ANTHR 3026 - Inequality and the Global Economy

(SBA-AS)

Spring. 4 credits.

N. Mahajan.

Greece’s recent debt crisis has brought into sharp focus the fact that economies are not only interconnected across the globe but that they are embedded in wider social and political relations. How then does one study the global economy? This course explores the historical development of an interconnected, global capitalist economy, focusing not just on Western economies but also their relationship to the non-West. In doing so, it also raises fundamental questions about what we mean by “economic” behavior, gifts, money, debt, markets, value, and the creation and persistence of inequality. It provides an introduction to the sub-field of economic anthropology, examining major perspectives within the field (such as substantivist, formalist, Marxist) through the use of case studies.

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