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Power and Exploitation by Karl Marx and Eric Wolf Discussion

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The first set of thinkers are the materialists, those who focus on power and exploitation in
order to gain said power. Two men that think in those terms are Karl Marx and Eric Wolf. Both
of these men are Marxists, Karl Marx created this ideology and Eric Wolf adopted and followed
it after Marx. Classical Marxism states that any thing or product is owned by the employer who
uses their employees in order to produce such products. In order to successfully reach a higher
class standing and climb the social status ladder, the employer must exploit and use the
employees in such a way that the employees are paid less than what the work they are doing is
worth. This will then ensure that there is a steep income for the employer which will then elevate
his status. This is completely opposite to the idea of the Potlatch of the Kwakwaka’wakw, as
they use gifting and giving away goods as a means of gaining social power and status within
their community. Exploitation as a means of gaining power is the Marxist way while giving
away goods to win favor and power is the Potlatch way. Anthropologically speaking, Marxism
can be structural or political economic. Under structural Marxism ideologies, anthropologists pay
careful attention to different social aspects of life such as domestic relationships and
organization, descent and familial ties, and the exchanging of goods. This is much more similar
to the Potlatch system of gaining power because a main focus is the exchanging/gifting of goods
and also a strong focus on personal relationships. Political economics focuses more on the bigger
picture such as the political and economic systems in place regionally. Eric Wolf was very
focused on the ideas of power and the ideologies of Marxism. He followed along with the ideas
first laid out by Karl Marx that power is something that is controlled by those who are the
employers in the economic systems, meaning those who already have power tend to keep it by
way of exploiting those who are social below them. This is similar to the ideas of the Potlatch of

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the Kwakwaka’wakw peoples in a way because they gain power by gifting things to those in
their communities and whoever leads the Potlatch and gives the most gifts is the one who holds
the most social power. Now in order to be able to give away the most gifts during this ceremony,
one needs to be in procession of enough things and materials and time to make and fund these
gifts. So if the person in the Kwakwaka’wakw community who gives away the most gifts is the
person who is already the most powerful person, then this person will just add on to their power
and in turn make it more difficult for anyone to surpass them in the social hierarchy.
The second set of thinkers are the culturalists, those who focus on ideas and values rather
than power or class. The two men that think like this are Marshall Sahlins and Bronislaw
Malinowski. One of Sahlin’s main ideas focuses around the different interests and motives that
people in different classes and social situations have. He says that people will act in accordance
to their social classes and therefore have different motives and ideas than people in different
(higher or lower) social classes. Sahlins also says that this doesn’t mean that these people have
different general ideas and views of the world, just different agendas. He also believes that no
matter the social class or motive, that if given the opportunity that people will seek to gain a
better social status and climb into a better class if they can, and the only thing that separates the
classes in their bid to do this is the means in how they try to accomplish it. This ideology is
similar to that of the Potlatch because those who can afford to give better gifts and more of them
will do that to gain better social status and keep power, and those who do not have the means to
give away such gifts will simply strive to receive the best ones in hopes that having better things
will elevate their status as well. Bronislaw Malinowski is famous for his work with the idea of
the Kula ring, or Kula exchange. The Kula exchange is very similar to what the Potlatch is. It is a
ceremonial exchange of goods and what that exchange or gift will get the two sides of the

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The first set of thinkers are the materialists, those who focus on power and exploitation in order to gain said power. Two men that think in those terms are Karl Marx and Eric Wolf. Both of these men are Marxists, Karl Marx created this ideology and Eric Wolf adopted and followed it after Marx. Classical Marxism states that any thing or product is owned by the employer who uses their employees in order to produce such products. In order to successfully reach a higher class standing and climb the social status ladder, the employer must exploit and use the employees in such a way that the employees are paid less than what the work they are doing is worth. This will then ensure that there is a steep income for the employer which will then elevate his status. This is completely opposite to the idea of the Potlatch of the Kwakwaka’wakw, as they use gifting and giving away goods as a means o ...
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