A Handbook of Economic Anthropology

A HANDBOOK OF ECONOMIC ANTHROPOLOGY A Handbook of Economic Anthropology Edited by James G. Carrier Senior Research Associate in Anthropology, Oxford Brookes University, UK and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, Indiana University, USA Edward Elgar Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA ©James G. Carrier 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Published by Edward Elgar Publishing Limited Glensanda House Montpellier Parade Cheltenham Glos GL50 1UA UK Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc. 136 West Street Suite 202 Northampton Massachusetts 01060 USA A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 1 84376 175 0 (cased) Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall Contents List of contributors viii Preface and acknowledgements xv Introduction 1 James G. Carrier PART I ORIENTATIONS Introduction 13 1 Karl Polanyi 14 Barry L. Isaac 2 Anthropology, political economy and world-system theory 26 J.S. Eades 3 Political economy 41 Don Robotham 4 Decisions and choices: the rationality of economic actors 59 Sutti Ortiz 5 Provisioning 78 Susana Narotzky 6 Community and economy: economy’s base 94 Stephen Gudeman PART II ELEMENTS Introduction 109 7 Property 110 Chris Hann 8 Labour 125 E. Paul Durrenberger 9 Industrial work 141 Jonathan Parry 10 Money: one anthropologist’s view 160 Keith Hart 11 Finance 176 Bill Maurer 12 Distribution and redistribution 194 Thomas C. Patterson v vi A handbook of economic anthropology 13 Consumption 210 Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld PART III CIRCULATION Introduction 229 14 Ceremonial exchange 230 Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart 15 The gift and gift economy 246 Yunxiang Yan 16 Barter 262 Patrick Heady 17 The anthropology of markets 275 Kalman Applbaum 18 One-way economic transfers 290 Robert C. Hunt PART IV INTEGRATIONS Introduction 305 19 Culture and economy 306 Michael Blim 20 Gender 323 Maila Stivens 21 Economy and religion 339 Simon Coleman 22 Economies of ethnicity 353 Thomas Hylland Eriksen 23 Environment and economy: mutual connections and diverse perspectives 370 Eric Hirsch PART V ISSUES Introduction 389 24 Economic anthropology and ethics 390 Peter Luetchford 25 Households and their markets in the Andes 405 Enrique Mayer 26 Peasants 423 Mark Harris 27 Value: anthropological theories of value 439 David Graeber Contents vii 28 Value: economic valuations and environmental policy 455 Catherine Alexander 29 Anthropology and development: the uneasy relationship 472 David Lewis PART VI REGIONS Introduction 489 30 South America 490 Terry Roopnaraine 31 Africa south of the Sahara 500 Mahir çSaul 32 The Near East 515 Julia Elyachar 33 South Asia 526 John Harriss 34 East Asia 537 J.S. Eades 35 Postsocialist societies 547 Chris Hann Index 559 Contributors Catherine Alexander teaches anthropology at Goldsmiths College, London. She has worked in Turkey, Kazakhstan and Britain on issues of urban governance, privatisation, property and the built environment. Her recent publications include Personal states: making connections between people and bureaucracy in Turkey (2002) and contributions to the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Focaal: European Journal of Anthropology(special issue on cultural property) and the collection edited by C. Humphrey and K. Verdery, Property in question: appropriation, recognition and value transformation in the global economy(2004). Kalman Applbaum teaches anthropology at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. He has conducted research in Japan, Israel and the United States. Among his publications are The marketing era (2003), Consumption and market society in Israel (2004, ed. with Y. Carmeli) and Knowledge and verification (Social Analysis special issue, Volume 47, 2003, ed. with I. Jordt). Michael Blim teaches anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of Made in Italy: small-scale industrialization and its consequences(1990) and of the forthcoming Equality and economy: the global challenge (2004). He is the co-editor of Anthropology and the global factory(1992, ed. with F. Rothstein). James G. Carrierhas studied exchange processes in Papua New Guinea, the United States and Great Britain. He has taught at universities in those countries, and is presently Senior Research Associate at Oxford Brookes University and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University. His main publications in economic anthropology include Wage, trade and exchange in Melanesia (1989, with A. Carrier), Gifts and commodities: exchange and Western capitalism since 1700 (1995), Meanings of the market (1997, ed.) and Virtualism: a new political economy (1998, ed. with D. Miller). Simon Colemanis Professor of Anthropology at the University of Sussex. His current research areas include the global spread of conservative Protestantism, pilgrimage and the politics of hospital architecture. His publications include The globalisation of charismatic Christianity (2000), Reframing pilgrimage viii Contributors ix (2004, ed. with J. Eade) and ‘The charismatic gift’ (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 2004). Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld teaches anthropology at the University of Iowa. His past research examines connections among consumption, economic change and indigenous politics in the Ecuadorian Andes. More recently he has investigated the ways economic competition can build and test community identity. Recent publications include The native leisure class(1999) and ‘An ethnography of neoliberalism: understanding competition in artisan economies’ (Current Anthropology2002). E. Paul Durrenbergerhas done fieldwork among highland tribal people and lowland peasants in Northern Thailand, on industrial fishing and farming in Iceland, medieval Iceland, fishing in Mississippi and Alabama, on industrial agriculture in the US Middlewest, on alternative agriculture in Pennsylvania and on labour unions in Chicago and Pennsylvania. His most recent books include State and community in fisheries management: power, policy, and practice(2000, with T. King) and Tell us something we don’t know: activism and anthropology in a union local (2004, with S. Erem). He has recently edited the Society for Economic Anthropology’s work on labour, Anthropology of work(2004, ed. with J. Marti). J.S. Eades is Director of the Media Resource Center at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan, and Senior Honorary Research Fellow in Anthropology at the University of Kent. After working for many years on West Africa, his current research interests are migration, urbanisation, tourism and higher education in the Asia-Pacific region. Recent books include Tokyo (1999), Globalization and social change in contemporary Japan (2000, ed. with T. Gill and H. Befu) and Globalization in Southeast Asia(2003, ed. with S. Yamashita). Julia Elyachar is Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Near Eastern Studies at New York University. She is the author of ‘Mappings of power: the state, NGOs, and international organizations in the informal economy of Cairo’ (Comparative Studies in Society and History 2003) and ‘Empowerment money: the World Bank, non-governmental organizations, and the value of culture in Egypt’ (Public Culture2002). Her book Markets of Dispossession is forthcoming (2005) with Duke University Press. Thomas Hylland Eriksen is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. He has done fieldwork in Trinidad and Mauritius, and has published extensively on ethnicity, nationalism, globalisation and general