Commodities and Capitalism

Catalog description

In their travel across varied social settings, commodities mediate social relationships, adorn daily life, and are imbued with meanings that emerge from - and exceed - capitalist logics. In other words, commodities make worlds, capitalist and more-than-capitalist. This course will introduce students to multiple ways of understanding and studying commodities, largely through examination of ethnographic work on how commodities are produced, mobilized and regarded. Topics addressed may include how commodification relates to nature, labor, bodies, consumption, culture, money, gifts and other matters. Satisfies a requirement for the Anthropology major and minor Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought requirement.