Courses

This course explores how anthropologists have engaged with the question of value as means of understanding and comparing human social engagement with the creation, circulation, and consumption of objects and ideas. In doing so, this course will read classical anthropological texts on exchange, social meaning and action and consider a variety of topics of anthropological interest such as debt, commodities, fetishes, and money. In addition, we will read from a variety of other theoretical literatures that have informed anthropological discussions about the relationship between value, materiality, and semiotics.