The ox, the slave and the worker: A pedagogic exercise in Marx's labor theory of value

Abstract

A basic task of Marxist anthropologists is teaching the Marxian perspective to students who, if they have been exposed to Marxism at all, generally have an incomplete and, usually, a much distorted view of it. This is particularly the case at undergraduate institutions where the absence of specialized curricula and gradu? ate seminars requires us to weave the Marxian world view through our several, more general courses. There is no opportunity, and students seldom have the background, to examine the full range of Marx's philosophy, method, or sociology either through his own writings or those of his numerous interpreters. While several of Marx's papers such as "Wage Labour and Capital" and "Estranged Labour" are ac? cessible to many undergraduates, the more "complete" Marx contained in later writings such as the Grundrisse and Capital generally are not. To those of us committed to teaching the Marxian perspective and, in so doing, main? taining both the richness and complexity of Marx's thought, these strictures pose a formi? dable challenge ? a challenge compounded by the fact that viewing the world in a "Marx? ian" way represents for most students a radical departure from the linear, positivist mode so thoroughly ingrained in them. After one very unsuccessful attempt to relate Marx's labor theory of value by means of the relevant pas? sages in Capital, I developed the following exercise. It proved to be very successful among a class of advanced undergraduates taking a course of Social Stratification. For me, the labor theory of value is the centerpiece of Marx's sociology. An adequate understanding of it is necessary in order to proceed to the issues of class formation, class interests and antagonisms, class struggle and the general notion of "exploitation." The labor theory not only underpins the key social relation in capitalism, the capital-wage labor relation, but can also be used to illustrate other modes of production where different social relations predominate. The exercise below illustrates the comparative uses of the labor theory and the many other Marxian constructs and tenets which can be developed out of a discussion of it.