Synopses & Reviews
andldquo;Artisanandrdquo; has become a buzzword in the developed world, used for items like cheese, wine, and baskets, as corporations succeed at branding their cheap, mass-produced products with the popular appeal of small-batch, handmade goods. The unforgiving realities of the artisan economy, however, never left the global south, and anthropologists have worried over the fate of resilient craftspeople as global capitalism remade their cultural and economic lives. Yet artisans are proving to be surprisingly vital players in contemporary capitalism, as they interlock innovation and tradition to create effective new forms of entrepreneurship. Based on seven years of extensive research in Colombia and Ecuador, veteran ethnographers Jason Antrosio and Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeldandrsquo;sand#160;
Fast, Easy, and In Cashand#160;explores how small-scale production and global capitalism are not directly opposed, but rather are essential partners in economic development.
Antrosio and Colloredo-Mansfeld demonstrate how artisan trades evolve in modern Latin American communities. In uncertain economies, small manufacturers have adapted to excel at home-based production, design, technological efficiency, and investments. Vivid case studies illuminate this process: peasant farmers in Tanduacute;querres, Otavalo weavers, Tigua painters, and the t-shirt industry of Atuntaqui.and#160;Fast, Easy, and In Cashand#160;exposes how these ambitious artisans, far from being holdovers from the past, are crucial for capitalist innovation in their communities and provide indispensable lessons in how we should understand and cultivate local economies in this era of globalization.
Synopsis
Recent, dramatic changes in local and global economies have profoundly affected the lives of millions and have demanded that students of economy rethink their analytical approaches. In The Anthropology of Economy, noted anthropologist Steve Gudeman presents a model and lexicon for thinking about and discussing "things economic."
Synopsis
Recent, dramatic changes in local and global economies have profoundly affected the lives of millions and have demanded that students of economy rethink their analytical approaches. In
The Anthropology of Economy, noted anthropologist Steve Gudeman presents a model and lexicon for thinking about and discussing "things economic."
This book illustrates that, across cultures, economy can be understood as a combination of both community and market forces. Drawing from the work of anthropologists, as well as that of economists, sociologists, historians, geographers, feminists, and post-Marxists, Gudeman presents an anthropological approach to economy that highlights the centrality of communal processes in the market. His inclusion of over 50 cross-cultural examples from historical and contemporary contexts will clearly demonstrate to readers the significance of this distinctive model.
Ultimately, The Anthropology of Economy furnishes readers with a new language for discussing and reconceptualizing vital contemporary issues - including the emergence and distribution of profit, the effects of expanding capital on marginalized people and the environment, and our shifting identities in response to the growth of global markets.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [165]-182) and index.
About the Author
"This is the first book to propose a cross-cultural model of the economy inspired by anthropology. Gudeman succeeds magnificently in weaving the results of decades of anthropology into an original synthesis."
Caroline Humphrey, University of Cambridge "A stimulating rethinking of anthropology's contribution to our understanding of economics. Clear and original, this highly readable book will disturb many people's habits of thought as well as expand & enrich them. In it, Gudeman shows how the economy is embedded in human life and society, and how it builds on community and the commons, as much as on individuality and the market. A signal contribution." Fredrik Barth, University of Oslo and Boston University
"Given the clarity of the prose and the accessibility of the ideas, this book would make for an excellent textbook for an economic anthropology class. Indeed, it is hard to think of a textbook that compares. But the book is much more than this. It is clearly intended as a liberating framework within which anthropologists and fieldworkers can rethink economic issues in a much broader way." The Australian Journal of Anthropology
"This is an important work, synthesizing a substantial body of anthropological and economic thought into a coherent whole." James G. Carrier, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments.
1. Community, Market, and Culture.
2. Economy at the Base.
3. Sharing the Base.
4. The Great Estate: Power, Extraction, and Expansion.
5. Reciprocity and the Gift: Extending the Base.
6. Trade and Profit.
7. Profit on the Small.
8. Realms and Dialectics: Values in Production, Trade, and Use.
9. Political Economy Today.
References.
Index.