Economic anthropology looks beyond business economics to explore the diverse ways that humans have produced, consumed, invested, and exchanged around the globe and through deep time. This course explores questions of material and social value(s), cooperation and competition, livelihood strategies, and structures and experiences of inequality.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students: Graduate students will take different exams, commensurate with
their additional required readings and higher expectations.
Athena Title
ECONOMIC ANTH
Prerequisite
ANTH 1102 or permission of department
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will critically evaluate evidence-based arguments and social theories about value, competition, cooperation, human nature, inequality, and social responsibility, using a variety of theoretical perspectives.
Students will understand the logic behind different economic and social theories, including those that students intuitively disagree with.
Students will decipher quantitative evidence in the form of graphs and statistics that describe income and wealth inequality across case studies.
Students will research and write original arguments using peer-reviewed journal articles and proper citation practices.
Students will evaluate the ethics of social and economic interactions among people of unequal wealth and power.
Topical Outline
Some economic vignettes to whet your intellectual appetite, and the deep question of, "what is the economy?
The deep question of value: what makes something valuable?
A marginally interesting lecture about marginal utility (value in neoclassical analysis)
The gift: value in traditional social exchanges
Women and the production of personhood
A scheme of reciprocities: generalized, balanced, negative
Labor theory of value and commodity fetishism
The myth of barter
The value of money
Games and self-interest: Playing to win
Coordination and cooperation games
The tragedy of the commons
Collective action and institutions
The Green Revolution as a clash of theories of rationality
Inequalities in Feudal Europe
Markets without capitalism: The Aztec Empire
Marketplaces in rural Madagascar
The Northern Fur Trade: theories of rationality collide
Adam Smith's universe
Karl Marx's universe
Poverty and wealth
Economic growth, development, and sustainability
Institutional Competencies
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Communication
The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, or visual form.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
Social Awareness & Responsibility
The capacity to understand the interdependence of people, communities, and self in a global society.