Description
ECONOMIC ANTHROPOLOGY
Edited, with an Introduction, by Stuart Plattner
Originally published in 1989, this volume was the first comprehensive text in economic anthropology since the 1970’s. Written by twelve leading scholars, the book covers the traditional topics of economic behavior and institutions in foraging bands, horticultural tribes, pre-capitalist states, agrarian or peasant societies and industrialized states, as well as issues such as sex roles, common property resources, the informal sector, and mass marketing in developing urban areas. It included more in-depth coverage of some subjects than does any other text in the field, subjects like the central place theory of markets and marketplaces and the fundamentals of economic behavior in markets.
The approach is empirical and, though not ignoring controversy, aims to tell the reader what we know about the world rather than recording how we came to know it or disputing alternative views of the finer points of what we know.
The work presented here is more analytic than descriptive. The historical context of the observed social reality is given due consideration, and important parameters (such as the development of social infrastructure or the degree of risk in a transaction) are distinguished from enduring institutional constraints, such as kinship obligations.
Individuals are seen as full “rational,” in that their solutions to their economic problems make sense once one understands the many constraints (social, cultural, cognitive, and political, as well as economic) that they must take into account. This does not mean that their actions are optimal – merely that the analysis will make the behavior, or for that matter the institutions, understandable as a reasoned human response to a complex situation.
The contributors are James M. Acheson, Peggy F. Barlett, Frances Berdan, Laurel Bossen, Frank Cancian, Elizabeth Cashdan, Norbert Dannhaeuser, Christina H. Gladwin, Allen Johnson, Stuart Plattner, William Roseberry, and M. Estellie Smith.
At the time of publication, Stuart Plattner was Program Director for Cultural Anthropology at the National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C., and the editor of, Markets and Marketing, and Formal Methods in Economic Anthropology.
This is a reproduction edition from a scanned copy of the 1989 publication by Stanford University Press (ISBN 0804716455). Please review the preview file to see some of the imperfections that will appear in the print edition.
Table of Contents:
Preface
1. Introduction 1
Stuart Plattner
2. Hunters and Gatherers: Economic Behavior in Bands 21
Elizabeth Cashdan
3. Horticulturalists: Economic Behavior in Tribes 49
Allen Johnson
4. Trade and Markets in Precapitalist States 78
Frances F. Berdan
5. Peasants and the World 108
William Roseberry
6. Economic Behavior in Peasant Communities 127
Frank Cancian
7. Markets and Marketplaces 171
Stuart Plattner
8. Economic Behavior in Markets 209
Stuart Plattner
9. Marketing in Developing Urban Areas 222
Norbert Dannhaeuser
10. Industrial Agriculture 253
Peggy F. Barlett
11. The Informal Economy 292
M. Estellie Smith
12. Women and Economic Institutions 318
Laurel Bossen
13. Management of Common-Property Resources 351
James M. Acheson
14. Marxism 379
Stuart Plattner
15. On the Division of Labor Between Economics
And Economic Anthropology 397
Christina H. Gladwin
References Cited 429
Index 483
Tags:
Stanford press, cultural anthropology, economic anthropology, business, economics, social science, James M. Acheson, Peggy F. Barlett, Frances Berdan, Laurel Bossen, Frank Cancian, Elizabeth Cashdan, Norbert Dannhaeuser, Christina H. Gladwin, Allen Johnson, Stuart Plattner, William Roseberry, and M. Estellie Smith, hunters and gatherers, horticulturalists, tribes, precapitalist, peasants, woman, M 
