Barter, Exchange and Value: An Anthropological Approach

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511607677

This book concerns barter, a transaction in which objects are exchanged directly for one another without the use of money. Economists treat barter as an inefficient alternative to market exchange, and assume that it is normal only in 'primitive' economies or marks the breakdown of more developed exchange mechanisms. For their part, anthropologists have been more interested in the social and moral complexities of the 'gift', and treat barter dismissively as mere haggling. The authors of 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 aim to 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 a specific moral space. This novel treatment of barter represents an original and topical addition to the literature on economic anthropology.

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Barter, Exchange and Value

An Anthropological Approach

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv

Contents
pp v-v

List of figures
pp vi-vi

List of contributors
pp vii-viii

1 - Introduction: Barter, exchange and value
pp 1-20

2 - Politicised values: the cultural dynamics of peripheral exchange
pp 21-41

3 - Yesterday's luxuries, tomorrow's necessities: business and barter in northwest Amazonia
pp 42-74

4 - Some notes on the economics of barter, money and credit
pp 75-106

5 - Fair dealing, just rewards: the ethics of barter in North-East Nepal
pp 107-141

6 - Inter-tribal commodity barter and reproductive gift-exchange in old Melanesia
pp 142-168

7 - Qualified value: the perspective of gift exchange
pp 169-191

Index
pp 192-203

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An Anthropological Approach

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