Anthropology 332

A Haida copper . . . belonging to chief ‘He whose property makes a noise’ sings after being broken: ‘I will not decay here, I took away many people’  (Haida text)

A Coke is a Coke, and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.  (Andy Warhol)

Description

Why can’t money buy you love?  How about a diamond ring?  If “it’s the thought that counts,” why am shopping for presents in the mall?  The cash in my wallet is just paper, so why does it let me purchase things when shells and beads don’t?  Is bitcoin going to replace money?  Are all humans driven by the profit motive?  This course is an introduction to the cross-cultural study of value.  It focuses on the role of material objects in social and subjective life under different economic systems, from the realm of gift exchange to that of commodities and money.  Looking at case studies from a variety of societies, some without money and others without complex market systems, as well as our own, we will explore the nature of valuables, their possession, their circulation, and the media of exchange.  This course covers some of the same things studied by economists but with a focus on social bonds and cultural variation.  This course has no prerequisites and is open to students of all majors.