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-~~DECKJS~~
-# The moral economy #
-## The moral economy ##
-Ryan Schram
-Mills 169 (A26)
-ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
-Monday, August 22, 2016
-Available at: http://anthro.rschram.org/1002/5.1
-## Morality and self-interest ##
-One of the ways societies respond to market forces is by placing
-limits on individual choices
-* Wamira (Papua New Guinea) taro gardens can't be tended with metal
-  tools (Kahn 1986)
-* When Luo (Kenya) people sell land, they earn "bitter money" (Shipton
-)
-Market-driven societies also place some kind of moral limit on profit
-as well
-* Human tissue cannot be sold in Australia
-* Prostitution is illegal in the United States, except Nevada
-Certain kinds of value remain embedded in social relationships while
-other kinds are able to be commodified, bought and sold. Is M-C-M'
-itself immoral?
-## Fordist surveillance and moral proletarian resistance ##
-We can apply the same kind of thinking to the relationship of wage
-labor, which is based on exploitation. Workers often find ways to
-collectively resist the extraction of surplus value
-* Cleaning one's wool-spinning machine promptly at the end of a
-  shift - a clean machine usually doesn't get turned on again until
-  tomorrow (Shehata 2009, 68)
-* Breaking machine counters, which meant that operators and not
-  supervisors had to determine when a machine's spindles were
-  completely full and could be replaced (Shehata 2009, 69)
-Many of these and similar tactics were also used by workers in
-socialist firms so that they could subvert the control of managers.
-## A good work ethic ##
-Of course, from another perspective, resisting control of labor or
-limiting market forces are bad for moral reasons:
-* Peasants are lazy; they only produce what they need
-* Factory workers are irresponsible; they don't care if the compant
-  meets its quotas
-* Indigenous people are backward; they think their territory is more
-  valuable than having enough food.
-* Workers who "thief" time and material are stealing, and stealing is
-  immoral (Prentice 2015, 95)!
-Do mass production and production for the market have their own
-morality? Where does it come from?
-## Dichotomous thinking ##
-An either-or distinction is a dichotomy.
-An opposition between individual self-interest and the collective
-force of a social norm, like reciprocity, is one example of
-dichotomous classification.
-Many societies see their own involvement in markets in terms of this
-dichotomy. Their ideology focuses on the dilemma - a choice between
-opposed ends - posed by trading: Do I earn for myself or give help to
-my neighbors and kin?
-## On the black market ##
-During Papua New Guinea's colonial period, indigenous people were not
-allowed to buy alcohol. Homemade intoxicants, like gamada (kava), were
-also banned
-Liquor sales today require a license, which most people can't afford
-to get. Reselling liquor is still a pretty good way to make money.
-The government of Port Moresby recently banned chewing and selling
-betel nut in public. This cut off a steady source of income for many
-poor people.
-## Painim wok ##
-For a long time during the colonial period, indigenous people were not
-allowed to stay overnight in towns, unless they were formally employed
-by a white person, and then only in their *banis* (compound).
-People set up little settlements on the outskirts of towns, built
-their own houses where they could live and seek opportunities,
-including paid work.
-These settlements also became gateways to the city for other rural
-residents from the same places, or wantoks.
-This is not a clash of market principles and communal morality, but
-two different moral systems.
-## The informal sector ##
-* Illegal forms of trade: Liquor sales, gambling, counterfeit goods,
-  pirated movies
-* Illegal places of business: On the street, out of one's home
-* Outside of the banking system
-* Not subject to the moral requirements of kin and community either
-## References ##
-Kahn, Miriam. 1986. Always Hungry, Never Greedy: Food and the
-Expression of Gender in a Melanesian Society. Cambridge: Cambridge
-University Press.
-Prentice, Rebecca. 2015. "'Is We Own Factory:' Thiefing a Chance on
-the Shop Floor." In Thiefing a Chance: Factory Work, Illicit Labor,
-and Neoliberal Subjectivities in Trinidad, 87–110. Boulder, Colo.:
-University Press of Colorado.
-Shehata, Samer S. 2009. Shop Floor Culture and Politics in
-Egypt. Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press.
-Shipton, Parker. 1989. Bitter Money: Cultural Economy and Some African
-Meanings of Forbidden Commodities. Washington, D.C.: American
-Anthropological Association.
-## A guide to the unit ##
-{{page>1002guide}}

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