Skip to content
Register Sign in Wishlist
Money and the Morality of Exchange

Money and the Morality of Exchange

  • Editors:
  • Jonathan Parry, London School of Economics and Political Science
  • Maurice Bloch, London School of Economics and Political Science
Jonathan Parry, Maurice Bloch, C. J. Fuller, R. L. Stirrat, Janet Carsten, C. Toren, D. Lan, M. J. Sallnow, Olivia Harris
View all contributors
  • Date Published: November 1989
  • availability: Available
  • format: Paperback
  • isbn: 9780521367745

Paperback

Add to wishlist

Other available formats:
Hardback, eBook


Looking for an inspection copy?

This title is not currently available on inspection

Description
Product filter button
Description
Contents
Resources
Courses
About the Authors
  • This volume deals with the way in which money is symbolically represented in a range of different cultures, from South and South-east Asia, Africa and South America. It is also concerned with the moral evaluation of monetary and commercial exchanges as against exchanges of other kinds. The essays cast radical doubt on many Western assumptions about money: that it is the acid which corrodes community, depersonalises human relationships, and reduces differences of quality to those of mere quantity; that it is the instrument of man's freedom, and so on. Rather than supporting the proposition that money produces easily specifiable changes in world view, the emphasis here is on the way in which existing world views and economic systems give rise to particular ways of representing money. But this highly relativistic conclusion is qualified once we shift the focus from money to the system of exchange as a whole. One rather general pattern that then begins to emerge is of two separate but related transactional orders, the majority of systems making some ideological space for relatively impersonal, competitive and individual acquisitive activity. This implies that even in a non-monetary economy these features are likely to exist within a certain sphere of activity, and that it is therefore misleading to attribute them to money. By so doing, a contrast within cultures is turned into a contrast between cultures, thereby reinforcing the notion that money itself has the power to transform the nature of social relationships.

    Customer reviews

    Not yet reviewed

    Be the first to review

    Review was not posted due to profanity

    ×

    , create a review

    (If you're not , sign out)

    Please enter the right captcha value
    Please enter a star rating.
    Your review must be a minimum of 12 words.

    How do you rate this item?

    ×

    Product details

    • Date Published: November 1989
    • format: Paperback
    • isbn: 9780521367745
    • length: 288 pages
    • dimensions: 228 x 151 x 23 mm
    • weight: 0.49kg
    • availability: Available
  • Table of Contents

    1. Introduction: money and the morality of exchange Jonathan Parry and Maurice Bloch
    2. Misconceiving the grain heap: a critique of the concept of the Indian jajmani system C. J. Fuller
    3. On the moral perils of exchange Jonathan Parry
    4. Money, men and women R. L. Stirrat
    5. Cooking money: gender and the symbolic transformation of means of exchange in a Malay fishing community Janet Carsten
    6. Drinking cash: the purification of money through ceremonial exchange in Fiji C. Toren
    7. The symbolism of money in Imerina Maurice Block
    8. Resistance to the present by the past: mediums and money in Zimbabwe D. Lan
    9. Precious metals in the Andean economy M. J. Sallnow
    10. The earth and the state: the sources and meanings of money in Northern Potosi, Bolivia Olivia Harris.

  • Editors

    Jonathan Parry, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Maurice Bloch, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Contributors

    Jonathan Parry, Maurice Bloch, C. J. Fuller, R. L. Stirrat, Janet Carsten, C. Toren, D. Lan, M. J. Sallnow, Olivia Harris

Related Books

also by this author

Sorry, this resource is locked

Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email lecturers@cambridge.org

Register Sign in
Please note that this file is password protected. You will be asked to input your password on the next screen.

» Proceed

You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.

Continue ×

Continue ×

Continue ×
warning icon

Turn stock notifications on?

You must be signed in to your Cambridge account to turn product stock notifications on or off.

Sign in Create a Cambridge account arrow icon
×

Find content that relates to you

Join us online

This site uses cookies to improve your experience. Read more Close

Are you sure you want to delete your account?

This cannot be undone.

Cancel

Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.

If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.

×
Please fill in the required fields in your feedback submission.
×