Marx’s attention to highlighting the functions of commodity fetishism is fundamental to his account of the alienation of the proletariat and his broader critique of capitalist societies. Both Marx and Taussig’s work provides evidence of the damaging effects of commodity fetishism and capitalist markets on the working class, providing us an important lens to understand the modern developments and functions of capitalism.
Commodity fetishism is one of the fundamental ways that capitalism is naturalised into our experience of the world. Marx contends that the modern functioning of the bourgeoisie is the product of a long course of constant development and revolutions to the means of production and exchange (45). These revolutions are a necessary …show more content…
Taussig highlights that pre market economies “make a fetish of the productive process” (Taussig, 30) itself, highlighting that rather than labour value being hidden, it is fetishised. Objects therefore appear animated because they embody the social milieu from which they arise (Taussig 37). Pre-capitalist economies place focus on the use value of items alone; commodities exist solely to satisfy a “qualitatively defined set of needs” (Taussig, 29), rather than capitalist societies, which aim for “limitless capital accumulation” (Taussig, 29). Similarly, the belief in the devil that is explained at length by Taussig represents the indignant reaction of Indigenous societies to the supplanting of traditional fetishism by the new, competitive capitalist models that threaten old values. The peasants are in effect “anthropomorphising their subjugation in the devil” (Taussig, 28). These beliefs go as far as stimulating the political action that is necessary to transcend following Marx’s contention, highlights to us living proof that market exchange values and commodity fetishism are not necessarily natural or inevitable (Taussig,
Commodity fetishism is one of the fundamental ways that capitalism is naturalised into our experience of the world. Marx contends that the modern functioning of the bourgeoisie is the product of a long course of constant development and revolutions to the means of production and exchange (45). These revolutions are a necessary …show more content…
Taussig highlights that pre market economies “make a fetish of the productive process” (Taussig, 30) itself, highlighting that rather than labour value being hidden, it is fetishised. Objects therefore appear animated because they embody the social milieu from which they arise (Taussig 37). Pre-capitalist economies place focus on the use value of items alone; commodities exist solely to satisfy a “qualitatively defined set of needs” (Taussig, 29), rather than capitalist societies, which aim for “limitless capital accumulation” (Taussig, 29). Similarly, the belief in the devil that is explained at length by Taussig represents the indignant reaction of Indigenous societies to the supplanting of traditional fetishism by the new, competitive capitalist models that threaten old values. The peasants are in effect “anthropomorphising their subjugation in the devil” (Taussig, 28). These beliefs go as far as stimulating the political action that is necessary to transcend following Marx’s contention, highlights to us living proof that market exchange values and commodity fetishism are not necessarily natural or inevitable (Taussig,