Anthropological Economics: The Question of Distribution
1978; Annual Reviews; Volume: 7; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1146/annurev.an.07.100178.002023
ISSN1545-4290
Autores Tópico(s)Global Trade and Competitiveness
ResumoRecent years have witnessed an explosion of contributions within economic anthropology. In fact, the field is expanding so rapidly that a splintering into a disparate collection of topics seems imminent; nonetheless, some contemporary trends may be discerned. The formalist-substantivist debate, that piece de resistance, has not disappeared from the annals, but the old theatrics and puffed-up rhetoric have been replaced by more sober studies. For some anthropologists the two positions represent valid but distinct explanations of behavior which are to be juxtaposed (49) or joined (8). On the formalist side there has been one effort to trace out the theoretical implications of the perspective and extend its explanatory power to all behavior (93); others have attempted to fuse formalism with different theories (13, 14); and some of the younger formalist contributors have presented fresh empirical studies (79). But the substantivists have not been quiescent theoretically (18) or empirically (52). Then to complement the debate, at least one Marxist has provided an outsider's view on the entire battle (95). A glib and traditional division of the field into two (or three) opposing perspectives, however, scarcely exhausts the range of recent contributions. Markets and marketing, long underdeveloped areas of study, have received special theoretical and empirical notice (3, 15, 98, 99). A central theme here concerns the limitations and virtues-when applied to exotic data-of market models, whether derived from neoclassical economics or economic geography.
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