ANTHRO 100 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Bourgeoisie, Feudalism, Historical Materialism

• School: UMASS-Amherst
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTHRO 100
• Professor: Paulette Steeves

Document Summary

The excerpt from cedric j. robinson"s work black marxism provides a really great critique on capitalism. I really thought the historical materialist perspective for explaining the origins of capitalism highlights some of the pitfalls that a capitalist society falls into. It explains that all capitalist countries are developed from feudalism. Feudalism, from what i gathered from robinson, is derived from a system of localized markets, and that the markets just got wider as merchants became wealthier and the peasants gained more political power. What i also found really valuable about robinson"s piece was the use of slavery in europe"s development, from roman times, and, interestingly enough, there were still slaves in feudal. That every feudal, imperial, and economic system where the production of surplus is paramount, there is slavery. There is also a bit of a murky focus on marxism, and i think that that is where black. Proletariat and bourgeoisie to describe the social classes that marx coins.