Economic Anthropology Research Articles

Debt-financed migration: Agency and the productivity of debt

ABSTRACT Debt-financed migration has been a subject of academic interest for the past two decades. This phenomenon can be divided into two main mechanisms: salary deductions and upfront payments. In salary deductions, facilitators provide migrants with upfront funds that are later deducted from their salaries by their employers. In upfront payments, migrants borrow and mortgage assets to obtain capital to cover migration-related expenses upfront or upon arrival. These expenses are then repaid through remittances. Most of the existing literature on debt-financed migration has taken an economic perspective that emphasizes the risks of debt bondage in salary deductions and vulnerability in upfront payments. Studies critically examine the role of states, brokers, and markets in impacting migrants’ well-being and labor and human rights. However, considering the increasing intensity of migration flows and the widespread use of debt as a funding mechanism, evaluating the relevance of the conventional economic framework is essential. I argue this framework can be supplemented with a richer and more empirical understanding of agency that shows how migrants can effectively use debt for empowerment and protection against debt bondage and vulnerability. To support this argument, I delineate an economic anthropology framework highlighting migrants’ agentic use of debt to their advantage.

Transactional pathways: Institutional possibilities for status and wealth under racial/caste capitalism

I introduce the concept of transactional pathways, coined by anthropologist Jane Guyer, to trace the institutional processes that contribute to uneven and unjust patterns of wealth and status distribution under systems of colonialism and racial/caste capitalism. Transactional pathways employ historical perspectives to reveal how divergent economic institutions and sources of valuation relate to social hierarchies. This approach links everyday economic transactions with patterns of wealth accumulation that are based not only on class, but intersectional social groups including race, caste, and/or ethnicity. Transactional pathways account for the fact that not only do different groups receive different amounts of valuable resources because of uneven distribution, but they have variable access to the symbolic power required to define which resources are deemed valuable in the first place and to monopolize them accordingly. The article briefly surveys foundational concepts from the economic anthropology literature before detailing transactional pathways. It introduces the case of attempted formalization of waste collection and recycling in Delhi, India, using the related concepts of thresholds and conversions to analyze key moments when wealth and status accumulation becomes especially possible in institutionally plural contexts.

Defetishizing money: Perspectives from economic anthropology

Defetishizing money: Perspectives from economic anthropology

The Ornamental Plant Sector and Ornamental Plant Producers During the COVID-19 Pandemic (Cultural Responses to a Pandemic Situation in a Production Setting in East Central Europe)

AbstractOn March 24, 2020, the international flower trade association Union Fleurs issued a statement on the situation of the ornamental plants sector hit by the Covid-19 crisis. In a study published in April 2020, Copa-Cogeca (European Farmers and European Agri-Cooperatives) echoed the findings of the above-mentioned international flower trade association, stating that the flower and ornamental plants sector was the agricultural sector most impacted by the coronavirus in the EU, as in most Member States, including Hungary and Romania, there was a historical drop in demand and consumption of almost 80%, and unfortunately the virus hit at the worst possible time, as the spring season would have been the peak period for ornamental horticulturalists. In my case study, I examine the flower growers of Curteni, a settlement in the Mureș region of Transylvania (Romania). How has this global phenomenon caused by the coronavirus manifested itself locally in a settlement where nearly 60 families make their living from growing and selling ornamental plants? Has this community been able to maintain its territorial/regional competitiveness? Have the people of Curteni joined the group of producers known in economic anthropology as farmers who chose to halt and wait, or did they find a quick and resilient response to the obstacles they encountered? How did this crisis become an identity-shaping factor in their lives? The pandemic has also exacerbated the situation in Curteni, made it more difficult to act and make decisions, and has brought new perspectives and values into play. The example of the florist community of Curteni shows that a new situation, and indeed any crisis, can bring about positive changes in the lives of communities. In any crisis, emergency, or exigency, members of a community may almost instinctively, but mostly also consciously, seek innovative responses to their problems. One way is to discover and exploit the opportunities inherent in a crisis, communally re-assessing and utilizing the available values, opportunities, and resources, and finding truly resilient responses.

Unlearning hope: White Christian encounters with grace as a logic of exchange

AbstractHow do humans develop hope in the face of seemingly irreparable harm against each other? Drawing on interviews and participant observation with 30 BIPOC Christians and 40 White Christians whom they identified as long‐term allies, in this article, I consider how a slim minority of White Christians develop ways of hoping that sustain lasting antiracist engagement. I identify contributing factors to reorientations of hope, focusing on a type of catalytic event that I analyze as a form of exchange. As economic anthropologists from Marcel Mauss to David Graeber have elaborated, structures and moralities of gift giving reveal and define relationships. I extend that theory to argue that experiences of exchange relationships in turn shape the ways people hope. I trace a logic of exchange that interlocutors conceptualized using the term grace, an incongruous, freely given gift that anticipates future relationship in the context of unrepayable debt. As White Christians became highly aware of the systemic and historic immensity of racial injustice, their combined awareness of indebtedness and grace became formative to new kinds of relationship and hope. In response, they imagined and pursued a society in which love and repair across chasms of past harm are not taken for granted but are not impossible.

Toward an economic anthropology of wisdom

AbstractThis article examines two values that have long motivated work in economic anthropology: the value of denunciatory critique and the value of thinking otherwise. Through a retrospective analysis of research that I have conducted on consumer debt in Brazil, I offer two different versions of that research based on whether the story is driven by the first value of denunciation or by the second of thinking otherwise. In doing so, I suggest ways to address the limitations of both anthropology focused on denunciatory critique and the more recent development of an “anthropology of the good” by outlining what I call an anthropology of wisdom.

Musical Interludes and Teaching Laboratory: Learning and Student Engagement in an Economic Anthropology Classroom

We report on two exercises, musical interludes and the teaching laboratory, we developed for use in Economic Anthropology courses. The Musical Interlude asks students to present a song to the class (typically using a music video) and responding to a series of questions, summarizing the ways it reflects course themes. For the teaching laboratory, students are organized into working groups and collectively analyse and present their selections during the last week of class, addressing specific themes including altruism and selfishness. These assignments embrace the concept of musicking introduced by Christopher Small (1998), as students capture what he describes as music’s social value in understanding ourselves and others.

Review Essay

Scott Cook, Exploring Commodities. An Anthropologist on the Trails of Malinowski and Traven in Mexico. Oxford: Peter Lang, pp. 246. 2021. Stephen Gudeman, Enlightening Encounters. The Journeys of an Anthropologist. New York: Berghahn, pp. 144. 2022. Keith Hart, Self in the World. Connecting Life's Extremes. New York: Berghahn, pp. 314. 2022.

Introduction:Towards an Economic Anthropology of Catholicism, in the Age of Pope Francis

Introduction:Towards an Economic Anthropology of Catholicism, in the Age of Pope Francis

Eğitim Bilimleri ve Eğitim Yönetiminin Disiplinlerarası ve Disiplinler Üstü Yapısı

There are many concepts used in educational sciences and educational administration. However, some of these concepts are basic concepts that reflect the characteristics of that area. In this context, the basic concepts of education management can be listed as education, management, organization, system, education management, non-formal education, formal education, coordination, power, supervision, leadership, discipline, school management, cascading of education, managerial power, authority, responsibility, task, authority, organizational effectiveness, efficiency, evaluation, communication and competence. The interaction of two or more disciplines by bringing together certain concepts, processes, terminology and knowledge is called interdisciplinary.Dec. In this context, urban studies and peace studies can be shown as examples as interdisciplinary fields. Although the interdisciplinary approach involves crossing the boundaries of disciplines, it does not deny the disciplines. In fact, the concept of interdisciplinary is defined based on disciplines. But it involves connecting, interacting, connecting and focusing. Therefore, social psychology, economic anthropology, biogeography and economic history are examples of interdisciplinary scientific fields. Although there are different opinions about the concept of interdisciplinary, the concept generally involves creating cross-relationships between disciplines and concepts by borrowing Deconstructive problem solving, unity, synthesis and complex research topics, tools and methods for cooperation purposes. In interdisciplinary studies, each discipline presents a common argument by re-adapting its own concepts and methods. This requires bringing together different epistemic Deceptions. However, this is a difficulty because researchers need to be familiar with each other's cultures, know the differences between their basic theories, and contribute Decently to the formation of new knowledge and theories. This leads to problems of theory, method, scope and perspective in interdisciplinary and supradisciplinary studies. Because the use of a research method belonging to one discipline by other disciplines leads to various controversies. The introduction of general systems theory plays an important role in the history of the interdisciplinary approach. Because with this theory, he brought a different perspective on scientific issues and brought the Decoupling between the object and its environment to the agenda. For this reason, the opinion that a simple and single understanding of discipline is insufficient, but there should be cooperation between different disciplines, has increased decently. Key Words: Educational Sciences, Educational Management, Interdisciplinary, Supra-Disciplinary

Os Argonautas como um clássico da Sociologia: Malinowski e a história recente da Nova Sociologia Econômica

Abstract This essay was presented at the tribute to Bronislaw Malinowski, 100 years after the publication of The Argonauts of the Western Pacific organized by the Department of Social Anthropology of the London School of Economics. Its objective is to reflect on the exchanges between sociology and economic anthropology in different academic contexts and how these dynamics generate different conditions for the field of the "new" economic sociology to recognize The Argonauts as a classic. Unlike the academies of the center of the global anthropological system, the interpretation that is presented here illuminates the favorable conditions that occurred in the Southern Cone - particularly through the influence of Brazilian anthropology and, especially, the role played by the Nucleus of Culture and Economy of the National Museum - in generating this recognition.

Economic Anthropology in the Middle East and North Africa

Abstract In this introduction to this special issue on economic anthropology in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), I provide a short background on what economic anthropology is, its major debates since the 1950s, and its practice in the MENA region. I also summarise and bring together the articles that cover a range of different and emergent themes from social media in the belly dance industry through inflation and lotteries to startup cultures and mobile phones.

Notes on bewilderment, suspension, and urban life at the extensions

Simone et al.’s ‘Inhabiting the Extensions’ is an important contribution to rethinking the logics of urbanization through the perspective of extensions. This commentary engages the text along the lines of bewilderment, a starting point for the authors of this piece. Engaging the works of economic anthropologist Jane Guyer and novelist Ben Okri as a West African comparative frame to ‘Inhabiting the Extensions’, this commentary describes bewilderment as an approach of (dis)orientation. To think of extension (instead of city centers vis-à-vis a perceived periphery) through the mode of bewilderment and disorientation, and as I suggest suspension, allows us to broaden our understanding in terms of allocating agency to the actions of urban residents as well as locating larger processes of urbanization.

Corrado Gini's economic anthropology

Corrado Gini was a key intellectual in the Fascist establishment. His scientific programme included statistics, demography, eugenics, economics, and sociology, as well as occasional forays into political thought and anthropology. Historians have focused on his statistics and eugenics, in connection with his spell as head of the Italian bureau of statistics. This article, integrating economics with the other threads of Gini’s programme, takes economic anthropology as a standpoint to reassess the inspiration behind his whole oeuvre. That anthropology consisted of two parts: the criticism of economists’ ‘economic man’ and the attempt to replace it with an instinctual economic agent, inspired by the nationalist rhetoric of ‘young peoples’ bound to conquer the world. Once the perspective is enlarged, the usual definition of Gini as a technocrat proves insufficient, for his science incorporated essential pieces of Fascism’s political ideology and cultural legitimacy.

Nigerian Traditional Economy in the Ethnography of Paul Bohannan

African traditional economics has attracted the interest of colonial hegemonic scholars who wanted to fathom the rationale behind the peasant socioeconomic structure. In Nigeria, there is a corpus of ethnographers who have studied some of the societies that make up Nigeria. In this article, my deliberately restricted aim is to reassess Bohannan’s studies on Nigerian peasant economies as a contribution to anthropological knowledge. Paul Bohannan studied the Tiv economy. In the literature on colonial knowledge and traditional economics in British Nigeria, Paul Bohanna’s Tiv economy has generated a whole lot of theoretical mainstreaming in economic anthropology.

The Logicality of Rural Revitalization Strategy: An Exploration of the Economic Anthropological Perspective

The proposal and implementation of China’ s rural revitalization strategy has its inevitable internal logics. Following the history of development of economic anthropology and using the theories on rural economics, political economics and cultural economics, this paper has analyzed the logics of social ecology，political economics and historical culture of the Chinese rural revitalization strategy. And it has responded to the economic anthropology question of “what is the possibility beyond capitalism” with reference to the logic of China’s socialist system. Thus, it provides rich theoretical dialogues and logical arguments for the practice of the rural revitalization strategy. At the same time, the practice of rural revitalization in China also can provide others with Chinese experiences and expressions for economic anthropology, which will expand and enrich the theoretical dimensions and depths of economic anthropology itself.

Givers of Great Dinners Know Few Enemies: The Impact of Food Sufficiency and Food Sharing on Low-intensity Household Conflict in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Our study establishes a linkage between household food sufficiency and food sharing behaviour with the reduction of low-intensity, micro level conflict using primary data from 1763 households of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. We develop a theoretical explanation of such behaviour using the seminal theories of dissatisfaction originating from food insecurity and the reciprocity of gifts in economic anthropology. We first examine if food sufficient households are less likely to engage in low-intensity conflict. Following, we investigate possible heterogeneous effects of food sufficiency, conditional on food sharing behaviour. Using propensity score matching, we find that food sufficiency reduces household conflict risk by an average of around 10 percentage points. Upon conditioning on food sharing behaviour, we find that conflict risk in the subpopulation of food sufficient households is 13.8 percentage points lower for households that share their food while the effects disappear for households that do not share their food. Our results hold through a rigorous set of robustness checks including doubly robust estimator, placebo regression, matching quality tests and Rosenbaum bounds for hidden bias. We conclude that food sufficiency reduces low-intensity conflict for households only in the presence of food sharing behaviour and offer explanations and policy prescriptions.

Moet geld rollen?

Money before coinage in Archaic and Early Republican Rome Money existed in the Roman world before the introduction of coinage. Fragmentary information in the written sources suggests the existence of two main forms of money: bronze and cattle. However, this information is often difficult to interpret, due to the problematic nature of the sources, and the pervasiveness in our thinking of a modern concept of money. This article discusses the state of research, and summarizes the evidence about money in Archaic and Early Republican Rome given in the sources. It further discusses how this information, together with archaeological material, informs current interpretations of the actual use of bronze and cattle as money. Finally, it shows how insights from economic anthropology may help us better to understand the sources, especially focusing on ideas about the way money develops, and how its use can be limited to specific spheres of exchange.

Economic Anthropology

Economic AnthropologyVolume 10, Issue 2 p. 159-161 Issue InformationFree Access Economic Anthropology First published: 08 June 2023 https://doi.org/10.1002/sea2.12255AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Volume10, Issue2Special Issue: Value and Change, Value in CrisisJune 2023Pages 159-161 RelatedInformation

Open ledger sustainability accounting for community forests: the case of Qingshui river society of southwest China in the 18th-19th centuries

PurposeThis article intends to explore the sustainability accounting practices that emerge from the business of artificial forestry in the Qingshui River society of southwest China in the 18th-19th centuries.Design/methodology/approachUsing a historical approach, we set out to discuss the systematic use of “folk contract” as a tool of tracing accountability in timber trading and in the collective management of community forests in this region, based on the archives of Qingshui River Manuscripts.FindingsThe findings indicate that active transactions of small forest plots facilitated by the prevalent use of folk contracts allow both the landlords and the tenants to easily acquire cashflow needed any time before the harvest, and in turn prevent premature logging and deforestation for crop farming. An “open ledger” bookkeeping system emerged from the extensive contracting practices guarantees the functioning of a dualistic accountability system, where both market value of timbers and “face” value of community members' reputation are preserved for long-term sustainability of local economy, society and ecological environment.Originality/valueFrom the perspective of economic anthropology, this study forms the link between the folk contract practice in sustainable forestry of the Qingshui River society and the emancipatory accounting literature.