Values And Valuables
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Values and Valuables
Author: Cynthia Werner
language: en
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Release Date: 2004-01-13
In this exciting new volume from the Society for Economic Anthropology, Cynthia Werner and Duran Bell bring together a group of distinguished anthropologists and economists to discuss the complex ways in which different cultures imbue material objects with symbolic qualities whose value cannot be reduced to material or monetary equivalents. Objects with sacred or symbolic qualities are valued quite differently than mundane objects, and the contributors to this volume set out to unravel how and why. In the first of three sections, the authors consider the extent to which sacred objects can or cannot be exchanged between individuals (e.g., ancestral objects, land, dreaming stories). In the next section, contributors discuss the value and power of markets, money, and credit. They consider theoretical models for understanding money transactions, competing currencies, and the power of credit among marginalized groups around the globe. The last section examines the ways in which contemporary people bestow symbolic value on some objects (e.g., family heirlooms, pre-Columbian artifacts, fashion goods) and finally how some individuals themselves are valued in monetary and symbolic ways. With its emphasis on the interplay of cultural and economic values, this volume will be a vital resource for economists and economic anthropologists. Published in cooperation with the Society for Economic Anthropology. Visit their web page.
Values and Revaluations
Why are some things valuable while others are not? How much effort does it take to produce valuable objects? How can one explain the different appraisal of certain things in different temporal horizons and in different cultures? Cultural processes on how value is attached to things, and how value is re-established, are still little understood. The case studies in this volume, originating from anthropology and archaeology, provide innovative and differentiated answers to these questions. However, for all contributions there are some common basic assumptions. One of these concerns the understanding that it is rarely the value of the material itself that matters for high valuation, but rather the appreciation of the (assumed or constructed) origin of certain objects or their connection with certain social structures. A second of these shared insights addresses the ubiquity of phenomena of 'value in things'. There is no society without valued objects. As a rule, valuation is something negotiated or even disputed. Value arises through social action, whereby it is always necessary to ask anew which actors are interested in the value of certain objects (or in their appreciation). This also works the other way round: Who are those actors who question corresponding objective values and why?
O Kinder Scout
This book was written from a personal experience and attachment of the author with Kinder Scout, which is a peak in the Peak District NP, England. A pilgrimage up there to me always bring understanding, reflection and prayer.