The New Economic Anthropology

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the new economic anthropology of capitalism and situates it within the historical development of economic anthropology since the late 19th century. The course begins by introducing students to basic notions of 'economy' as understood in the ancient Mediterranean up through to the present. The course covers early anthropological research into forms of personhood and sociocultural organization that contrasts sharply with the assumed universality of homo economicus. The course focuses on key debates within economic anthropology over the possibility of using 'western' economic categories for analysis and explores some of the alternative frameworks developed by anthropologists.