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Review Source: Current Anthropology, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Jun., 1980), Pp Review Source: Current Anthropology, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Jun., 1980), pp. 299-314 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2742161 Accessed: 06-08-2015 09:45 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The University of Chicago Press and Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Current Anthropology. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 129.240.165.181 on Thu, 06 Aug 2015 09:45:46 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions A CA* BOOK REVIEW Social Anthropologyof Work [With the agreementof the publisher,potential reviewers were sent of the occasionat whichthe collectionwas presented.In this copies of Social Anthropologyof Work, edited by Sandra Wallman case we were concernedto do so for two additionalreasons. (Association of Social AnthropologistsMonograph 19; London: One is that manyof thesepapers constitute reports of workin Academic Press, 1979). The contentsof the volume are listed below, progresswhich will lose credenceand pointif too long delayed and followingthem are reprinted(with the permissionof editor and in the pipeline.The otheris that thereis a markedresurgence publisher)Wallman's preface and introduction;these are followedby the reviewsreceived. Further comment is invited.-EDITOR.] ofpopular interest in thetopic "work" at thistime. While some A.S.A. conferencetopics are esotericto the profession,others are "folk" notionsreflecting the concernsof ordinarypeople TABLE OF CONTENTS and, in somehistorical phases, of politicians and policymakers. Work is one of these latter notionsand this is one of those Introduction,by Sandra Wallman periods.Discussions of incentives, occupational identity, labour Viewsfrom Three OtherDisciplines: organisation,industrial action, unemployment and the"threat" Economics,by Walter Elkan of new technologycrop up in the mass media as oftenthey do Psychiatry,by Leonard Fagin in social scientificpublications. Various "futuresof work" are BiologicalAnthropology, by G. AinsworthHarrison prophesied,some glowing,some gloomy,all of themimplying Learningthe Ropes: The Politicsof Dockland, by Leonard Mars change of the presentcircumstances and of the needs, con- Women'sWork and Children'sWork: Variationsamong Mos- straints and opportunitieswhich structurethe business of lems in Kano, byEnid Schildkrout livelihood. Workers,Lords and Masters: The Organisationof Labour on In this sense the questionof workhas become the stuffof SouthAfrican Farms, by J. B. Loudon politicaland economicdebate-at least in industrialcountries, The Stigma Cycle: Values and Politics in a Dockland Union, and quite oftenin the so-called"developing world". Closest to byGerald Mars home, both the recent British election campaign and the How SwedenWorks: A Case fromthe Bureaucracy,by Morris European parliamentaryelections which followed immediately A. Fred afterit have been "about" unemployment,pay restraintand Work and Value: Reflectionson Ideas of Karl Marx, byRay- the ownershipof resourceson the one hand, and "about" mondFirth national,regional and occupationalstatus on the other.On the The Estimation of Work: Labour and Value among Paez local level,similar issues arise: the efficiencvof agricultural and Farmers,by Sutti Ortiz industrialproduction and the provisionof personaland social Mapping Means, byStephen Gudeman servicesseem moreand moredirectly to hingeon questionsof The WhalsayCroft: Traditional Work and CustomaryIdentity incentivesto work,the just rewardfor labour, and the scope in ModernTimes, by Anthony P. Cohen for individual initiative and autonomy in particular work The PollutedIdentity of Work:A Studyof Benares Sweepers, processesor in the politicaleconomy at large. byMary Searle-Chatterjee The debate is heatedand confused;two fundamental human The Self and the Product: Conceptsof Workin Comparative issues are involved. While the preoccupationsof work are Perspective,by Erik Schwimmer directlyconcerned with the workof makinga living,they are The Categorisationof Work: Cases fromCoastal Kenya, by indirectlybut equallyconcerned with the work of personal and David Parkin groupidentity. If theseissues loom largest in industrialsocieties The Work of Men, Women and the Ancestors:Social Repro- it may be onlybecause our habitsof self-examinationare more ductionin thePeriphery of SouthernAfrica, by Colin Murray explicitand our meansof communicationmore elaborated: the The Hidden Workof EverydayLife, by Cato Wadel organisation,the experienceand even the classificationof work are mattersof momentto people in a varietyof social and technologicalsettings. PREFACE This small collectionincludes examples from pre-industrial, industrialisingand late industrial"stages of development". The paperswhich make up thisvolume were circulated in draft Because the same problemsoccur across the range, a com- and presentedto the A.S.A. Conference1979, "The Anthro- parativeanalysis of the dimensionsof workand of variations pologyof Work". It was held at DerwentCollege, University in therelations between them cannot but be interesting.It may of York. The local Organiserwas Anne Akeroyd.Only one of even be useful.And if, as social anthropologists,we claim to thepapers presented is notincluded: Jonathan Parry's complex have insightsrelevant to contemporarysocial issues,then we analysisof the workof funeralpriests in Benares will appear shouldnot be coy about enteringcontemporary debate-even somewhatlater than this volumegoes to press.I am grateful if with an imperfectscript. The mood of the conferencewas to the othercontributors for making their papers available for exploratorybut positive.Accordingly, this volume is offered publicationwithin two monthsof the conference.The A.S.A. as the preliminarystatement of an anthropologyof work; the now normallyaims to produceeach monographwithin a year finalword may followlater. Vol. 21 * No. 3 * June1980 299 This content downloaded from 129.240.165.181 on Thu, 06 Aug 2015 09:45:46 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The editorialframework imposed on these separatecases is transactions,economic activities or personalidentities. For the builtaround two very simple questions. Firstly: what is "work" workerhimself it is both a psychicnecessity and the cause of about? Secondly:what does social anthropologyhave to say pain and alienation.It makes no sociologicalsense without about it that has not alreadybeen said? referenceto controland the divisionof labour, no phvsical Pursuingthe firstquestion, the conferencesolicited views sense unless the level of technologyavailable for its perfor- fromthree widely different other disciplines-biological anthro- mance is considered.Across cultures, those activitiesthat are pology,psychiatry and economics.We are indebtedto Geoffrey called "work" (or by the wordwhich is translatedas "work") Ainsworth-Harrison,Leonard Fagin and Walter Elkan for change,and the componentparts of workprocesses appear in agreeingto ventureacross the boundariesof theirrespective differentcombinations and withdifferent significance. A com- disciplinesin orderto contributeto ourprofessional conference. parativeperspective on workmust therefore take into account Their respectiveshort statements have servedto broadenthe not onlywhat is done,how it is done and who does it, but also perspectiveof our discussions.Certain aspects and anomalies how and by whomit is evaluated. of workwhich arise in the social anthropologicalcontributions In each of theserespects, work is "about" control-physical have been signalledfrom outside social anthropology;views and psychological,social and symbolic.The primaevalpurpose fromother disciplines are neitherless relevantnor less exotic of workis the humanneed to controlnature, to wresta living than viewsfrom other societies. To counterthe argumentthat fromit and to imposeculture on it. By definitionthere is no otherpractitioners of otherprofessions should also have been social group that does not "work" at this level. Because the asked to state theirviews, we can onlystate the pragmatic con- businessof controlling nature is a matterof technical ingenuity, straints: virtuallyevery academic disciplineshows or has it is both eased and complicatedby inventionsof cultureand shownserious interest in the topic; no singleconference could patternsof organisation.The controlof nature is therefore reasonablyhope to cover everyaspect. This volumedoes not transposedinto a moregeneral need to controlthe environment thereforepurport to reviewthe fieldof work studies or the and the businessof livelihood.Central to the rubricof this manytheoretical issues raised in the literature.The references volumeis the fact that the workingrelationship between man followingeach contributiondo, however,provide specialist and natureis neverunembroidered and thatmuch of the social- bibliographiesto the subjectmatter. culturalembroidery on work tends to be concernedwith the Here it shouldbe noted that the topic is not new to
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