The subdiscipline of economic anthropology studies “economy” and economic life in their
many shapes and forms across different societies, regions and time periods. The initial focus
of economic anthropology was on non-Western subsistence economies; its attention has since
expanded to every imaginable field of contemporary globalized capitalism, from
commercialized agriculture to high finance. This course introduces social and cultural
anthropology students to the key concepts in economic anthropology through two parts. The
first part of the course introduces the key concepts and the building blocks of the subdiscipline.
Classes will introduce the foundational works of Karl Marx, Bronisław Malinowski, Marcel
Mauss, Karl Polanyi and Jane Guyer. Students will learn about production, distribution, and
consumption as “instituted processes” taking place in a “mixed economy”. In the second part
of the course, students will explore and discuss how an economic anthropological approach
can challenge the hegemony of the discipline of economics and its idea of the economy as the
sum of actions of rational and self-interested individuals. With economic anthropology’s focus
on what motivates everyday economics behaviour, it demonstrates the complexities of
economic life and dwells on how people make choices based on cultural meanings, moral
values, personal taste, and shaped by intermediaries. The course discusses the role of money
in modern society, and students learn about currencies, financialization, creditor-debtor
relations and the economic practices inside the household. In the final sessions, the course
explores the topical and contemporary issues related to platform economies and globalization.
Literaturempfehlung:
Hann, Chris & Keith Hart. 2011. Economic anthropology: history,
ethnography, critique. Cambridge: Polity.
Carrier, James G., ed. 2022. A handbook of economic anthropology.
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Modulleistung: Hausarbeit
Besonderheiten: Der Kurs wird auf Englisch unterrichtet. Alle Studien- und
Modulleistungen werden auf Englisch erbracht.
