Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value : The False Coin of Our Own Dreams - David Graeber

Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value

The False Coin of Our Own Dreams

By: David Graeber

Paperback | 1 December 2001 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback


$115.25

Aims to ship in 7 to 10 business days

Now a widely cited classic, this innovative book is the first comprehensive synthesis of economic, political, and cultural theories of value. David Graeber reexamines a century of anthropological thought about value and exchange, in large measure to find a way out of ongoing quandaries in current social theory, which have become critical at the present moment of ideological collapse in the face of Neoliberalism. Rooted in an engaged, dynamic realism, Graeber argues that projects of cultural comparison are in a sense necessarily revolutionary projects: He attempts to synthesize the best insights of Karl Marx and Marcel Mauss, arguing that these figures represent two extreme, but ultimately complementary, possibilities in the shape such a project might take. Graeber breathes new life into the classic anthropological texts on exchange, value, and economy. He rethinks the cases of Iroquois wampum, Pacific kula exchanges, and the Kwakiutl potlatch within the flow of world historical processes, and recasts value as a model of human meaning-making, which far exceeds rationalist/reductive economist paradigms.
Industry Reviews

'I have not enjoyed or been so inspired by a work in anthropological theory for quite some time - I am convinced that this book is extremely important to the field of anthropology and to social theory more generally, offering alternatives to the relentlessly bleak theorizing of most post-structuralist and postmodernist critical theory - I think this book might well become a classic.' - Thomas Abercrombie, NYU

'David Graeber is probably the most exciting young anthropologist in the field today.' - Judith Friedlander, Dean of Social Sciences (Graduate Faculty), New School for Social Research

More in Anthropology

Doing Theology with Photographs - Sarah Dunlop

RRP $130.00

$97.75

25%
OFF
Doing Theology with Photographs - Sarah Dunlop

RRP $44.99

$44.50

Sapiens : A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari

RRP $27.99

$26.50

Our World : Bardi-Jaawi Life at Ardiyooloon - One Arm Point Remote Community School

RRP $33.00

$24.80

25%
OFF
On Our Best Behaviour : The Price Women Pay to Be Good - Elise Loehnen
Muscle : The Gripping Story of Strength and Movement - Roy A. Meals
The Way We Are : Lessons from a lifetime of listening - Hugh Mackay
The Will to Change : Men, Masculinity, and Love - bell hooks

RRP $32.99

$27.25

17%
OFF
Bullshit Jobs : A Theory - David Graeber

RRP $24.99

$23.75

Translating Milan Kundera : Topics in Translation - Michelle Woods
Place and Placelessness : Research in Planning and Design - Edward Relph
Representation : Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices - Stuart Hall
Race and Ethnic Relations - Farida Fozdar

RRP $99.95

$85.90

14%
OFF