Waubonsee Community College

Economic anthropology, history, ethnography, critique, Chris Hann and Keith Hart

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-195) and index

index present

non fiction

Economic anthropology

bibliography

705518515

Chris Hann and Keith Hart

history, ethnography, critique

This book is an introduction to the history and practice of economic anthropology by two leading authors in the field. They show that anthropologists have contributed to understanding the three great questions of modern economic history: development, socialism and one-world capitalism. In doing so, they connect economic anthropology to its roots in Western philosophy, social theory and world history. Up to the Second World War anthropologists tried and failed to interest economists in their exotic findings. They then launched a vigorous debate over whether an approach taken from economics was appropriate to the study of non-industrial economies. Since the 1970s, they have developed a critique of capitalism based on studying it at home as well as abroad. The authors aim to rejuvenate economic anthropology as a humanistic project at a time when the global financial crisis has undermined confidence in free market economics. They argue for the continued relevance of predecessors such as Marcel Mauss and Karl Polanyi, while offering a review of recent work in this field. This text presents a challenging perspective on the world economy today

1. Economic anthropology. Some issues of method ; The human economy ; Critical anthropology ; Organization of the book -- 2. Economy from the ancient world to the age of the Internet. Economy as household management ; Medieval and early modern roots of economic theory ; The rise of political economy ; The economic anthropology of Karl Marx ; National capitalism and beyond -- 3. The rise of modern economics and anthropology. The German tradition ; The British tradition ; The American tradition ; The French tradition -- 4. The golden age of economic anthropology. Karl Polanyi and the Substantivist School ; The Formalists -- 5. After the formalist-substantivist debate. Marxism ; Feminism ; The cultural turn ; Hard science ; The anthropology of money -- 6. Unequal development. Development in an unequal world ; Anthropologists and development ; The anthropology of development in Africa ; The informal economy ; Beyond development? -- 7. The socialist alternative. Socialism ; Postsocialist transformation ; Reform Socialism -- 8. One-world capitalism. The development of capitalism ; Industrial work ; Consumption ; Corporate capitalism ; Money and the financial crisis -- 9. Where do we go from here? History, ethnography, critique ; Economic anthropology as a discipline ; Farewell to Homo economicus