BANANALOGIA

TLC - Antropología de un lavado imperial

In the book, Veblen argues that economic life is not driven by notions of utility, but by social vestiges from pre-historic times. Drawing examples from his time (turn-of-the-century America) and anthropology, he held that much of today's society is a variation on early tribal life.

According to Veblen, beginning with primitive tribes, people began to adopt a division of labor along certain lines. The "higher-status" group monopolized war and hunting while farming and cooking were considered inferior work.

He argued this was due to barbarism and conquest of some tribes over others. Once conquerors took control, they relegated the more menial and labor-intensive jobs to the subjugated people, while retaining the more warlike and violent work for themselves. It didn't matter that these "menial" jobs did more to support society than the "higher" ones.

To Veblen, society never grew out of this stage; it simply adapted into different forms and expressions. For example, he noted that during the Middle Ages, only the nobility was allowed to hunt and fight wars. Likewise, in modern times, he noted that manual laborers usually make less money than white-collar workers.

"...Aggression becomes the accredited form of action, and booty serves as prima facie evidence
of successful aggression. As accepted at this cultural stage, the accredited,
worthy form of self-assertion is contest; and useful articles or services
obtained by seizure or compulsion, serve as a conventional evidence of
successful contest. Therefore, by contrast, the obtaining of goods by other
methods than seizure comes to be accounted unworthy of man in his best estate.
The performance of productive work, or employment in personal service, falls
under the same odium for the same reason. An invidious distinction in this way
arises between exploit and acquisition on the other hand. Labour acquires a
character of irksomeness by virtue of the indignity imputed to it..."

"...Epithets and titles used in addressing chieftains, and in the propitiation of kings and gods, very
commonly impute a propensity for overbearing violence and an irresistible
devastating force to the person who is to be propitiated. This holds true to an
extent also in the more civilised communities of the present day. The
predilection shown in heraldic devices for the more rapacious beasts and birds
of prey goes to enforce the same view.

Under this common-sense barbarian appreciation of worth or honour, the taking of
life - the killing of formidable competitors, whether brute or human - is
honourable in the highest degree. And this high office of slaughter, as an
expression of the slayer's prepotence, casts a glamour of worth over every act
of slaughter and over all the tools and accessories of the act. Arms are
honourable, and the use of them, even in seeking the life of the meanest
creatures of the fields, becomes a honorific employment. At the same time,
employment in industry becomes correspondingly odious, and, in the common-sense
apprehension, the handling of the tools and implements of industry falls beneath
the dignity of able-bodied men. Labour becomes irksome...."

Thorstein Veblen
The Theory of the Leisure Class.
An Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions.
(1899, viii, 400 p.) Descargue el texto completo en formato .txt