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Economic Anthropology

Overview Introduction

Economic anthropology, broadly defined, is the study of material processes in their social relations. It is a sub-discipline with blurred boundaries as it cross-cuts theoretical paradigms and other sub-fields within anthropology. As a field of study it is as old as anthropological fieldwork itself. Bronislaw Malinowski's famous Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922), challenged the neo-classical assumptions of self-interested and rational motives by illustrating the social and symbolic nature of the Kula exchange system of the Trobriand Islanders. Other early anthropologists focused on the analysis of economic systems, among them Firth (1939), Goodfellow (1939), and Herskovitz (1940). Unlike the approach of Malinowski, these anthropologists employed aspects of neo-classical economics, portraying economic decisions as individual actions based on individual motivation.

Most of early economic anthropology was heavily descriptive, detailing the facts of economic activities in production, distribution, exchange and consumption. In 1957 Karl Polanyi published Trade and Market in the Early Empires spurring the huge formalist-substantivist debate which the sub-discipline is best know for and which, in many ways, solidified the field of economic anthropology. Formalists, on the one hand, believed that the principles of rational choice were universal and thus, were useful in analyzing even "primitive economies." The substantivist, on the other hand, believed that the economies of different societies were based on different logical processes and hence, should be understood on their own terms. It was argued that such formal principles were perhaps appropriate for economies that were embedded in the market but were useless for those non-market societies where the economy was embedded in other social institutions. The real concept of economy for substantivists was to be found in the notion of institutional transactions toward the satisfaction of wants. At its roots the formalist-substantivist debate was essentially the long run universalitst/relativist anthropological debate. Such formalist supporters as Harold Schneider, Edward Le Clair, and Scott Cook, argued that substantivists were romanticizing the primitive and were rejecting economics based on ideological abhorrence of the market and capitalism. Substantivists such as Marshall Sahlins and George Dalton argued that the importation of neo-classical economic models was ethnocentric and inappropriate to the various societies. The debate climaxed in the 1960's and was drawn out, without resolution, until the early 70's.

After the great debate subsided, economic anthropology extended in a series of different directions (which are impossible to encapsulate here). One approach to highlighting the diversity in economic anthropology would be to suggest that four principal theoretical paradigms continue to inform the modern anthropological analysis of economic phenomena. Aspects of Neo-classical economics is still integrated into anthropological work. Demand analysis has been pursued by Burling (1962), Blau and Ferber (1986), production theory by Wilk (1991), Fricke (1986), Bartlett (1982), Loucky (1979), and Hill (1982), and game theory and risk by Barth (1959), Moore (1957), and Davenport (1960). Social and Institutional approaches, which focus on the relationship between social structure and economic life, continue to inform much of economic anthropology. The early British social anthropologists Radcliffe-Brown (1965) and Evans Pritchard (1969) are clear examples. More recently anthropologists have tried to integrate ideas from institutional economics into their work (Acheson 1994). A third paradigm of Political Economy and Marxism, which focuses on the connection between power and material activities, has been highly influential in economic anthropology. Studies in modes of production (Meillassoux 1981, Binford and Cook 1991, Coquery-Vidrovitch 1978), dependency and world systems theory (Frank 1967, 1969, Rodney 1972, Amin 1976, Cardoso and Faletto 1979), cultural ecology and economy (Netting 1977, Orlove 1980), and American historical peasant studies (Wolf 1982, Mintz, 1985, Ong 1987, Atwood 1992, Trouillot 1988) are only some of the approaches to be labeled as such. A final paradigm informing modern economic analysis in anthropology is that of Cultural Economics, which uses the anthropological concepts of symbolic culture to understand economic behavior. This paradigm has many strains and variations but in general seeks to explore economic phenomena through subjective and culturally determined indigenous perspectives. Anthropologists such as Spiro (1966), Geertz (1963), Sahlins (1976), Gudeman (1986, 2001), Gudeman and Rivera (1990), Annis (1987), and Robbens (1989) all have different ways of exploring these connections but agree that fundamentally the economy is embedded in culture and does not exist as a bounded and independent sphere of activity. Newer research explores transnationalism, globalization and the economy (Appadurai 1990,1996, Hart 2000).

Selected References on Economic Anthropology

General Texts on Economic Anthropology

Clammer, John. 1987. Beyond the new economic anthropology. New York: St. Martin's Press

Ensminger, Jean. Ed. 2002. Theory in economic anthropology. Walnut Creek CA: Alta Mira Press

Firth, Raymond. 1967. Themes in economic anthropology. London: Tavistock

Gudeman, Stephen. 1978. "Anthropological economics: The question of distribution". Annual Review of Anthropology 7:347?377.

Gudeman, Stephen. 1986. Economics as culture: Models and metaphors of livelihood. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Gudeman, Stephen. 2001. Anthropology of economy: Community, market, and culture. Oxford: Blackwell.

Halperin, Rhoda. 1988. Economies across cultures. New York: St. Martin's Press

Helms, June. 1965. Essays in economic anthropology. American Ethnological Society Monographs. Seattle: University of Washington

Kahn, J.S. and J.R. Llobera 1981. The anthropology of pre-capitalist societies. London: Macmillan.

LeClair, Edward, and Harold Schneider. 1968. Economic anthropology: Readings in theory and analysis. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Narotzky, Susana. 1997. New directions in economic anthropology. London, Chicago: Pluto Press.

Oritz Sutti. 1983. Economic anthropology: Topics and theories. Monographs in Economic Anthropology, no.2 Lanham, Md: University Press of America, for the Society for Economic Anthropology.

Plattner, Stuart. 1989. Economic anthropology. Stanford: Stanford University Press

Schneider, Harold. 1974. Economic man. New York: Free Press.

Wilk, Richard. 1996. Economies & cultures: Foundations of economic anthropology. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

2000. "Symposium on the history of economic anthropology" History of Political Economy 32(4). Contributions by Philip Mirowski, Heath Pearson, James Ferguson, Chris Gregory, Jane Guyer, Keith Hart, and John Kees Lodewijks.

Early "Classics" in Economic Anthropology

Malinowski, Bronislaw. [1922] 1961. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. New York: Dutton

Forde, C. Daryll. [1934]. Habitat, economy, and society. New York: E. P. Dutton.

Goodfellow, David Martin. 1939. Principles of economic sociology: The economics of primitive life as illustrated from the Bantu peoples of South and East Africa. London: G. Routledge and Sons.

Herskovitz, Melville. 1940. The economic life of primitive peoples. New York: Knopf.

Firth, Raymond. 1939. Primitive Polynesian economy. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Formalist-Substantivist Debate

Cook, Scott. 1966. "The obsolete 'anti?market' mentality: A critique of the substantive approach to economic anthropology". American Anthropologist 68:323?345.

Cook, Scott. 1969. "The anti?market mentality re?examined: A further critique of the
substantive approach to economic anthropology" Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 25:378?406.

Cook, Scott. 1973. "Economic anthropology: Problems in theory, method, and analysis" In Handbook of social and cultural anthropology. John Honlgnlan, Ed. Chicago: Rand McNally.

Dalton, George. 1969. "Theoretical issues in economic anthropology" Current Anthropology 10(1):63?102.

Godelier, Maurice. [1965] 1972. "The object and method of economic anthropology" In Rationality and irrationality in economics. Maurice Godelier, Ed. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Godelier, Maurice. 1988. The Mental and the Material. Verso: London.

Isaac, Barry. 1993. "Retrospective on the formalist?substantivist debate" In Research in economic anthropology. Barry Isaac, Ed. Greenwich, CT.: JAI Press.

LeClair, Edward. and Harold Schneider. Eds. 1968. Economic anthropology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Polanyi, Karl, Conrad Arensburg, and Harry Pearson, Eds. 1957. Trade and market in the early empires. New York: Free Press.

Prattis, J. Iain. Ed. 1973. "The state of the arts in economic anthropology: Reflections on a theme" Special issue of Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 10(3).

Neo-Classical Economics in Anthropology

Barth, Fredrik. 1959. "Segmentary opposition and the theory of games: A study of pathan organization". Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 89:5-21.

Bartlett, Peggy. 1982. Agricultural choice and change. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Blau, Francine, and Marianne Ferber. 1986. The economics of women, men, and work. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Burling, Robbins. 1962. "Maximization theory and the study of economic anthropology" American Anthropologist 64:802-821.

Davenport, William. 1960. Jamaican fishing: A game theory analysis. In Papers on Caribbean anthropology. New Haven: Yale University Publications in Anthropology 57-64: 3-11.

Fricke, Thomas. 1986. Himalayan households: Tamang demography and domestic processes. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research

Hill, Polly. 1982. Dry grain farming families. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Loucky, James. 1979. "Production and patterning of social relations and values in two Guatemalan villages" American Ethnologist 6:702?723.

Wilk, Richard. 1991. Household ecology. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Political Economy & Marxism

Attwood, Donald. 1992. Raising cane: The political economy of sugar in Western India. Boulder: Westview Press

Binford, Leigh, and Scott Cook. 1991. "Petty production in Third World capitalism today" In Marxist approaches in economic anthropology. A. Littlefield and H.Gates, Eds. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

Bloch, Maurice. 1975. Marxist analyses and social anthropology. London: Tavistock.

Cardoso, Fernando, and Enzo Faletto. 1979. Dependency and development in Latin America. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Ellis, Frank. 1988. Peasant economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Frank, Andre Gunder. 1967. Capitalism and underdevelopment in Latin America. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Frank, Andre Gunder. 1969. Latin America: Underdevelopment or revolution. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Hodges, Richard. 1988. Primitive and peasant markets. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Littlefield, Alice, and Hill Gates. 1991. Marxist approaches in economic anthropology. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

Meillassoux, Claude. 1972. "From reproduction to production: A Marxist approach to economic anthropology" Economy and Society 1 (1): 93?105.

Meillassoux, Claude. 1981. Maidens, meal, and money. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nash, Manning. 1966. Primitive and peasant economic systems. San Francisco: Chandler.

Mintz, Sidney. 1985. Sweetness and power: The place of sugar in modern history. New York: Penguin.

Netting, Robert. 1977. Cultural ecology. Menlo Park, CA: Cummings Publishing Company.

Ong, Aihwa. 1987. Spirits of resistance and capitalist discipline: Factory women in Malaysia. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Rodney, Walter. 1972. How Europe underdeveloped Africa. London: Bogle?L'Ouverture.

Roseberry, William. "Political economy in 1988" Annual Review of Anthropology 17:161-185.

Trouillot, Michel?Rolph. 1988. Peasants and capital: Dominica in the world economy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Wolf, Eric. 1982. Europe and the people without history. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Social and Institutional Approaches

Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. 1965. Structure and function in primitive societies. New York: Free Press.

Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1969. The Nuer. New York: Oxford University Press.

Acheson, James. Ed. 1994. Anthropology and institutional economics. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

Cultural Economics

Annis, Sheldon. 1987. God and production in a Guatelamlan town. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Appadurai, Arjun, and Carol A. Breckenridge. Eds. 1986. The social life of things. Commodities in cultural perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bohannon, Paul and Laura Bohannon. 1968. Tiv economy. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University.

Douglas, Mary. 1954. "The Lele of the Kasai" In African worlds. C. Daryll Forde, Ed. London: Oxford University Press.

Geertz, Clifford. 1963. Peddlers and princes: Social development and economic change in two Indonesian towns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Gudeman, Stephen. 1986. Economics as culture: Models and metaphors of livelihood. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Gudeman, Stephen. 2001. The anthropology of economy: Community, market, and culture. Oxford: Blackwell.

Gudeman, Stephen, and Alberto Rivera. 1990. Conversations in Colombia: The domestic economy in work and text. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Robben, Antonius. 1989. Sons of the sea goddess: Economic practice and discursive conflict in Brazil. New York: Columbia University Press.

Sahlins, Marshall. 1968. Tribesmen. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice?Hall.

Sahlins, Marshall. 1972. Stone age economics. Chicago: Aldine.

Sahlins, Marshall. 1976. Culture and practical reason. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Spiro, Melford. 1966. "Buddhism and economic action in Burma" American Anthropologist 68:1163-1173.

Transnationalism, Globalization, and Economy

Appadurai, Arjun. 1996. Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of modernity. London and Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Hart, Keith. 2000. The memory bank: Money in an unequal world. London: Profile Books.

Web Resources in Economic Anthropology

Society for Economic Anthropology
http://nautarch.tamu.edu/anth/sea/