ANTH 163B — Production, Consumption, and Exchange
[ nw ss ]Prerequisite: ANTH 1a, or ECON 2a, or permission of the instructor.
We read in newspapers and books and hear in everyday discussion about "the economy," an identifiably separate sphere of human life with its own rules and principles and its own scholarly discipline (economics). The class starts with the premise that this "commonsense" idea of the economy is only one among a number of possible perspectives on the ways people use resources to meet their basic and not-so-basic human needs. Using extensive cross-cultural case studies, looks at the satisfaction of these needs (which we might call economic activity) as they interact with other aspects of life: gender, kinship, ideas of morality and taste, spirit possession, politics, and so on. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Ferry