2020-21 Academic Catalog

This course examines the ways that economies are embedded in social relations. How should we define affluence? Is barter a useful system for today? What relationships exist between ecology and culture? Formulating an anthropological perspective for the interpretation of pre-capitalist economies, what practical lessons can we learn from the study of hunter-gatherers, horticulturalists, and peasants?  We will also discuss the meaning of money, articulation between local and global economies, gender bias in classical exchange theory, Mauss on gift-giving, and Marx on "commodity fetishism." Theoretical material will be illustrated with ethnographic examples from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas.