ЩО (НЕ) МОЖУТЬ ГРОШІ: ДЕЯКІ НАПРЯМИ ЕТНОЕКОНОМІЧНИХ ДОСЛІДЖЕНЬ У ЗАРУБІЖНІЙ КУЛЬТУРНІЙ АНТРОПОЛОГІЇ

Abstract

Money in the imagination of modern person, despite rational thinking, could be the not solely conditional equivalent of inserted effort, but also a «wonderful gift» of the greatest forces. The article shows a historiographic review of significant works of the foreign cultural anthropologists and ethnologists linked to an impression about the supernatural power of money. Attention is focused on the problem of correlation of money and work, the possibility of inclusion of magical practices for increasing the quantity of money and it’s «morality». An idea about the supernatural power of money has been existed and exists in different cultures, not only pre-industrial but post-industrial as well. One of the first researchers in the «supernatural» power of money field was М. Мauss in the gist economic context. М. Taussig analyzes impressions about «otherworldly» abilities of money through the prism of the interaction of market capitalism with traditional culture. In modern researches, a similar way of thinking could be found in the works of J. Carsten, J. Hickel. Also heavily used opposing of the market and «moral» economics. Market economic values profit as a positive fact. «Moral economic» rates it as an egoistical claim of the work, money and life force, as sorcery and swaying the social benefit in their favour. Important to emphasize that magical practices of «pulling» money prevail in the post-Soviet societies which require further investigation. Most of the anthropologists comprehended that phenomenon as a continuation of traditional ma­gical practices in the bounds of a specific culture, although the further context is suggested as well, where the money is compared to religion. Studying modern impressions and ritual practices which are used by our contemporaries until now leaves a large field for anthropologists for observing the social transformations and analyzing cultural features through the money idea.