Economies and Cultures: Foundations of

More than any other anthropological subdiscipline, economic anthropology constantly questions and debates the practical motives of people as they go about their daily lives. Tracing the history of the dialog between anthropology and economics, Richard R. Wilk and Lisa C. Cliggett move economic anthropology beyond the narrow concerns of earlier debates and place the field directly at the center of current issues in the social sciences. They focus on the unique strengths of economic anthropology as a meeting place for symbolic and materialist approaches and for understanding human beings as both practical and cultural. In so doing, the authors argue for the wider relevance of economic anthropology to applied anthropology and identify other avenues for interaction with economics, sociology, and other social and behavioral sciences. The second edition ofEconomies and Societiescontains an entirely new chapter on gifts and exchange that critically approaches the new literature in this area, as well as a thoroughly updated bibliography and guide for students for finding case studies in economic anthropology.

Richard R. Wilk is professor of anthropology and gender studies at Indiana University. Lisa C. Cliggett is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Kentucky.

List of Illustrations and Figures	p. vii
Preface to the Second Edition	p. ix
Economic Anthropology: An Undisciplined Discipline	p. 1
Controversy and Social Science	p. 1
The Formalist-Substantivist Debate	p. 3
Economic Anthropology After the Great Debate	p. 15
Can There Be a Conclusion?	p. 27
Notes	p. 27
Economics and the Problem of Human Nature	p. 31
Defining the Economy	p. 32
Redefining Economic Anthropology	p. 39
Notes	p. 46
Self-Interest and Neoclassical Microeconomics	p. 49
Adam Smith and the Birth of Western Economics	p. 50
The Foundations of Modern Economics	p. 54
Neoclassical Microeconomics	p. 56
Critiques of Formal Economics	p. 72
Summary: Reconciling Self-Interest and Selflessness	p. 78
Notes	p. 79
Social and Political Economy	p. 83
Social Humans	p. 83
Power and Politics	p. 85
Durkheim and the Social Organism	p. 87
Karl Marx: Putting Politics into the Economy	p. 94
Varieties of Social and Political Economy	p. 102
Summary: The Problems of Structure and Agency	p. 112
Notes	p. 113
The Moral Human: Cultural Economics	p. 117
Morals, Ideology, Symbols	p. 117
The Roots of Moral Economics	p. 121
The Question of Rationality and Culture	p. 136
Problems with Cultural Economics	p. 138
Cultural Economics, Round Two	p. 139
Summary: How Much Does Culture Determine?	p. 147
Notes	p. 149
Gifts and Exchange	p. 153
Three Analyses of Potlatching	p. 156
But What Is a Gift?	p. 158
Linking Mauss and Marx	p. 160
Reciprocity and Gifting	p. 161
Accumulating Value in the Gift	p. 164
Beyond Value	p. 165
Mutual Recognition and the Gift	p. 168
Conclusions	p. 171
Note	p. 175
]Conclusions: Complex Economic Human Beings	p. 177
The Case of the Leaking Houses	p. 177
The Problem of Explaining Things	p. 179
Resolving the Fundamental Issues	p. 182
Rethinking Human Nature	p. 189
Conclusions	p. 196
Notes	p. 197
Where to Look for More-Finding Literature in Economic Anthropology	p. 199
Bibliography	p. 209
Index	p. 229
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Economies and Cultures: Foundations of Economic Anthropology

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