ANTH 425 Power and Change
Fall 2011
Nov. 24 Making a military: Read Lutz, Catherine (2002) "Making War at Home in the United States: Militarization and the Current Crisis." American Anthropologist 104(3): 723-735 AnthroSource
- wants to think about the current "mode of warfare"
- thus, plays off the marxist notion of "mode of production"
- this calls attention to the social organization of the political and economic mechanisms that produce current warfare
- traces changes in the organization of "labour" in the production of military hardware and in the ranks of the military in the US over the 20th century
- presents how these are interwoven with political currents: how to get votes, urban entrepreneurialism,
- suggests how cultural production is influenced to support dominant ideologies about these
- effects include: racialization; sexism; homophobia; uneven geographic development; suppression of democracy, accountability, transparency; excessive spending on military at the expense of social welfare; socio-economic inequality
- she sees the current crisis as simply a continuation of the militarization that has built over the 20th century: 9/11 has been used to justify a huge increase in military budgets, further suspension of democratic processes, etc.
- but also sees possible hope in calls for demilitarization