Pick one of these questions and write 5-6 pages on the topic.
1) The methods of surplus appropriation can have important influences on the historical development of social formations (societies). Compare and contrast control over immoveable property in land and the accumulation of material wealth with control over persons and redistribution as two forms of surplus appropriation, and indicate what may be the developmental constraints and implications for each of these two forms of surplus appropriation.
2) Compare and contrast bigmanship and chiefship in terms of their role in economic exchanges, flexibility of political organization, and effectiveness of social integration and control resulting from their respective economic and political positions. Use specific ethnographic examples from the assigned readings (you may use Mauss as well as Sahlins and Goody on this question).
3) Describe and discuss the jajmani system in relation to any two of the following: (1) the domestic mode of production, (2) the slave mode of production, (3) the Asiatic mode of production, and (4) the capitalist mode of production.
4) Critically assess how Marx views the role of such entities as capital, rent, interest, profit, wages, in the operation of the capitalist mode of production, and discuss the applicability of these categories to the lineage/domestic mode of production, especialy as discussed by Sahlins and Meillassoux, (albeit in different way),. and the Asiatic mode of production (as in the jajmani system).
5) Terry Eagleton suggests that while there is a relationship between ideology and hegemony, this is not an isomorphic one. How does Eagleton's analysis of ideology fit with Raymond Williams' discussion of hegemony? (If you are familiar with Bourdieu's analysis of doxa, orthodoxy and heterodoxy in "Outline of a Theory of Practice" you may bring this into your discussion.)
6) David Harvey talks about "modern" and "postmodern" and the transition between these as a process. How does the postmodern differ from the modern in his analysis? (There are a number of ways to think about this) Give specific examples.
7) Harvey suggests that "the postmodern condition" is deeply apolitical. Why does he say this-what is his argument and what is his evidence? Be specific.
8) Both David Harvey and Raymond Williams suggest that the production of culture and the aesthetic are central to social reproduction and especially so in the postmodern world. Discuss their ideas about this in relation to other readings you have done for this topic in this course. (Escobar, Ahmed among others)
9) Drawing on Harvey's discussion of the postmodern condition, do a close reading/analysis of the film "Bladerunner". Be specific, and be sure you do an analysis and not only a description of the film.
10) Drawing on Gewertz and Errington and/or the readings in "Localizing Global Knowledge," discuss how best to approach the analysis of power and surplus extraction or appropriation and exploitation in the 21st century global economy-remember, these analyses focus on the articulation between the local and the global within this context.
11) Discuss Wallerstein's world system model in relation to Ahmed's article in "Globalizing Local Knowledge". What does one need to know about the world today (as opposed to forty years ago when Wallerstein was writing) in order to describe power relationships in the global economy? Does Wallerstein's model have analytic salience for the 21st century? Why or why not?