Forthe past six hundred years a culture and a society, dedicated for the most partto development and trade as the ultimate source of well being, began to expandall over the world. In a great number of ways this development, capitalism,became the most successful culture and society the world has ever seen. Capitalism ascended as a successful social means. It was successful as itprovided a more effective means of creating a surplus.
This was an importantfeature for mankind. It proved to be an easier and more cost effective means ofcreating a surplus. Capitalism also allowed for the world system to functionwith their own states. This system of functioning encouraged the internationalmarket economy, which in turn established the success of capitalism.
Such amarket bestowed incentives which increased productivity all over the globe. Simultaneously a world separation of work made it easy for costs and benefits tobe unequally distributed. The effects of such a division of labour wereprofound. It created a multilayered economic hierarchy.
The hierarchies weredivided into many sections, with each sector owning it’s own defining feature,and all were linked to one common feature. This was the exploitation of socialclasses. The wealthy employed labourers and often underpaid their labourers sothat they might be able to reap maximum profits. Such racist inequalities andexploitation were used to justify the hindered commission of the proletariat. The world system continues to undergo a cycle of expansion.
This trend hasgained the support it requires from the notion that all societies, in order tobe successful, need to conform to a western way of life. Capitalism continues tobe increasingly effective. This is largely due to the belief the workers holdthat the harder they work the more the stand to gain. Such workers also affirmthat it is hard work that will grant them such wealth, often this leadstofrustration, once the worker comes realize they may never reach the status ofthe elite.
Often times myths are used as a method of erasing such beliefs, asthey do not address the real problems at hand. No matter what is done it seemsthere will always be a gap between the rich, or the employers, and the poor, orthe employees. BibliographyBodley, John. Cultural Anthropology.
Mayfield Publishing, Toronto, 2000
