Barter, Exchange and Value: An Anthropological Approach

ISBN-13: 9780521406826 / Angielski / Miękka / 1992 / 212 str.

Caroline Humphrey; Stephen Hugh-Jones

Opis

Economists treat barter as an inefficient alternative to market exchange, assuming that it is normal only in primitive economies. For their part, anthropologists are more concerned with the social and moral complexities of the "gift," and treat barter as mere haggling. The authors in this collection do not accept that barter occupies a residual space between monetary and gift economies. Using accounts from different parts of the world, they demonstrate that it is more than a simple and self-evident economic institution. Barter may constitute a mode of exchange with its own social characteristics, occupying its own moral space. This novel treatment of barter represents an original and topical addition to the literature on economic anthropology.

Spis treści

1. Introduction: Barter, exchange and value Caroline Humphrey and Stephen Hugh-Jones; 2. Politicised values: the cultural dynamics of peripheral exchange Nicholas Thomas; 3. Yesterday's luxuries, tomorrow's necessities: business and barter in northwest Amazonia Stephen Hugh-Jones; 4. Some notes on the economics of barter, money and credit Luca Anderlini and Hamid Sabourian; 5. Fair dealing, just rewards: the ethics of barter in North-East Nepal; 6. Inter-tribal commodity barter and productivie gift-exchange in old Melanesia Alfred Gell; 7. Qualified value: the perspective of gift exchange Marilyn Strathern.