it because you gave me $10,000 how 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:41.500 do I feel about that NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 89% (HØY) 00:13:41.500 --> 00:13:50.600 is it right or is it wrong to be in either of these modes of exchange there again we return to the 00:13:50.600 --> 00:14:01.250 Morality in the economy a topic that will keep exploring directly with the term the moral economy 00:14:01.250 --> 00:14:09.500 for next week, but for now just remember that if there's a fundamental distinction that people 00:14:09.500 --> 00:14:11.050 struggle with and make sense of anywhere NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 78% (HØY) 00:14:11.050 --> 00:14:19.450 between gifts logic and commodity logic and if you understand this 00:14:19.450 --> 00:14:25.300 distinction the struggle you stand in fact a better chance of understanding NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 80% (HØY) 00:14:25.300 --> 00:14:33.100 More of what it means to be human anywhere because the distinction between gifts and commodities at 00:14:33.100 --> 00:14:37.150 the end of the day is part of the human condition NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 81% (HØY) 00:14:37.150 --> 00:14:47.200 I think we can say it as universal as that. That is why gifts and commodities can be quite exciting to 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:57.400 study and to discuss and to draw in and tend to see its relevance for your own life as I hope you 00:14:57.400 --> 00:15:07.350 will in the seminars in discussions with your co-students or with anyone else NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:15:07.350 --> 00:15:16.450 who take you out for a beer and try to say that it's just a NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:15:16.450 --> 00:15:23.650 gift or don't worry about it that will make you feel uncomfortable in certain times or 00:15:23.650 --> 00:15:30.300 make you feel comfortable and you would want that type of gift exchange in other settings now I hope 00:15:30.300 --> 00:15:44.100 you have some intellectual means to make sense of these questions and if you do not fully have that 00:15:44.100 --> 00:15:46.700 yet then don't worry the seminars NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 60% (MEDIUM) 00:15:46.700 --> 00:15:50.400 they're coming up and we are just getting started