Week 7: Credit, Debt, and Humanity

In "Debt", David Graeber challenges traditional histories of money (the evolution from barter to money to credit). What are some of the contradictions in our thinking about debt/credit that Graeber makes visible in chapters 1 and 11? What is the morality around credit/debt (chapter 1)? What are the alternative histories of credit  arrangements at the time of the rise of capitalism as a dominant economic structure (chapter 11)?

Week 6: Money, Intimacy, and Personal Relations

In Maurer's chapters or Zelizer's article, how are personal relations (whether it is kinship relations, romantic relations, social relations) imbricated with money? How does money structure such relations?

Week 5: Inalienable Possessions and the Density of Objects

What does Annette Weiner define as "inalienable possessions"? What makes different kinds of objects of value more or less "inalienable" or "dense"? How is the value of such objects tied to different social rank, for women and/or men?

Week 4: In and Out of Africa: Reflections

In the ethnographic film In and Out of Africa,  there are multiple views on the value of the African works of art. In this post, discuss how different actors think these objects should be valued. How does the film discuss issues around value, art, and culture?

FORUM Prompt

After reading Mauss's book and Zelizer's and Brownell and Bessnier's articles, what are your thoughts on what counts as a good or bad gift? Further, are gifts ever free? If so or if not, elaborate on the social dynamics of gift exchanges using contemporary examples. 

Week 3 Prompt

In the classic book The Gift, Marcel Mauss writes: "In these “total” social phenomena, as we propose to call them, are expressed all at once and at a stroke all sorts of institutions: religious, judicial, and ethical (morale)" (Introduction). Using specific examples from chapters 1 or 2 (if posting for Tue) or 4 (if posting for Thu), discuss how a practice of gift exchange comes to constitute a religion, judicial or ethical social system/phenomenon. 

Gift exchange among the Polynesians.

In describing the exchange and barter among the Polynesians, Mauss reveals a complex exchange regime where not only economically useful goods are exchanged but pleasantries, services and humans during marriages, childbirth, funeral rites and many other occasions. It was also stated that although gifts are theoretically seen as voluntary, it is ultimately compulsory and contractual. There is the obligation to give and the obligation to receive and if any or all of these are neglected, it becomes the grounds for a declaration of war. These forms of obligations justify a line of the 41st stanza of the Havamal, that “Those who mutually exchange presents are friends for the longest time”. Mauss also made mention of the fact that gift exchanges are everywhere and although exchanges can be influenced by factors like rivalry and competition, these factors were missing in Polynesia.