Full Description
This new volume from the Society for Economic Anthropology examines the unique contributions of anthropologists to general economic theory. Editor Jean Ensminger and other contributors challenge our understanding of human economies in the expanding global systems of interaction, with models and analyses from cross-cultural research. They examine a broad range of theoretical concerns from the new institutionalism, debates about wealth, exchange, and the evolution of social institutions, the relationship between small producers and the wider world, the role of commodity change and the formal/informal sector, and the role of big theory. The book will be a valuable resource for anthropologists, economists, economic historians, political economists, and economic development specialists. Published in cooperation with the Society for Economic Anthropology. Visit their web page.
Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction: Theory in Economic Anthropology at the Turn of the Century Part 2 Part I: The New Institutionalism Chapter 3 Chapter 1: Property Rights and Incentives for Agricultural Growth: Women Farmer's Crop Control and their Use of Agricultural Inputs Chapter 4 Chapter 2: Transaction Cost Economics: Accomplishments, Problems and Possibilities Chapter 5 Chapter 3: Experimental Economics: A Powerful New Method for Theory Testing in Anthropology Part 6 Part II: Rethinking Wealth, Exchange, and the Evolution of Social Institutions Chapter 7 Chapter 4: Commodity Flows and the Evolution of Complex Societies Chapter 8 Chapter 5: Economic Transfers and Exchanges: Concepts for Describing Allocations Chapter 9 Chapter 6: Polanyi and the Definition of Capitalism Part 10 Part III: Small Producers Interacting with the Wider World Chapter 10 Chapter 7: Chayanov and Theory in Economic Anthropology Chapter 11 Chapter 8: Space, Place, and Economic Anthropology: Locating Potters in a Sri Lankan Landscape Chapter 12 Chapter 9: Indians, Markets, and Transnational Studies in Mesoamerican Anthropology: Predicaments and Opportunities Chapter 14 Part IV: Commodity Chains and the Formal/Informal Sector Distinction Chapter 15 Chapter 10: Transcending the Formal/Informal Distinction: Commercial Relations in Africa and Russia in the Post-1989 World Chapter 16 Chapter 11: Commodity Chains and the International Secondhand Clothing Trade: Salaula and the Work of Consumption in Zambia Part 18 Part V: The Role for Big Theory in Economic Anthropology Chapter 19 Chapter 12: When Good Theories Go Bad: Theory in Economic Anthropology and Consumer Research Chapter 19 Chapter 13: Decision-Making, Cultural Transmission and Adaptation in Economic Anthropology
