Barter, Exchange and Value: An Anthropological Approach - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 052140682X ISBN 13: 9780521406826

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1992

Synopsis

Economists treat barter as an inefficient alternative to market exchange, assuming that it is normal only in primitive economies. For their part, anthropologists are more concerned with the social and moral complexities of the "gift," and treat barter as mere haggling. The authors in this collection do not accept that barter occupies a residual space between monetary and gift economies. Using accounts from different parts of the world, they demonstrate that it is more than a simple and self-evident economic institution. Barter may constitute a mode of exchange with its own social characteristics, occupying its own moral space. This novel treatment of barter represents an original and topical addition to the literature on economic anthropology.

About this title

Book Description

A novel treatment of barter demonstrates that it is more than a simple and self-evident economic institution but may constitute a mode of exchange with its own social characteristics, occupying its own moral space.

About the Author

Caroline Humphrey is professor emerita and director of the Mongolian and Inner Asia Studies Unit at Cambridge University. She is the author or coauthor of twenty previous books, most recently "Urban Life in Post-Soviet Central Asia".

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 052140682X
• ISBN 13: 9780521406826
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 203
• Editor: Humphrey Caroline