Kapital Essays - Marxian Economics, Human Sexuality, Commodities

Kapital Essays - Marxian Economics, Human Sexuality, Commodities Kapital American Gov. Kapital When one gets down to the roots of capitalism you find that it is a form of government that allows the rich to get richer, the poor, poorer and the middle class to stay the same. Karl Marx wrote a book, Kapital about the what capitalism does to the people in a society, how it takes the humainty out of being and replaces it with x. Not only does it do that but it creates a chain of commodities, fetishisis, and alienation within a society. Commodities are at the top of this chain. A commodity is anything that is produced for exchange. They have two parts to them, the use of the commodity and its value. With women, and men the use of the human body is humanity, doing whatever it is that pleases you, whether it be riding your bike, reading, dancing, whatever, it comes down to your humanity. Their humanity is turned into a value when women have to sell their use to obtain different forms of commodities, to then exchange those commodities for more commodities. In capitalism women are defined by their bodies, and judged by what their bodies can do, and look like. Women have to sell their humanity because in capitalism thats the only thing people have to sell. In capitalism it doesnt matter who or what you are, as long as youre producing something that will make money. Women sell their humanity in different ways, there seems to be a same scale in place with womens jobs, modeling (which is at the far right), stripping (somewh ere in between), and prostitution (which is at the far left). Most wouldnt connect these three with having any basic ground (maybe stripping & prostitution), but their basic ground is that women are all selling there use for some form of a commodity, which most of the time is money. The outcome that that has is profound. Not only does it effect women, and girls, it effects boys and men. Their images of women become so distorted that they begin to believe them. Women become fetishes for both men and women. With any commodity it will become a fetish. Society divides its labor between a multitude of private producers who relate to each other by exchanging their products, (Marxs Kapital For Beginners, page 60) when that happens it gives the use value this imaginary power, which is an fetish. Fetisizing women limits what a woman is, could be, or wants to be, because the fetish with women is sex. A large part of society that puts that and more standards on women are men. Men fetishsize women as sex objects, by supporting prostitution, and strippers, and putting standards on what is beautiful (models). Women become nothing more than sex, and bodies. For men and woman. Not only do they view themselves as sex objects (models, strippers, etc.), but as mothers, and housewives, and anything else society imposes on them. Right now the world is much more open to women being in the work place than it was 50 years ago. Its not so much the housewife anymore, but the images of women you see on television, in movies, magazines, on the street. The problems that woman are having now being alienated from their bodies is something that was just slowly beginning years ago. The real value of what a woman is is lost somewhere in between her use and exchange. Alienation is what use value, and fetishism, all lead to. Men become alienated from who, and what a woman really is. They begin to believe in their fetishes, that women are supposed to be tall, super thin, long legs, large breasts, long hair, and what have you, so that when they are faced with what really is there they wont accept it. Not accepting the reality of it, men become alienated from the real thing. They dont know what a woman really is, just what society tells them a women is. The effects of alienation are much greater on women themselves. Women begin to see themselves in unhealthy ways if they feel theyre not living up to that standard of beauty. Not seeing themselves for themselves begins a whole unhealthy chain

The Four Surviving Maya Codices

The Four Surviving Maya Codices The Maya - a powerful pre-Colombian civilization who reached their cultural zenith around 600-800 A.D. before falling into steep decline - were literate and had books, written in a complex language including pictograms, glyphs, and phonetic representations. A Maya book is referred to as a codex (plural: codices). The codices were painted onto a paper made of bark from the fig tree and folded out like an accordion. Unfortunately, zealous Spanish priests destroyed most of these codices during the conquest and colonial era and today only four examples survive. The four surviving Maya codices mostly contain information about Maya astronomy, astrology, religion, rituals, and Gods. All four of the Maya books were created after the downfall of the Maya civilization, proving that some vestiges of culture remained after the great city-states of the Maya Classic Period were abandoned. The Dresden Codex The most complete of the surviving Maya codices, the Dresden Codex came to the Royal Library in Dresden in 1739 after being purchased from a private collector in Vienna. It was drawn by no fewer than eight different scribes and it is believed that it was created sometime between 1000 and 1200 A.D. during the Postclassic Maya period. This  codex deals primarily with astronomy: days, calendars, good days for rituals, planting, prophecies, etc. There is also a part which deals with sickness and medicine. There are also some astronomical charts plotting the movements of the Sun and Venus. The Paris Codex The Paris Codex, discovered in 1859 in a dusty corner of the Paris library, is not a complete codex, but fragments of eleven double-sided pages. It is believed to date from the late Classic or Postclassic era of Maya history. There is much information in the codex: it is about Maya ceremonies, astronomy (including constellations), dates, historical information and descriptions of Maya Gods and spirits. The Madrid Codex For some reason, the Madrid Codex was separated into two parts after it reached Europe, and for a while was considered two different codices: it was put back together in 1888. Relatively poorly drawn, the codex is probably from the late Postclassic Period (circa 1400 A.D.) but may be from even later. As many as nine different scribes worked on the document. It is mostly about astronomy, astrology, and divination. It is of great interest to historians, as it contains information on Maya Gods and the rituals associated with the Maya New Year. There is some information about the different days of the year and the Gods associated with each. There is also a section on basic Maya activities such as hunting and making pottery. The Grolier Codex Not discovered until 1965, the Grolier Codex consists of eleven battered pages of what was likely once a larger book. Like the others, it deals with astrology, specifically Venus and its movements. Its authenticity has been questioned, but most experts seem to think it’s genuine. Sources Archaeology.org: Redating the Madrid Codex, by Angela M.H. Schuster, 1999. McKillop, Heather. The Ancient Maya: New Perspectives. New York: Norton, 2004.