Economic Anthropology

This course explores the social and cultural dimensions of production, exchange and consumption. Do all people everywhere seek to accumulate property, and to maximize profits? Is rationality the same in every culture? Do all think the same way about debt, bribery, gambling or marriage payments? Do human economies evolve inexorably-for example, from public to private property, from cowrie shells to electronic money, or from gifts and barter to sale and credit? Or is the picture more complex and the direction inconstant? Is there really any such thing as a free gift? What does The Godfather have to do with the exchange of necklaces and armbands in the South Pacific? Who wins and loses from globalization? Why do people value things?