Economic Anthropology
Code: 107240 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Social and Cultural Anthropology | OB | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Jose Luis Molina Gonzalez
- Email:
- joseluis.molina@uab.cat
Teachers
- Miroslav Ariel Alexis Pulgar Corrotea
- Alba Valenciano Mañe
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
No specific requirement is needed, but general knowledge of social anthropology is recommended.
Objectives and Contextualisation
The goals of the course are:
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To understand the main disciplinary contributions of economic anthropology.
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To comprehend the historical and cultural diversity of economic institutions.
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To learn how to ethnographically analyze the influence of various factors on the economic phenomena studied, such as institutional norms, supply and demand, spheres of circulation of primitive currency, hoarding, or the formation of interest groups, among others.
Additionally:
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To value the ethnological heritage related to the field of study.
Learning Outcomes
- CM13 (Competence) Interpret social and cultural patterns using a variety of analytical and theoretical perspectives from classical fields.
- KM13 (Knowledge) Recognise the main theoretical principles of the classical fields of anthropology for an understanding of societies and social systems.
- KM14 (Knowledge) Recognise the complexity of epistemological and methodological debates in the various classical fields of anthropology.
- KM15 (Knowledge) Recognise cultural diversity through ethnography and critically evaluate ethnographic materials as knowledge of local and global contexts and as proposals for theoretical models.
- KM16 (Knowledge) Apply the incidence of culture from a holistic perspective in the various institutional systems of social action studied by the classic fields of anthropology.
- KM17 (Knowledge) Recognise the main theoretical foundations of the classical fields of anthropology for the understanding of societies and social systems.
- SM18 (Skill) Synthesise knowledge of the transformations experienced in the different classical fields of study of anthropology.
- SM20 (Skill) Analyse ethnographical examples of cultural diversity and transcultural variability of economic, family, political, symbolic and cognitive systems and the anthropological theory that applies to them.
- SM21 (Skill) Use in a clear, explanatory and synthetic way the language of the theories of the classical fields in anthropology.
Content
The course content is structured into different thematic blocks:
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Anthropology and Economics
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Theoretical Approaches in Economic Anthropology
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Informal Economy and Employment
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Production
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Distribution
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Consumption
Within each thematic block, the topics are as follows:
1. Anthropology and Economics
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Aristotle and the Scholastics
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Physiocracy and Political Economy
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Classical Economics
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Marxist Economics
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Neoclassical Economics
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Keynesianism, Monetarism, New Institutionalism
2. Theoretical Approaches in Economic Anthropology
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Formalist Arguments
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Substantivist Arguments
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Environmental Determinism vs. Possibilism
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Gender and Feminist Perspectives in Economics
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Cultural Evolution and Adaptation
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Cultural Ecology
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Godelier’s Structural Marxism
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Meillassoux: The Domestic Mode of Production
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The Invention of Underdevelopment
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Dependency Theory
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Capitalist Involution
3. Informal Economy and Employment
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The Dual Labour Market
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“The End of Work”
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Beyond the Market
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Ethnic Enclaves or Ethnic Economies
4. Production
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Ecology
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Technology
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Labour
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Hunting and Gathering
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Early Agriculture
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Pastoralism
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Technology and Evolution
5. Distribution
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Trade
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Market
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Multicentric Economies
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Primitive Currency
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The Salt of the Baruya
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Shells in Indigenous North America
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Currency of the Palau and Yap Islands
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Currency of Rossel Island
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Cowries
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Modern Currencies and Cryptocurrencies
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Financial Markets and Their Social Consequences
6. Consumption
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Conspicuous Consumption
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Habitus, Taste, and Distinction
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Post-Consumption: Recycling, Reuse, and Circulation
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Discussion of papers | 20 | 0.8 | KM13, KM15, KM16, KM13 |
| External visit | 10 | 0.4 | KM15, KM15 |
| Lectures (theory) | 25 | 1 | KM17, SM18, SM20, KM17 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Optional essay (*under specific conditions) | 5 | 0.2 | KM16, KM17, KM16 |
| Practices and exercises | 15 | 0.6 | SM20, SM21, SM20 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Internet searching | 25 | 1 | SM20, SM20 |
| Reading of materials and study | 42 | 1.68 | CM13, KM13, KM14, CM13 |
The teaching methodology used in this course will include:
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Theoretical/practical contributions: an introduction by the instructor, with examples and discussions with participants, and a formal presentation of a substantive topic from the syllabus by the students. The materials used in class will be available on the Virtual Campus and on other websites managed by the teaching staff.
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Classroom practices: these may involve individual or group work on specific topics. Additionally, the practical sessions will include ethnographic reflection on experiments and agent-based computer simulations using the open-source software R, in order to identify the influence of various factors on the phenomena discussed in the theoretical part of the course.
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Field study trips during class hours: the course includes two outings aimed at generating fieldwork experience and fostering ethnographic reflection. There will be a visit to the Fish Museum in Palamós to observe an auction, and a visit to the storage area of the Museum of World Cultures.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participation and interaction | 10% | 1 | 0.04 | KM16, SM18, SM20 |
| Test 1 | 30% | 1.5 | 0.06 | CM13, KM13, KM14, KM15, KM17 |
| Test 2 | 30% | 1.5 | 0.06 | CM13, KM13, KM14, KM15, KM17, SM21 |
| Work and continuous assessment (readings, exercices, team work, etc) | 30% | 4 | 0.16 | KM16, SM18, SM20, SM21 |
The continuous evaluation will consist of the individual comment or small group of texts that will be distributed by the teachers in class to illustrate each of the topics of the program, with a minimum of 6, from which the average grade will be taken. These documents will be available on the virtual campus. These tasks, that may include simulations, must be done in class to be evaluated.
Only partial exams can be recovered, not the rest of the activities. To pass the subject, it is essential to pass the partial exams (1 and 2) with a minimum grade of 5. To participate in the recovery, students must have previously been evaluated [not necessarily approved] in a set of activities (minimum 2/3) . It is essential that the student attends, at least, the first term, otherwise he would be considered NOT EVALUABLE.
The final grade will be communicated by Aula Moodle individually and a grade revision session will be scheduled, as well as a reevaluation date. Outside of these scheduled dates and communication channels, personal reviews will not be attended to or emails related to the evaluation will be answered. Doubts and complaints will be dealt with exclusively in the scheduled grade review sessions.
Personal cases that may influence the normal follow-up of the course by a particular student (illnesses, work, personal issues...) can be discussed with the faculty, who will try to offer a flexible option to the student if it is reasonably justified. Now, these questions will only be taken into account when they arise and are properly justified (with certificates) or when they are known in advance, they are discussed with the professor during the first academic month of the subject - not afterwards or at the last minute.
The works that are delivered will be done by hand exclusively through the option "Delivery of files" of the virtual campus that will have a period of validity.
In relation to plagiarism: if the student commits any irregularity that could lead toa significant variation in thegrade of an evaluation act, this evaluation will be graded with 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be instituted. In the event that various irregularities occur in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade of this subject will be "suspended". The AI usage model is 2, which requires transparency and agreement, critical and limited use. When there is suspicion that students have used AI to generate assessable documents illegally, the teacher reserves the right to assess this knowledge through an alternative route (for example, oral test).
Unique evaluation. People who use this evaluation modality by communicating it in the period allowed to do so, will have to do a) an exam of the subject syllabus (50%), b) present a comment on at least three texts commented on in class and available in the Virtual Campus with a maximum of 1,000 words (30%); and c) a hand-written summary of some of the chapters of the course manual with a maximum of 300 words (20%). The average of the three exercises will give the final grade.
Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items.
Bibliography
Compulsory textbook
Molina, José Luis i Valenzuela, Hugo (2006) Invitación a la Antropología Económica. BCN: Bellaterra.
Handbooks of Economic Anthropology
Narotzky, Susana (2005). Antropología económica. Barcelona: Melusina.
Carrier, John. G. (Ed.). (2022). A handbook of economic anthropology. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Introduction
Herskovits, Melville J. (1954). Antropología económica. Estudio de economía comparada. [Economic Anthropology. A Study in Comparative Economics (1952)]. México: F.C.E..
Barber, William J. (1992). Historia del pensamiento económico [A History of Economic Thought, 1967]. Madrid: Alianza Universidad.
Formalism-substastivism debate
Burling, Robbins (1976)."Teorías de maximización y el estudio de la antropología económica" en Godelier, M. (ed.), Antropología y economía. Barcelona: Anagrama.
Polanyi, Karl (1992). La gran transformación. Los orígenes políticos y económicos de nuestro tiempo [The Great Transformation. The Political and Economic Origins of our Time, 1944]. México: F.C.E.
Cultural materialism
Harris, Marvin (1982). El materialismo cultural como estrategia de investigación. Madrid: Alianza.
Rappaport, Roy A. (1987). Cerdospara los antepasados. El ritual en la ecología de un pueblo en Nueva Guinea [Pigs for the ancestors. Ritual in the ecology of a New Guinea people, 1968]. Madrid: Editorial Siglo XXI.
Marxist approach
Parte III de Godelier, M. (1976). Antropología y Economía. Barcelona: Anagrama.
Meillassoux, Claude (1987). Mujeres, graneros y capitales. Economía doméstica y capitalismo [Femmes, greniers,capitaux. 1975]. Madrid: Siglo XXI.
The development debate
Viola, Andreu (2000). Antropología del desarrollo. Teorías y estudios etnográficos en América Latina. Barcelona: Paidós
Informal economy and job market
Mingione, Enzo (1993). Las sociedades fragmentadas. Una sociología de la vida económica más allá del paradigma del mercado [Fragmented Societies. A Sociology of Economic Life beyond the Market Paradigm, 1991]. Madrid: Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social.
Pahl, Robert.E. (1991). Divisiones del trabajo [Divisions of Labour, 1984]. Madrid: Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad social.
Production
Valdés del Toro (1976). "Ecología y trabajo, fiestas y dieta en un concejo del Occidente astur" en C. LISÓN (ed.),Temas de antropología española. Madrid: Akal.
Wolf, Eric R. (1978).Los campesinos [Peasants, 1971]. Barcelona: Labor.
Distribution
Malinowski, Bronislaw. (1986).Els argonautes del Pacífic Occidental. Estudi sobre el tarannà emprenedor i aventurer dels indígenes dels arxipèlags de la Nova Guinea melànesia [Argonautes of the Western Pacific. An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea, 1922]. Barcelona: Edicions 62/Diputació de Barcelona.
Godelier, Maurice. (1998). El enigma del don [L'ènigme du don, 1996]. Barcelona: Paidós.Economies multicéntriques i la moneda primitiva Armstrong, W.E. (1981). "La moneda de la isla Rossel: un sistema monetario único" [The Economic Journal , vol. XXXIV, sept. 1924] en Llobera, J.R., Antropologia Económica. Estudios Etnográficos. Barcelona: Anagrama.
Consumption
Veblen, Thorstein (1966). Teoria de la clase ociosa[1899]. F.C.E., México, 1966.
Fine,Ben (2002).The World of Consumption. The Material and Cultural Revisited.London & New York: Routledge.
Software
- Teams
- Word
- Excel
- Power Point
- R
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan/Spanish | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan/Spanish | first semester | morning-mixed |