ETYMOLOGY AND AN OBJECT OF STUDY Primitive accumulation, a concept central to Marxist ideologies and critique, details the methods behind capital consumption and gain. Jodi Melamed, in “Racial Capitalism”, eloquently describes primitive accumulation as “capital accrued through transparently violent means (war, land-grabbing, dispossession, neo/colonialism)” (Melamed 76). Melamed contends that capital can only be capital when it is accumulating, and it can only accumulate by producing and moving through the severely unequal class system. Thus, accumulation requires loss, dispossession, and the unequal differentiation of human value in which racism, white supremacy, and colonialism enshrine; in effect, primitive accumulation forms the backbone of racial capitalism as we understand it today. Placing Melamed’s definition into a historical Marxist context, Nikhil Pal Singh discusses the limitations of primitive accumulation with racialized boundaries and axes, lending insight into the applications and limitations of the term. Singh notes how, to Marx, primitive accumulation was epistemologically distinct and separate from capitalism, writing: “in this New World iteration, primitive accumulation is not yet capitalism for Marx; it is plunder... New World primitive accumulation is an indictment of capitalism, not an explanation of its dynamics.” (Singh 33-4). By Singh’s definition, “New World” describes capital accumulation grounded within European colonial and American manifestations, yet his detailing of Marx’s epistemological separation produces tension within the term that necessitates investigation. If Marx sees primitive accumulation as not capitalism, rather an indictment of it, how do we reconcile with continuing violent, racialized, militarized forms of capital accumulation that Melamed discusses? To begin this investigation, an understanding of the etymological origins of the term is imperative. “Primitive” derives from late 14th century Old French primitif, meaning “of an original cause; of a thing from which something is derived; not secondary” and directly from the Latin primitivus, meaning “first or earliest of its kind”, a derivation of the Latin primitus “at first,” of primus “first” (Online Etymology Dictionary). “Accumulation”, on the other hand, traces its origins to late 15th century Latin, from accumulationem “a heaping up,” “that which is heaped up, an accumulated mass”. Further, it is a noun of action from accumulare, “to heap up, a mass” from ad “to” + cumulare “heap up”. Cumulare can be traced to the suffixed form of the Proto-Indo-European root *keue “to swell”. The formal, finalized definition of accumulation can be found in the 17th century, meaning “act of heaping up” (Online Etymology Dictionary). Etymologically pairing the two words together, primitive accumulation means an original, the first, heaping up of capital. The phrase, as an object of study, is central to Marxist study and critique for its eloquent demarcation of capitalism’s origins and serves as a framework for understanding more complex forms of accumulation. “PRIMITIVE ACCUMULATION” AS ANALYTIC FOR AMERICAN STUDIES The term “primitive accumulation” is important when analyzing scholarly works and cultural texts as it lends a better understanding of the methodology through which a host society can build capital. It is easy to overlook many forms of primitive accumulation when reading and analyzing material because of how we may think “accumulation with expanded reproduction” only requires “the silent compulsion of economic relations.” (Melamed 76) However, in societies with such drastic wealth disparities as the United States of America, it becomes evident that exploitative means of capitalizing off those marginalized are in place. In scholarly works, we see many examples of primitive accumulation, but without an understanding of the term, it is difficult to comprehend exactly how the host society builds its capital. On-Page 77, Melamed exclaims how we “often associate racial capitalism with the central features of white supremacist capitalist development, including slavery, colonialism, genocide, incarceration regimes, migrant exploitation, and contemporary racial warfare.” By understanding primitive accumulation as a term, we can see that all of these acts are violent forms to accumulate wealth in “capitalist development” and therefore are examples of primitive accumulation. Scholarly works, such as Nikhil Pal Singh’s On Race, Violence and So-Called Primitive Accumulation, discusses the “specialization in violence [that] was integral to capitalism’s origins.” (Singh 31) Primitive accumulation provides context for this scholarly piece by laying the necessary framework to understand the reasoning behind the “specialization in violence” as a means to generate wealth. Singh also discusses “chief moments of primitive accumulation” on page 33. Without understanding primitive accumulation, it would be difficult for a reader to grasp why it is significant to uphold differentiating and wealth-generating systems involved in a racial capitalist society. The Marxist concept of “primitive accumulation” assists us in analyzing the social, political, economic, and environmental past and present that American Studies must reckon with as we navigate violent historic and modern-day events that stem from the process of building wealth in a capitalist society. As we look upon US history, we see a timeline of dispossession through the white American colonization of Indigenous people’s land and their displacement through policy and violent means of land-grabbing. These violent acts of land-grabbing fall under the given definition of primitive accumulation which helps analyze the magnitude of this process for acquiring capital. More specifically, we can look to the Indian Removal Act of 1830, better known as the “Trail of Tears”, where approximately 4,000 Cherokee tribal members died as they were forced West (LOC). As settlers expanded Westward, violent acts of land-grabbing targeting Indigenous people persisted. It is important to understand primitive accumulation and the modern-day effects it has on the environment. Recently, California has seen a surge of wildfires which are devastating the forest as well as homes all over the state. Native Americans used to practice cultural burnings in California before being forcibly removed from their land. Policies were implemented by the U.S. Forest Service to end the practice of cultural burnings. Without these Indigenous ceremonies taking place, the forest became overgrown which in turn left them susceptible to the catastrophic wildfires we see today. Now, in Northern California, the Forest Service has partnered with Indigenous tribes to continue the practice of cultural burnings to better manage the land. In reality, this all would have been avoided if not for the primitive accumulation by settlers which forcibly removed Indigenous tribes and their intimate understanding of the land around them. PRIMITIVE ACCUMULATION, CARTOONS, AND REPRESENTATION Jodi Melamed’s work digs deeper into the term and its applications, explaining how primitive accumulation works within racial capitalism, outside of it, and outside of textual representation entirely. As covered in Part B, Melamed differentiates primitive accumulation from “the silent compulsion of economic relations,” yet she doesn’t confront the multifaceted potentials the terms carry (76). In her argument, primitive accumulation serves as an evolution in racial capitalism’s epistemology— what expanded reproduction used to be considered passive, silent compulsion, now can be theorized through transparently violent means. By discursively placing primitive accumulation and silent compulsion at opposite ends, Melamed establishes a binary that fails to rectify imperial power and dispossession that silence carries. A tenet of European colonial projects, particularly during Marx’s lifetime, was rendering the colonized body silent by the use of violent means in order to force an acquiescent colonial subject. Laced within this imperial power dynamic is inherent means of capital accumulation, production, and consumption. If according to Melamed, expanded reproduction was previously conceptualized through “silent consumption of economic relations,” then by what methods were production being achieved? The silenced imperial subject, while silent, was relegated to its position through violence, destabilizing Melamed’s binary approach to understanding primitive accumulation. Another way to begin thinking through the questions of silence, agency, compulsion, and violence is to examine political cartoons detailing the “Scramble for Africa” in 1884. The ‘carving up’ of Africa took place after the 1884-85 Berlin Conference and served as an official colonial partitioning of Africa to Western European colonial powers. Numerous political and cartoons were created following the conference, indicating its importance to the colonial apparatus. Pictorial representations serve as an excellent illustration of broader theories and hold a lot of power within the colonial archive and the academy writ large. Looking at two cartoons, one created before and one during the Berlin Conference, we can begin tracing how representations of imperial projects and primitive accumulation manifest in the archive and inform Melamed’s understanding of primitive accumulation. Image A depicts German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who served from 1871-1890, using a knife to section a cake, with Africa written along the side, among different European delegates seated at the table. The rest of the European delegates wear a confused, surprised expression as Bismarck, knife in one hand uses his finger to point at certain sections of the divided cake. The process of carving up Africa depicted in the cartoon doesn’t at first glance evoke Melamed’s definition of primitive accumulation— the leaders are calmly expanding their respective colonial reach symbolized with a piece of cake. The cartoon challenges the binary Melamed delineates between violence and silence: the process of carving up Africa, on behalf of the European delegates, represents Melamed’s “silent consumption of economic relations,” however, the process of carving up African land necessitates disposession and colonial violence. Bismarck’s large knife exemplifies this violence within the image. Further, the carving of Africa directly supplied economic goods, such as Belgium’s rubber empire in the Congo, to colonial powers, highlighting the capital accumulation inherent in the Berlin Conference. Yet, no “transparently violent means” are evident in the cartoon, even though colonial violence and capital accumulation are impliclty depicted. These tensions in the image illustrate the in-between points, of neither primitive accumulation nor “silent consumption”, of Melamed’s binary, and begin to offer ways to visualize colonial projects beyond the binary. Image B, 'The Devilfish in Egyptian Waters,' created three years before the Berlin Conference focuses on the British Empire as a force of primitive accumulation and imperial prowess. It was drawn by an American cartoonist, and features John Bull, a cartoon personification of England, with his hands in and carving up many parts of the world. Interestingly, African countries, other than Egypt, are not depicted at the forefront, showing the temporal importance of cartoons drawn before the Berlin Conference. Once again, “transparently violent means” of capital accumulation are invisible in the image, yet the octo-human’s arms all radiate back to John Bull, implicating the directionality of capital accumulation within the British Empire. However, “the silent consumption of economic relations” aren’t present either: unlike Image A, there are no bilateral relations, no delegations or discussions; the cartoon evokes direct colonial intervention. This cartoon also exposes the grey-space evident within Melamed’s binary: transparently violent means of dispossession are erased in an image directly evoking primitive accumulation. Ultimately, we must reconcile with these definitions of primitive accumulation and the visual archive. These two caricatures establish points of tension within Melamed’s work around primitive accumulation but are only the starting point for understanding how imagery and representation work to create, or render invisible, tactics of imperialism, capital accumulation, and dispossession. Given that images are a primary mode of knowledge production, especially in political resistance, analyzing their broader significance and identifying absences is crucial to forming a holistic understanding of the racial capitalist present. WORKS CITED Anonymous Artist. “The Devilfish in Egyptian Waters”, 1882. Granger Historial Picture Archive, https://www.granger.com/results.asp?image=0050070. Anonymous Artist. “French commentary on the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885”, 1885. Alamy Stock Photo, October 2013. https://www.alamy.com/search.html?qt=G3AN8A&imgt=0 Douglas Harper. “Accumulation” Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/word/accumulation#etymonline_v_131 Douglas Harper. “Primitive”. Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/word/primitive Melamed, Jodi. “Racial Capitalism.” Critical Ethnic Studies 1, no. 1 (2015): 76–85. Singh, Nikhil Pal. “On Race, Violence, and So-Called Primitive Accumulation.” Social Text 34, no. 3 128 (2016): 27–50. Sommer, Lauren. “To Manage Wildfire, California Looks To What Tribes Have Known All Along.” NPR, NPR, 24 Aug. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/08/24/899422710/to-manage-wildfire-california-looks-to-what-tribes-have-known-all-along. United States, House of Representatives. Indian Removal Act: Primary Documents in American History, pp. 1. Library of Congress, 1830. Library of Congress. https://guides.loc.gov/indian-removal-act#:~:text=The%20Indian%20Removal%20Act%20was,many%20resisted%20the%20relocation%20policy. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020.
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E.D. is a sophomore at Williams majoring in American Studies and Political Science, with a focus in critical theory and comparative politics. He is from Amherst, Massachusetts and is an executive editor on the Record. Outside of Williams, E.D. spends his time doing research with FreeUyghurNow, a student coalition researching injustices against the Uyghur people, pursuing abstract analog photography, and playing the bassoon. Categories |