[Marxism] Translation (Cuba): Guidelines debate 16, Health/Sport
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To receive email updates or feeds click link above Support this blog http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/p/support-this-blog.html Here is Part 16 of my translation of the booklet Information on the results of the Debate on the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines for the Party and the Revolution, an explanatory document published together with the final version of the Guidelines adopted by the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) Congress in April. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/08/translation-guidelines-debate-16.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Private lives of the bourgeoisie
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/loved_he_just_him_then_snapped_bwvvcdLFz7YAv2qLBIleQK Soros' jilted ex on their 5-year affair and his sudden change of heart By EMILY SMITH Happy Birthday, Georgie! As baggy-eyed billionaire George Soros celebrated his 81st birthday yesterday, his 28-year-old bombshell Brazilian ex-lover revealed in an exclusive interview with The Post all the seamy details of the pair's oddball, five-year relationship -- from their romantic first dates to their pillow talks, to how she discovered he was cheating with his traveling nurse. For five years, he was my boyfriend. He was respectful and loveable. Then, suddenly, he changed and became cruel. I don't know why he would do this to me, wept spurned Latin lovely Adrianna Ferreyr. Ferreyr -- who is suing Soros for $50 million in Manhattan court -- said that before their relationship went south, she and the mogul were as normal as any other couple, despite their 53-year age gap. He treated me with a lot of respect, she said. When we first started dating, I would see him every weekend at his house in Bedford. He was very nice, very sweet, very loveable . . . We traveled and went to St. Bart's. As far as I was concerned, this was a proper, loving, committed relationship. He introduced me to people as his girlfriend after a year. We attended events. I met his friends. I met his business associates. Ferreyr said that if other people had problems with their age difference, she didn't. Some people don't understand the age difference, but for me, it wasn't a problem, she said. I wouldn't go out with a muscular guy who has tattoos, but I wouldn't call other people strange because they have different taste than me. He is a likeable person. He is outspoken, she said of the famously lefty Soros. I spent a lot of time with him, and I had a lot of feelings for him. Still, despite his estimated $14.5 billion worth, he's a real cheapskate, she conceded. During the first three years of our relationship, he gave me nothing, not even a birthday present. Nothing, she said. After the three years, he gave me some expense money, but that was it. He never paid my rent or gave me an allowance. A former soap-opera star in her native Brazil, Ferreyr refused to discuss the pair's sex life, saying only, We had a happy, normal relationship. For the entire five years of our relationship, I was monogamous, she said. He knew it was monogamous, and he made sure I was monogamous. I was hoping that we would settle down. We couldn't have children because of his age, but I hoped there would be a future for us. The pair was committed enough that Soros agreed to allow her to shop for her own Manhattan apartment, she said. She found the perfect place -- a $1.9 million condo at 30 E. 85th St. -- and Soros agreed to pony up for it, she said. I did a lot of research on it. I made sure it was a good investment, Ferreyr told The Post. I explained to him what good a deal it was, why I loved it, why it would be a great place to live. It was two blocks from his apartment. He told me, 'I am going to buy it. I am going to do this for you,' she said. Then, the curvy cutie said, the day after they signed for the pad in December, he blindsided her. We were in bed, and he just replied coldly and bluntly that he had given [the apartment] to his other girlfriend, Ferreyr recalled. I got emotional and cried . . . He just said, 'I don't care.' I was in bed with him. It was horrifying for me. Even then, Ferreyr said, the worst was yet to come. As she tried to reason with him, he physically attacked her, slapping her, choking her and tossing a lamp at her, she said. He just snapped. I had never seen him like that before. I was afraid, she said. The teary-eyed temptress said it was then that she realized their relationship was over -- and that she had been ditched. The other woman was another pretty brunette, Tamiko Bolton, 39, whom Soros traveled with and described as his nurse. Before that night, he told me he wasn't involved romantically with her, that she just was a travel companion and was just like a nurse for him, Ferreyr recalled. I wanted to believe it, and that is why it was very, very hurtful when he gave her the apartment and said she was his girlfriend. He had told me, 'She [is] like a butler. She is like a nurse to me. She is a companion . . . I am not sexually involved with her. I am not attracted to her. I prefer to be with you, but you are in school [at Columbia] so I don't travel with you,' Ferreyr said. Then, he gave her my dream apartment. I was completely heartbroken, she said. But Ferreyr said Soros still wouldn't let her go. In the ensuing
[Marxism] A successful Turkish workers struggle in Ireland
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[Marxism] British government turns to progressive American cop
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The New York Times August 12, 2011 Britain Turns to Former New York and Los Angeles Police Official for Help By AL BAKER William J. Bratton, who was heralded as a crime-fighter after taming New York City’s rampant violence in the mid-1990s, has now been summoned to London to help salvage a British police force that has been bruised and maligned following days of rioting, deaths and arson fires. In an interview on Friday, Mr. Bratton said Prime Minister David Cameron called him hours earlier to discuss working as a consultant on a policing strategy to respond to the violence that convulsed London and several other cities and that the police there had struggled to contain. While the details of Mr. Bratton’s role, including what kind of authority he would have, are just beginning to be negotiated, Mr. Bratton offered an overview of the kind of tactics that might be employed to quell any further unrest and to rebuild the police force’s reputation, which has been badly damaged in the wake of the newspaper scandal over the hacking of cellphone messages. A focus of Mr. Cameron’s interest in him, Mr. Bratton said, is addressing how to take aim at the street gangs that law enforcement officials and others believe are playing a critical role in fomenting or engaging in the violence that began in north London a week ago and has led to hundreds of arrests and several deaths. “What they are looking for, from me, is the idea of, what has been the American experience in dealing with the gang problem and, what has worked for us and not worked for us and how that can be applied,” Mr. Bratton said. Mr. Bratton, a leading figure in urban crime-fighting tactics, is an advocate of so-called community policing, an approach grounded in the idea of flooding streets with officers who are immersed in people’s daily lives rather than using them simply to react or respond to specific events. “You can’t just arrest your way out of the problem,” he said. “It’s going to require a lot of intervention and prevention strategies and techniques.” --- New York Times August 12, 2011 In Los Angeles, a Police Force Transformed By ADAM NAGOURNEY LOS ANGELES — It had all the makings of another turbulent moment for the Los Angeles Police Department, an agency once notorious for an “L.A. Confidential” style of heavy-handed policing, hostile relations with minorities and corruption. Two months after triumphantly announcing the arrest of a suspect in a brutal beating at Dodger Stadium, the police admitted that they had arrested the wrong man, and charged two other people with the crime. But unlike other potentially explosive episodes that have rocked this department over the decades, there were no indignant denials or attacks on critics. Instead, the police chief, Charlie Beck, wrote an op-ed article in The Los Angeles Times explaining what had gone wrong and expressing regret at some of his own public comments. “We can do much better,” Chief Beck wrote. The moment reflected what has been a revolution for the police department that was once the model for Sgt. Joe Friday and “Dragnet.” Twenty years after the police beating of Rodney King was caught on videotape, and 10 years after the Justice Department imposed a consent decree to battle pervasive corruption in the Rampart Division, this has become a department transformed, offering itself up — in a way that not so many years ago would have been unthinkable — as a model police agency for the United States. “It’s been an amazing transformation,” said John W. Mack, a former head of the Urban League who is the president of the Police Commission, the civilian board that oversees the force. “The L.A.P.D. of today is very, very different than 10, 12 years ago, when I was one of the people who was constantly battling them.” --- http://www2.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle Community outrage grows with latest LAPD murder Thursday, September 1, 2005 By: Carlos Alvarez A 19-month-old victim Lorena López, mother of Suzie Marie Peña On July 10, 19-month-old Suzie Marie Peña was shot in the head after a nearly three-hour standoff between her father, José Raul Peña, and the notorious Los Angeles Police Department. The incident was caught by nine cameras recording a total of 27 hours of footage. Supposedly, none of this footage documented the murders of the little girl or her father. Jose Peña had picked up his daughter from her mother’s home that morning to take her to his car dealership, in what Lorena López, Suzie’s mother, called “a daily routine.” A few minutes later, Lorena heard gunshots and ran to the car lot. She cried out to the cops on the scene, “Don’t shoot, my baby’s there, my baby, my baby, my baby.”
[Marxism] london
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This interview is with a couple syndicalists who work and organize in London and its burbs ron jacobs http://stillhomeron.blogspot.com/2011/08/londons-melted-furnace-britain-in.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] The marginalized of the margins
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://revolutionaryfesenjan.blogspot.com/2011/08/if-abdolreza-was-joe-and-ghanbari-was.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Russell Brand on the British riots
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I never in a million years thought I'd be listening seriously to Russell Brand. But here you go! A fascinating and insightful article. A few quotes before the link: ?If we don't want our young people to tear apart our communities then don't let people in power tear apart the values that hold our communities together. ?Why am I surprised that these young people behave destructively, mindlessly, motivated only by self-interest? How should we describe the actions of the city bankers who brought our economy to its knees in 2010? Altruistic? Mindful? Kind? But then again, they do wear suits, so they deserve to be bailed out, perhaps that's why not one of them has been imprisoned. And they got away with a lot more than a few fucking pairs of trainers. Politicians don't represent the interests of people who don't vote. They barely care about the people who do vote. They look after the corporations who get them elected. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/11/london-riots-davidcameron Eli Stephens Left I on the News http://lefti.blogspot.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Whites have become Bllack: BBC racism vs explosion
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == What Fred's talking about is the most positive aspect of the call for whites to, in practice, repudiate their whiteness. It is--alas!--too rarely understood to mean something practical about one's experienced reality. ML Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Distinctive history of Chinese in Cuba
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The unique history of Chinese in Cuba: from independence wars to socialist revolution Presentation at Guangzhou, China, conference on 150-year continuity of struggle underlying Cuba’s proletarian revolution and its worldwide example (feature article) The following talk was presented by Mary-Alice Waters, president of Pathfinder Press, to a June 27, 2011, conference in Guangzhou, China, on the history of Chinese in Cuba. Some 50 people attended the event, hosted by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Guangdong province and the Cuban consulate in Guangzhou, the city historically known as Canton outside China. The meeting was held at the Overseas Chinese Museum of Guangdong, which documents worldwide migration of Chinese from that province. The other speakers were Raúl Rojas, the Cuban consul in Guangzhou, and Lin Lin, deputy director of the provincial Overseas Chinese Affairs Office. Minghui Wang, director of the Overseas Chinese Museum, welcomed participants. An article on the meeting appeared in the July 25 issue of the Militant, along with the remarks by Rojas. Waters is the editor of Our History Is Still Being Written: The Story of Three Chinese-Cuban Generals in the Cuban Revolution. The book is published in Spanish and English by Pathfinder Press and in Chinese by the Intellectual Property Publishing House in Beijing. Waters’s remarks are copyright © 2011 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission. Subheadings are by the Militant. BY MARY-ALICE WATERS Thank you all for the opportunity to be here today. It is a pleasure and an honor. I especially want to thank Deputy Director Lin Lin of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Guangdong province, Director Minghui Wang of the Guangdong Overseas Chinese Museum, and Cuban Consul Raúl Rojas, who have made this meeting possible. It is an opportunity not only to exchange views, but for us to learn from you about another facet of the history of the 200,000 Chinese—all but a handful men—who came to Cuba between 1847, when the first shipload of indentured workers arrived, and the early 1950s. Our discussion will help all of us better understand what is unique and noteworthy about that history. Havana’s Chinatown transformed Today one thing above all distinguishes Chinese in Cuba from Chinese who settled elsewhere in the world: that is the near-total absence of discrimination, or even prejudice, against Cubans of Chinese descent. Interest in the culture and arts Chinese immigrants brought with them to Cuba, and pride in this rich history, are increasing across the island. At the same time, Havana’s Barrio Chino—its world-famous Chinatown, once the largest in Latin America—bears little resemblance to its former self. Outside Cuba it is not unusual to hear people lament this as a “great loss.” But these changes are rooted in the progress of Cuban working people over the last half century made possible by the socialist revolution that tens of thousands of Cubans have given their lives for. If Havana’s Chinatown has been transformed, it is because there is no longer any pressure for Chinese Cubans to live crowded into a restricted district. There is no need for the safety of concentrated numbers in face of repeated acts of violence, discrimination, and racism. There are no longer occupations that are typically “Chinese,” whether as shopkeepers and peddlers or working in laundries and restaurants. Cubans of Chinese descent are found throughout Cuban society today, in all occupations, and at all levels of responsibility. These include the Central Committee and Political Bureau of the Cuban Communist Party, the highest ranks of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the leadership of the mass organizations of farmers, workers, women, artists, students, and beyond. These are conquests to celebrate, not mourn, as the unique history and proud mestizo culture of the Cuban nationality continue to be enriched. On the streets of Cuba it is not unusual to be told that the nation itself was forged in battle from three intertwined roots—one African, one Chinese, one European. The Chinese heritage can be seen everywhere, in faces of every hue. General Moisés Sío Wong, until his recent death the president of the Cuba-China Friendship Association, was the Cuban-born son of parents who came from Zengcheng—then a small village—a few miles from where we are sitting today. He often joked that if he were a T-shirt, the label on his neck would say, “Made of Chinese raw material, manufactured in Cuba.” Cuba’s revolutionary continuity The unique experience and trajectory of Chinese in Cuba is born of the 150-year continuity of revolutionary struggles in which Chinese Cubans shouldered weighty
[Marxism] Materialist History of Abraham Religions?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I was starting to look around for books on the creation of the Abraham myth and the religions based on it -- like how the Greek and Canaanite religions influenced the myths and how the Torah was pieced together by the various authors. As well as on the Eastern religion creations, since those I know the least about. I first ran into Max Weber, who I've never read any works of, and some of his stuff seems pretty interesting... He has a theory that the non-messianic religions of the East are what slowed their economic development towards capitalism. This is part of his argument against historical materialism for understanding the development of capitalism. Though it seems to me (based on a couple sentences on wikipedia I've read, haha, so I'm probably completely wrong) that he is actually giving support to Marx's dialectic by showing the religions of the East were support for the unique caste system they had, which slowed the development to capitalism, but I digress. Anyway... I thought this would be a good list to ask if anyone has suggestions on works to read and opinions on Max Weber's work on religion. Thanks, Tristan Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Materialist History of Abraham Religions?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == First of all, the Greek religion was not based on or closely related to this at all. In fact the story of the Maccabees is about a war between them circa 150 BC. The Greeks viewed the Hebrews and the Baalites as mindless uncultured barbarians who ate their children or who would if God told them to, a tradition they viewed as alien to their humanistic ethos which also justified the imperialism of Alexander and his successors during this period which only brought culture to these benighted folk. Yeah hey, I got sent to a church school where we were taught how great all this was, how the Israelites had a contest one time with this other tribe where each sacrificed a bunch of cattle, but God only responded (with lightning?) to the Israelites giving them the signal to wipe out their opponents. Yeah and of course the one good thing that was supposedly superior to those hedonistic pagans and their multiple gods, was the monotheism of the Christians and the Jews, implying one ruler or monarchy-or the Roman emperor, is a better form of existence say than rule by council or Senate of deities. The first time I ever heard the word reactionary was in this religion class in 7th grade circa 1965 which the Anglican priest explained was what those bad communists called good god fearing people. To the extent that he referred to himself as one, he was telling the truth. Brings to mind that scene in Midnight Express, where the prisoners in the Turkish prison are forced to push a mill gear around for no purpose while chanting, Left Bad, Right Good! I was intrigued when I was in the Middle East and actually a temple to Baal from circa 200 BC partially intact, a domed structure in the sophisticated Hellenic style. Hey, from what I learned in school I expected some kind of wretched hovel. Then again the Phoenecians and the Carthaginians were supposedly into this tradition. Crucifixion was one their contributions to Roman culture. When the Romans finally wiped them out in a major act of genocide, they justified this in part on the basis of the child sacrifice they were supposedly into and the Nazis, through the likes of Julius Streicher in Der Sturmer, talked about this as well as it related to the Jews. In our 50s US world in church school, however, Abraham-as depicted by Charlton Heston-was praised for willing to sacrifice his son. Oh sure, God would never have made him do it, but Abraham mindless (call it faith) willingness to obey such a command from a rightful ruler was considered most praiseworthy and part of what the Free World and the American Way were all about. Bakunin has an excellent screed railing against all this: God and the State. On Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 2:48 PM, Tristan Sloughter tristan.slough...@gmail.com wrote: I was starting to look around for books on the creation of the Abraham myth and the religions based on it -- like how the Greek and Canaanite religions influenced the myths and how the Torah was pieced together by the various authors. As well as on the Eastern religion creations, since those I know the least about. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Trotsky being debated on Russian TV! Can anbyody translate th?is
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvRrHx1dv5M Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Russell Brand on the British riots
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Well Eli, I have had the same reaction. This is a significant piece. What is trying to be heard is the voice of liberal England; a voice which is uneasy and unquiet not only about the savagery that is now taking place in the courts but also about the England that is being brought into being by the austerians. The riots as I have said before put a fright into the ruling class and the reaction has predictably been brutal. The call for vengeance from the Tories is loud and insistent. The police are cheering on the magistrates. This is a true fete of the rulers. The jaquerie rose up and now there must be retribution. The eviction of the mother of a suspected rioter from her council home, is just the beginning of the cruelty. But as always the dialectic is remorseless and the brutality of the reaction of the ruling class and those who support them will sow yet again the seeds of a mightier revolt. comradely Gary Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Materialist History of Abraham Religions?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Sun, Aug 14, 2011 at 2:38 AM, Tom Cod tomc...@gmail.com wrote: I was intrigued when I was in the Middle East and actually a temple to Baal from circa 200 BC partially intact, a domed structure in the sophisticated Hellenic style. Very interesting. Where was that? I recently visited the Philistine temple of Dagon supposedly demolished by Sampson in Gaza. (Today it's the Great Mosque, of course.) In our 50s US world in church school, however, Abraham-as depicted by Charlton Heston-was praised for willing to sacrifice his son. Oh sure, God would never have made him do it, but Abraham mindless (call it faith) willingness to obey such a command from a rightful ruler was considered most praiseworthy and part of what the Free World and the American Way were all about. I imagine Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling may be a more intelligent (which is not necessarily to say valid) defense of Abraham. -- Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] The YouTube video I submited is part of 12 separate you tube videos which is part of that Russian TV debate discussing Trotsky!
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Re: [Marxism] Materialist History of Abraham Religions?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 13.08.2011 23:48, Tristan Sloughter wrote: I was starting to look around for books on the creation of the Abraham myth and the religions based on it -- like how the Greek and Canaanite religions influenced the myths and how the Torah was pieced together by the various authors. As well as on the Eastern religion creations, since those I know the least about. I first ran into Max Weber, who I've never read any works of, and some of his stuff seems pretty interesting... He has a theory that the non-messianic religions of the East are what slowed their economic development towards capitalism. This is part of his argument against historical materialism for understanding the development of capitalism. Though it seems to me (based on a couple sentences on wikipedia I've read, haha, so I'm probably completely wrong) that he is actually giving support to Marx's dialectic by showing the religions of the East were support for the unique caste system they had, which slowed the development to capitalism, but I digress. Anyway... I thought this would be a good list to ask if anyone has suggestions on works to read and opinions on Max Weber's work on religion. Karl Kautsky did some interesting things on religion: Foundations of Christianity available online at http://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1908/christ/index.htm - particularly Book 3 for the origins of the Jews and Judaism. Another useful source is Paul N. Siegel, The Meek and the Militant. Einde O'Callaghan Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Materialist History of Abraham Religions?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Thanks, Einde. I have 'Foundations of Christianity', but still must finish it. And loved 'The Meek and the Militant'. That book and Appendix II of my copy of Bakunin's 'Statism and Anarchy (the Cambridge University Press v ersion) are what made me change my view on religion from being too confrontational (I think that's the word to describe it...) to being understanding and fully understanding Marx's quote that it is the 'opium of the masses'. Tristan Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Materialist History of Abraham Religions?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Sorry to interject again, but this sums it up nicely: How Class Works in Caste: Trajectory of an Erroneous Discourse from Max Weber to Louis Dumont” by Hira Singh Department of Sociology York University [Paper presented at the Conference, “How Class Works - 2010”, SUNY, Stony Brook, June 3-5, 2010] Abstract Max Weber’s distinction between ‘class’ and ‘status’ remains, to date, a seminal text for the mainstream sociology. For Max Weber, caste represents the ideal type of status, as opposed to class. While Max Weber’s distinction between class and status is marked by inconsistency - both logical and historical (at worst), or ambiguity (at best), the succeeding generations of sociologists and social-cultural anthropologists studying caste have overlooked the inconsistency, and erased the ambiguity, in Weber’s conceptualization of class and status. The common refrain of sociological and anthropological studies of caste is to contrast caste and class. One important, and unfortunate, consequence of this tendency, apart from a distorted view of class and caste, is the notion of ‘Indian exceptionalism’ - the argument that, given the dominance of caste, albeit status, class is irrelevant to the study of Indian society and history. This view is presented most forcefully by Louis Dumont in his famous work, Homohierarchicus. Dumont’s protagonists and detractors alike, numerous as they are, have not seriously examined the flawed – both logically and historically – conceptualization of class-status distinction by Weber, which Dumont accepts uncritically and takes it to another extreme to turn caste inequality into a religious hierarchy and deny caste as a case of social stratification altogether. My paper is a critical examination of Weber’s conceptualization of caste as status and its further distortion by Dumont to show that class and caste are not mutually exclusive. Historically, the dominant caste in India is indeed, the dominant class. The objective of my paper, in the short run, is to argue against ‘Indian exceptionalism’ – an offshoot of orientalism and colonial anthropology. Its objective, in the long run, is to rescue class from Weberian distortion premised on the distinction between class and status. Louis Dumont and the Caste System in India US-Them (India, the other) Louis Dumont believes in studying a society primarily in terms of its dominant ideology. He contrasts Indian ideology with modern Western ideology in order to understand Indian as well as the modern Western society and history. This contrast is a characteristic feature of his entire exercise. In his scheme, India is a typical case of holism and hierarchy, the exact opposite modern Western ideology of equality and individualism. As pointed out by Andre Beteille (2006), Dumont has a taste for symmetry: Homo Hierarchicus vs. Homo Aequqlis; hierarchy vs. equality; holism vs. individualism. This craving for symmetry, Beteille rightly notes, is more than a matter of personal taste. It is characteristic of an intellectual tradition called Orientalism. According to Dumont, Holism entails hierarchy while individualism entails equality. India stays at the extreme end of holistic societies, while France at the time of her Revolution was distinguished by an extreme ideological stress on equality On Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 8:21 PM, Greg McDonald gregm...@gmail.com wrote: For a more contemporary and ethnographic approach in the Weberian vein see Louis Dumont: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-professor-louis-dumont-1189259.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Reform in Syria?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://revolutionaryfesenjan.blogspot.com/2011/08/reform-in-syria.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
