Marx relied on anthropology in his logical and historical exposition, and anthropology has long existed in dialectic with Marxism. To study anthropology with Marxist categories or subject Marxism to ethnographic scrutiny, it makes sense to proceed chronologically—the importance of history is something anthropologists and Marxists often agree on. In the process, we consider how philosophical idealism continues to interfere in efforts to build grounded ethnographic theory, yet how ethnography remains a uniquely useful tool to unsettle idealist abstractions that limit Marxist debate itself.
I begin by discussing Marx’s treatment of anthropology in his project to historicize capitalism, then how Marxist theory influenced anthropology: By the middle of the 20th century, the anthropological notion of society was no longer the integrated whole imagined within functionalism, but rather a field characterized by conflict and struggle. Following experiments in material and ecological determinisms, it was feminist and postcolonial revisionings of the “class consciousness” concept that sparked an epistemological debate that informs the politics of ethnography to the present day—insights of the poststructuralist turn may transcend those of Marx, but they also contain them.
I then present my research of anarchist social movements in North America to illustrate the continued utility of anthropology within Marxist theory and practice: In my study of the ethnographic category “good politics”, it becomes clear that people concerned about oppressed identities are not necessarily looking for recognition—as opposed to engaging in “class struggle”, yet insofar as identities are mobilized as property, no amount of intersectionality makes things better for the working class. Insofar as this chapter is staged as an intervention, it is to remind 21st century anthropologists the material importance of knowing their (disciplinary) history, and to challenge the Marxist who still considers identity politics a conundrum to consider applying the materialist method of ethnography.
Lagalisse, Erica. (2022) “Anthropology” in The SAGE Handbook of Marxism (Vol.1-3) edited by Sara Farris, Beverley Skeggs, Alberto Toscano and Svenja Bromberg (London: SAGE)
One of my first peer-reviewed publications, “Marginalizing Magdalena – Intersections of Gender and the Secular in Anarchoindigenist Solidarity Activism” (2011) explores the logical and historical connections between gender and secularism, based on ethnographic research of collaborating Zapatista and anarchist activist collectives in support of indigenous peoples’ movements on Turtle Island. This article is a certain summary of my Masters thesis in anthropology (2007), and also forms part of Chapter 3 of my PhD dissertation (and current manuscript in progress) “Good Politics”: Property, Intersectionality and the Making of the Anarchist Self (2016).
Abstract (from Signs—Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 2011):
Anarchoindigenism—a synthesis of anarchist and indigenist philosophies of egalitarianism—is a popular project among contemporary anarchist activists. This discourse, and the practice of solidarity activism with which it is in dialectical relation, signify promising new conversations and coalitions across difference in the transnational struggle against neoliberalism. However, anarchists’ intentions of horizontal solidarity are troubled by the secularism of the anarchist tradition and by gendered definitions of power and politics. By way of an ethnographic analysis of a speaking tour of two Oaxacan indigenous activists organized by Montreal anarchists, I problematize each of these biases in turn and in their relation: the public/private divide as applied to religion and politics and to the domestic and the public is one and the same. I demonstrate the combination of these dichotomies in their marginalization of Magdalena during her speaking tour, as well as argue their historical articulation. By throwing into relief these correspondences, we may better understand the coimplication of neoliberalism, secularism, and gender, and we can better practice transnational feminist, as well as anarchist, solidarity. Beyond critiquing secularism and androcentrism as a failure to respect others’ identity in anarchist solidarity movements, I suggest that this disenchantment tale contributes to what it describes, reducing vision for radical transformation. Likewise, gender-blind constructions of anarchoindigenism fail not only indigenous women but any anticolonial, anticapitalist movement. These interconnected insights become clearer when resistance movements and critical engagement are grounded in the experiences and analyses of indigenous women. As such, I offer this ethnography as a contribution toward a potential anarchaindigenism.
Magdalena arranges the ofrenda (altar) in honour of fallen comrades of the Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO) in front of the Mexican consulate in Montreal, Quebec (November 2006); I am found behind her wearing the orange hat, speaking with another member of our collective.
Street art depicting iterations of the Vírgen de Guadelupe, including the “Vírgen de las Barrikadas” popular during the APPO movement. The photos on the left and right were taken in Oaxaca (2010); the middle photograph was taken in San Cristobal de las Casas (2011)—see article for discussion.
In this work, my social movements research informs an autonomist anti-capitalist analysis of marijuana legalization based on multisited ethnography in Quebec, Canada, and California, U.S.A.
A podcast version of my public lecture at the London School of Economics, “Presenting Occult Features of Anarchism – With Attention to the Conspiracy of Kings and the Conspiracy of the Peoples” (2019) is available here.
This lecture took place March 20th, 2019, and was chaired by Mathijs Pelkmans of the Anthropology department.
“Erica Lagalisse explores the relationship of 19th century anarchism with the clandestine fraternity, challenges leftist attachments to atheism, and intervenes in current debates concerning “conspiracy theory”.
In the nineteenth century anarchists were accused of conspiracy by governments afraid of revolution, but in the current century various “conspiracy theories” suggest that anarchists are controlled by government itself. The Illuminati were a network of intellectuals who argued for self-government and against private property, yet the public is now often told that they were (and are) the very group that controls governments and defends private property around the world. Intervening in such misinformation, Lagalisse works with primary and secondary sources in multiple languages to set straight the history of the Left and will illustrate the actual relationship between revolutionism, pantheistic occult philosophy, and the clandestine fraternity.
Exploring hidden correspondences between anarchism, Renaissance magic, and New Age movements, Erica Lagalisse also advances critical scholarship regarding leftist attachments to secular politics. Inspired by anthropological fieldwork within today’s anarchist movements, challenging anarchist atheism insofar as it poses practical challenges for coalition politics in today’s world.
Studying anarchism as a historical object, Lagalisse will show how the development of leftist theory and practice within clandestine masculine public spheres continues to inform contemporary anarchist understandings of the “political,” in which men’s oppression by the state becomes the prototype for power in general, how gender and religion become privatized in radical counterculture, a historical process intimately linked to the privatization of gender and religion by the modern nation-state.
Erica Lagalisse, author of Occult Features of Anarchism, is an anthropologist and Postdoctoral Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute, LSE.
Mathijs Pelkmans is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, LSE.
The International Inequalities Institute (@LSEInequalities) at LSE brings together experts from many LSE departments and centres to lead critical and cutting edge research to understand why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges.”
Read “The Conspiracy of Kings, Class War and the Coronavirus” by Erica Lagalisse and her alter-ego Spartacus Tonans, Supreme Magus of the Kitchen Garden 007˚ originally published in Dope, Summer 2020, published by Dog Section Press, London, UK.
One of my first academic publications (2010), this ‘Limits of Radical Democracy’ essay concerns gendered power in anarchist collectives. Some of its material regarding the gendered construction of ‘public’ and ‘private’ space was later more fully developed within ‘Gossip as Direct Action’ and ‘Good Politics’, yet keeners may want to read this earlier version as well, as there is some ethnography and discussion in this piece that does not get carried forward.
This article is available in Spanish in regular PDF format and also as a fanzine.
Abstract (from Altérités, 2010):
Drawing on ethnographic research among activist collectives in Montreal, Quebec, this paper illustrates how two contemporary “anarchist” movements are characterized by gendered divisions of labour, voice, and priorities despite a nominal commitment to “radical democracy” and egalitarian values. Contemporary anarchist activism synthesizes critiques of the State drawn from late 19th and early 20th century anarchist movements, with anti-authoritarian organizational forms developed by feminist movements in the 1970s and 1980s (i.e. consensus decision-making, a focus on “means matching ends”). However, the feminist call for a “politics of everyday life” appears to have been fetishized in systems of formal procedures that govern meetings within the public sphere; process-oriented aspects of feminism have been institutionalized in these new movements, while gender relations remain private and un-interrogated. Key words: anarchism, feminism, gender, social movements.
Basé sur une ethnographie de collectifs anarchistes de Montréal, cet article montre comment, malgré un engagement théorique envers la « démocratie radicale » et l’égalitarisme, une division du travail, des discours et des priorités axées sur le genre traversent l’organisation de ces groupes. L’activisme anarchiste contemporain est une synthèse des critiques de l’État formulées par les mouvements anarchistes de la fin du XIXe siècle et du début du XXe siècle et des formes d’organisation anti-autoritaire prônées par les mouvements féministes des années 1970s et 1980s (processus de prise de décisions consensuelles, attention particulière à « l’harmonie entre les moyens et les buts »). Néanmoins, la revendication par les féministes d’une « politique de la vie quotidienne » semble avoir été fétichisée dans les systèmes formels de procédures qui gouvernent les réunions dans la sphère publique. Si certains aspects procéduraux du féminisme ont été institutionnalisés, les relations entre les sexes demeurent de l’ordre du privé et ne sont pas remis en question. Mots-clés: anarchisme, féminisme, « genre », mouvements sociaux.
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