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Anthropology 584. Wealth and Poverty
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This class meets approximately 4 hours per week for 4 credits.
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“Anthropology has never been a discipline in the sense that economics has long been.
Michel Foucault (1973) ends his ‘archaeology of the human sciences’ by pointing out
that ‘ethnology’ has a privileged position within those sciences because it spans their
whole range,’ forming a treasure-hoard of experiences and concepts, and above all a
perpetual principle of dissatisfaction, of calling into question what may seem, in other
respects, to be established’ (1973: 373). He calls anthropology a ‘counter-science’, not
because it was less rational, but because it flows in the opposite direction, always trying
to ‘unmake’ the versions of man that human sciences like economics insist on making.”
(Chris Hann, Keith Hart. Economic Anthropology (2011: 169)
Clifford Geertz urged interpretive anthropologists to keep theory “rather close to the
ground. Only short flights of ratiocination tend to be effective in anthropology; the longer
ones tend to drift off into logical dreams, academic bemusements with formal symmetry.”
(Geertz, Interpretation of Cultures 1974:24)
Foucault and Geertz were both pointing to anthropology’s tendency (thanks to its traditional
emphasis on extended participant observation as its dominant methodology) to privilege the
results of lived experience over those of laboratory experimentation; to study micro rather
than macro practices; to particularize more often than to generalize; to be skeptical of claims
made about “human nature” or “universal laws,” etc.
Nowhere has anthropology’s struggle between particularization and generalization been more
pronounced than in the field of economic anthropology. The subdiscipline was practically
created out of arguments over whether or not the universalist claims of neoclassical
economics were valid cross-culturally, i.e., is it true that all individuals, regardless of cultural
or personal differences, pursue(d) rational choices based on achieving rational ends
constrained only by costs?
The second signature characteristic of economic anthropology is the way the discipline has
evolved shifting foci from an original concern with distribution and exchange in most of the
twentieth century, to a shift of emphasis to production with the rise of Marxian anthropology
in the 1970s, to a more recent interest in consumption starting in the 1980s. Thus the three
major moments in neoclassical economics: production, distribution, and consumption, also
happen to be the major areas of interest in economic anthropology.
We will begin by tracing the origins of ideas in anthropology about the approaches of neoclassical economics and the alternatives. We will then try to develop a thorough introduction
to anthropology’s fascination with distribution/ exchange/ reciprocity. We will follow that
with a sampling of works reflecting more contemporary emphasis on consumption studies,
and then end with a brief excursion into the realm of alternative, utopian economic thinking.
Throughout the course we will be reading two texts generated by the recent global economic
crisis: Harvey’s The Enigma of Capital and Graeber’s Debt, The First 5,000 Years. They
were both written to explain the antecedents to the recent financial meltdown, but Graeber’s
book traces the origins and characteristics of debt throughout history and throughout nonWestern as well as Western societies, while Harvey’s book confines itself to the recent
history of capitalism as it has developed predominately in the West.
Class Organization
Class seminars will normally be taken up by Powerpoint presentations, lectures, and
discussions using your response paper questions to stimulate the discussion. Students are
expected to attend and participate actively in the class, including taking charge of
periodic presentations and leading the discussions, so keep up with the readings!
The class will consist of an introductory lecture/ presentation. We will then discuss the
Wilk’s chapter(s) for that week, which you are expected to read and be able to discuss
knowledgeably, but not write about. We will then take up student response papers, using
student questions and sometimes student-led discussions as the format. When Harvey or
Graeber summaries are due, those will be the topics of discussion.
You will be reading about 80-100 pages a week and writing about 30 pages total for this
class, which is about par for a graduate seminar. The difference is that the pages are not
bundled into one or two larger research papers, but are spread across weekly assignments.
My intention in setting it up this way is to force you to keep up with the readings and
force you to give them your attention as they come up (or do them ahead of time!). The
advantage to you is that, if you keep up, you will be through with the course assignments
in time to free yourself to finish the research papers required in your other courses. But it
also means that you cannot fall behind or put off for another week any of the
assignments.
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon Completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. identify and critically evaluate advanced theories commonly used in economic
anthropology.
2. describe the historical development of economic anthropology topics of interest in
anthropology.
3. identify a set of specific issues in economic anthropology that have been important to the
subfield and critically explore them in a series of response/ summary papers.
Required Texts (the three texts will be available in the OSU Bookstore or get them online
from Amazon, etc.)
Graeber, David. Debt: The First 5,000 Years
Harvey, David. The Enigma of Capital.
Wilk, Richard & Lisa Cliggett. Economies and Cultures
The articles to be read every week will be available as PDFs on the Canvas site for this
course.
Assignments & Evaluation
Reading Response Papers (you have the opportunity to compose 12 response
papers worth 10 points each). You must do at least 10 of them. Half credit if late;
no credit if more than one day late.
The purpose of a reading response paper is twofold: 1. To learn how to make a synopsis of the
main thesis or points or arguments of a reading assignment; and 2. To think critically and
comparatively about that thesis. Reading response papers also encourage you to take the time to
review the reading assignment, to think about what you read before you come to class, and
therefore to enter into class discussion having already outlined several main issues.
A reading response paper should be BETWEEN 300-500 WORDS. It must be submitted directly
to Canvas, not separately attached. That means you type it and then cut and paste into Canvas or
you type directly into Canvas. The first paragraph(s) should be a brief summary of the main
theme of the reading. It should answer such questions as: What is the author’s argument? What
intellectual tradition does the author belong to? Most broadly, how does the author conceive of
production/ distribution/ consumption/ etc., and how that relates to people’s relationships or to
larger society? Where do power and inequality lie in this process? (You do not need to answer all
of these questions, but you might use them as guidelines or to stimulate your own thoughts.)
The second part should be your critical reflections upon the reading. You might begin this
process by thinking about your own responses to the reading. You should then continue by
asking such questions as: What did you think was particularly important or significant about the
reading? What surprised you? What are some of their basic assumptions upon which the
argument is built? Where do you disagree with them, or call into question some of their
conclusions?
ATTENTION! IMPORTANT!!: After you have finished writing your reading response paper,
you will formulate at least two questions which we could use to discuss the readings in class.
You will include them in at the end of your paper. We may use some of them as we discuss the
readings in class.
Reading response papers must be submitted on Canvas before noon on Monday, so we can
use them for class discussion.
Book Summaries (There are 6 summaries worth 20 points each). You
must complete them all. Half credit if late; no credit if more than one day late.
We will be reading two books in segments throughout the course: Harvey’s The Enigma of
Capital and Graeber’s Debt, The First 5,000 Years. Each time a reading from a book is assigned,
a summary is due for that segment. Writing a book summary is not qualitatively different from,
though it is more involved than, writing a reading response paper. The main differences being
that the summary is longer, requires thinking about the context of the book and how it applies to
the class and or earlier portions of the book itself, uses quotations, includes commentary about
the book, and is more carefully proofread. You do more than summarize in spite of the
assignment’s name, though the summary takes up the lion’s share of the paper. Your objective
should be to summarize the main points of the book and critique the presentation/conceptual
focus (analyze and evaluate contents); describe the main focus or argument of the book in
relation to the subject matter of the class (situate the book in the context of the course); and
finally, reflect on and describe what you learned from reading the book segment.
A book summary should be BETWEEN 600-1000 WORDS. It must be submitted directly to
Canvas, not separately attached. That means you type it and then cut and paste into Canvas or
you type directly into Canvas.
Book summaries must be submitted on Canvas before noon on Monday, so we can use them
for class discussion.
Grading Summary (A = 90-100%; B = 80-89%, etc.)
Reading Response Papers 100 points
Book Summary Papers
120 points
total
220 points
Schedule of Seminar Readings and Topics (subject to change!!!)
week 1 (Sept Intro to the field plus first Graeber section
1. history of discipline
2. Wilk chapters 1 & 2 (45 pages)
3. 1st Graeber segment, chaps 1-4 (90 pages)
4. Book summary on Graeber, part 1 due in class
Week 2 Neoclassical Economics
1. Rise of homo economicus
2. Wilks chap 3 (30 pages)
3. comic book chaps 1-2; Raj Patel chapter 2 (15 pages)
4. Harvey’s The Enigma of Capital (Chapters 1,2 (50 pages)
5. Book summary on Harvey, part 1 due Monday before class
6. 2 response papers due Monday before class
Week 3 Marxian Economic Theory;
1. lecture on Marxist concepts
2. Wilk chapter 4 (30 pages)
3. Harvey’s The Enigma of Capital (Chapters 3,4 (50 pages)
4. Book summary on Harvey, part 2 due Monday before class
Week 4 Rationality vs. tradition/ Status vs. Class
1. Lecture on Weber; status vs. class; rationality vs. tradition
2. Wilk chapter 5 (30 pages)
3. Brightman, Tragedy of the Commons (20 pages)
4. Harvey’s The Enigma of Capital (Chapters 5,6 (60 pages)
5. Book summary on Harvey, part 3 due Monday before class
6. 1 response paper due Monday before class
Week 5 The Gift/ Reciprocity;
1. Lecture on Kula & Potlatch in anthropology
2. Wilk chapter 6 (20 pages)
3. Mauss The Gift (don’t include ch. 3 in your response paper; 60 pages)
4. Taussig, Spirit of the Mime, Spirit of the Gift (12 pages)
5. 2 response papers due Monday before class
Week 6 The Gift/ Reciprocity cont…
1. Graeber chapter 5
2. Graeber chapter 6
3. 2 response papers (not summaries) due Monday before class
Week 7 Social Life of Things/ Commodification
1. lecture on commodification/ Reification/ objectification
2. Appadurai, Commodities and the Politics of Value (50 pages); Kopytoff,
Biography of Things (25 pages); Miller, Theories of Things (35 pages)
3. 3 response papers due Monday before class
Week 8 Harvey and Graeber
1. Lecture on the culture of neoliberalism
2. Harvey’s The Enigma of Capital (Chapters 7 = 30 pages)
3. Graeber chapter 7 = 40 pages
4. Two response papers (not summaries) on Graeber, & Harvey chapters
Week 9 Gibson-Graham’s Post-Capitalist Politics: Creating Community Economies
1. Introduction to Gibson-Graham’s project
2. Gibson-Graham, Postcapitalist Politics chapters 1, 3 (40 pages)
3. 2 response papers due Monday before class
Week 10 Potluck and Wrap-Up
1. Graeber chapter 12 = 40 pages; Harvey chapter 8 = 45 pages)
2. two Book summaries on Graeber, Harvey
Statement Regarding Students with Disabilities
Accommodations for students with disabilities are determined and approved by
Disability Access Services (DAS). If you, as a student, believe you are eligible for
accommodations but have not obtained approval please contact DAS immediately at
541-737-4098 or at http://ds.oregonstate.edu. DAS notifies students and faculty
members of approved academic accommodations and coordinates implementation
of those accommodations. While not required, students and faculty members are
encouraged to discuss details of the implementation of individual accommodations.
See OSU Expectations for Student Conduct at
http://studentlife.oregonstate.edu/studentconduct/offenses-0