Contemplating Capitalism: How Introductory Anthropology Texts Depoliticize Class, Oppression, and the Climate

In this article, I analyze over a dozen recent introduction to cultural anthropology textbooks and similar texts. I argue that such texts tend to disconnect processes of racial and gender oppression, along with the climate crisis, from the capitalist mode of production and imperialism. By doing this, they erase progressive struggles from below by movements of workrers, the oppressed, and the colonized. These erasures produce two effects: first, they limpoverish social theory and second, they lead to flawed or misguided practical politics. In the conclusion, I propose a "socialism from below"-inspired alternative.