Kussy, AngelinaComas-d'Argemir, Dolors2024-10-092024-10-092024Kussy A, Comas-d'Argemir D. The sacrificed lives of the caring class: crises of social reproduction, unequal Europe, and modern forms of slavery. J R Anthropol Inst. 2024 Sep 25. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9655.142081359-0987http://hdl.handle.net/10230/61361Data de publicació electrònica: 25-09-2024There have been plenty of interpretations regarding the meaning and function of sacrifice within the discipline of anthropology. Going beyond sacrifice as a ritual and exploring a wide range of its manifestations and functions as contemporary cultural practices, discourses, and underlying logics, we reveal its role in the social organization of social care provision within the framework of neoliberal capitalism. Our analysis supports the theory that sacrifice can have the function of social control, and of preserving hierarchies. The forgoing of a minority of migrant domestic workers to provide intensive social care becomes the (no) solution to the ongoing care crisis. It thus becomes the way to hide structural violence and dilute responsibilities for society, which benefits from the servile conditions under which the labour is performed. The ethnographic material (observations, informal conversations, and interviews) that is part of our analysis originated from fieldwork in Castellón de la Plana, Spain (2018/19). This analysis, however, goes beyond that case, being valid for reflecting on the position of care for elderly and dependent people in our societies, care in general, the current global trend in social care provision, and the new social reproduction regime in which sacrificial logics play an increasing role.application/pdfeng© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Anthropological Institute. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.Desigualtat socialCuidadorsCuidadors -- Condicions socialsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.14208info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess