Values and Valuables From the Sacred to the Symbolic

by Werner, Cynthia; Bell, Duran; Godelier, Maurice; Egan, James A.; Dussart, Françoise; Danby, Colin; Fox, Georgia L.; Saul, Mahir; Notar, Beth E.; Milgram, Lynne; Pickering, Kathleen; Mushinski, David; Arnould, Eric J.; Curasi, Carolyn Folkman; Price, Linda

• ISBN13: 9780759105454
• ISBN10: 0759105456
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-12-27
• Publisher: AltaMira Press

Summary

A group of distinguished anthropologists and economists discuss the value attached to material objects by different cultures. The authors consider the sacred nature of objects that are exchanged between individuals, the value and power of markets, money, and credit, and the ways in which contemporary people bestow symbolic value on objects or individuals. With its emphasis on the interplay of cultural and economic values, this volume will be a great resource for economists and economic anthropologists.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	vii
Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction Values and Valuables: From the Sacred to the Symbolic
Duran Bell and Cynthia Werner	xi
PART I: The Power of the Sacred
1 What Mauss Did Not Say: Things You Give, Things You Sell, and Things That Must Be Kept
Maurice Godelier (translated by Nora Scott)	3	(18)
2 Keeping-for-Giving and Giving-for-Keeping: Value, Hierarchy, and the Inalienable in Yap
James A. Egan	21	(28)
3 The Engendering of Ceremonial Knowledge between (and among) Warlpiri Women and Men in the Australian Central Desert
Françoise Dussart	49	(18)
PART II: Markets, Money, and Power
4 Conceptions of Capitalism: Godelier and Keynes
Colin Danby	67	(12)
5 Little Tubes of Mighty Power: How Clay Tobacco Pipes from Port Royal, Jamaica, Reflect Socioeconomic Change in Seventeenth-Century English Culture and Society
Georgia L. Fox	79	(22)
6 The Dominance of the Cowry Relative to the Franc in West Africa
Mahir Saul	101	(27)
7 Ties that Dissolve and Bind: Competing Currencies, Prestige, and Politics in Early Twentieth-Century China
Beth E. Notar	128	(30)
8 Crafts, Gifts, and Capital: Negotiating Credit and Exchange in the Northern Philippines
B. Lynne Milgram	158	(27)
9 Locating the Cultural Context of Credit: Institutional Alternatives on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
Kathleen Pickering and David Mushinski	185	(24)
PART III: Contemporary Valuables and Symbolic Values
10 Inalienable Wealth in North American Households
Eric J. Arnould, Carolyn Folkman Curasi, and Linda L. Price	209	(22)
11 Virtual Antiquities, Consumption Values, and the Cultural Heritage Economy in a Costa Rican Artisan Community
Jim Weil	231	(26)
12 Women's Fashion Magazines: People, Things, and Values
Brian Moeran	257	(25)
13 Numbered Days, Valued Lives: Statistics, Shopping, Pharmacy, and the Commodification of People
Melanie Rock	282	(25)
Index	307	(14)
About the Contributors	321