Thursday, February 5, 2015

Guyer: Marginal Gains

What I found interesting in Guyer's revist to the Tiv economy is that it seems to be a pre-colonial thought on exchanged. Meaning, that the exchangeable gifts are based on moral values. This seems to be a more previous look at a lifeworld style thought rather than a "systemic" approach because it is not basing it on just the thing itself, but the morality that comes with that certain thing/exchangeable gifts. The conversion table provided in the piece also allows to see that could be viewed as the most "basic" needs such as food is not a high commodity in the conversion based on its conveyance. However, it could also be argued that this is "systemic" approach to exchangeable gifts as well in Atlantic Africa because there is still an exchange system itself. It just applies more "totality" I believe on the gifts rather than it just being a "thing" that is handed for something else.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.