ANTH 411 - Economic Anthropology

The central question in this class is: what is the economy? This seemingly simple question raises complex issues when one begins to compare economic activities across historical periods and societies. This course explores whether the economy is a single unified sphere of life, whether it has always existed, and whether it can be said to exist in all societies. It examines the cultural and moral basis of diverse systems of exchange, production, consumption, and distribution, asking how economic activities relate to other aspects of society like family, religion, and politics. The course also examines the cultural and moral basis of the dominant economic system in the modern world, namely capitalism. What is capitalism and how did it arise? Are the problems of poverty, inequality, debt, and crisis intrinsic to capitalism and how can they be resolved? Are there alternatives to capitalism and what might they look like? What is the future of the global economy? 

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