Savage Money: The Anthropology and Politics of Commodity ExchangeThe era of savage money began on 15 August 1971 when the US Government, financially weakened by the Vietnam War, was forced to renounce its control over the gold market. This freed the price of gold from government control for the first time since 1934 and created a new commodity in the form of state money tokens. The triumph of Market over State occurred in many other domains as well and since then the values of free market anarchism have reigned supreme. These values have been eagerly embraced by people the world over and a new global economic democracy is emerging where cultural identity is often asserted in violent ways. This new era poses questions for the theory of value, which this book addresses from an anthropological perspective. Fieldwork-based essays on the household values associated with agricultural land, rural marketing and village money lending in Central India are located comparatively and historically by means of an analysis of money in the form of cowries, silver, gold and state tokens. The author modifies and extends his previous work, Gifts and Commodities, by moving the ethnographic focus from Papua New Guinea to India and by considering the theoretical implications of the Subaltern Studies paradigm for anthropological theory. |
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Contents
CHAPTER I The Value Question | 1 |
CHAPTER II Beyond Gifts and Commodities | 43 |
CHAPTER III Land as the Supreme Good | 75 |
CHAPTER IV Production of Commodities by Means of Goods | 123 |
CHAPTER V Mercantile Kinship | 167 |
CHAPTER VI Usury Interest and Usance | 216 |
CHAPTER VII Domesticated Money | 238 |
CHAPTER VIII Savage Money | 271 |
CHAPTER IX Toward a Radical Humanist Anthropology | 304 |
Bibliography | 320 |
| 335 | |
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Savage Money: The Anthropology and Politics of Commodity Exchange Chris A. Gregory Limited preview - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
acres analysis anthropological anthropologists approach argues argument bangle Bank Bastar become beginning borrower brothers called capital caste century chapter cloth commodities comparative concerned Consider contradiction countries cowrie created cultural currency defined developed distinction dollar economic established example exchange existence fact farm farmers Figure forest gifts give given gold grain hand holdings House household human important India interest involved Jain kind Kondagaon labour land lending live loans logic Marwari means merchants Minipur notes notion objects opposition period perspective political poor principle problem production profit purchased quantity question relations relative reserves rice sell shells shows silver social society sons standard Table territoriality theory things thought trade Tribal University village women
Bibliographic information
| Title | Savage Money: The Anthropology and Politics of Commodity Exchange Volume 21 of Studies in anthropology and history, ISSN 1055-2464 |
| Author | Chris A. Gregory |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Psychology Press, 1997 |
| ISBN | 9057020920, 9789057020926 |
| Length | 333 pages |
| Subjects | › › Social Science / Anthropology / General |
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