Economic Anthropology

Social scientists theorizing about political economy & the allocation of resources have usually omitted migrant communities from their studies. In Greener Pastures Arun Agrawal uses the story of the Raikas, a little-known group of migrant shepherds in western India, to reexamine current scholarship on markets & exchange, local & state politics, & community & hierarchy. The Raikas are virtually invisible in the regions through which they travel, as well as to the wider Indian society, yet they must operate as part of these larger spheres for their economic survival. Agrawal analyzes the institutions developed by the shepherds to solve livelihood problems. First, by focusing on the relations of the shepherds with their landholder neighbors, he explains why the shepherds migrate. He shows that struggles between these two groups led to a sociopolitical squeeze on the access of shepherds to the fodder resources they need to feed their sheep. Then, in an examination of why the shepherds migrate in groups, he demonstrates how their migratory lives depend on market exchanges & points to the social & political forces that influence prices & determine profits. Finally, he looks at decision-making processes such as division of labor & the delegation of power. Politics is ubiquitous in the interactions of the shepherds with their neighbors & with state officials, in their exchanges in markets & with farmers, & in their internal relations as a community. Interspersing the words of the Raikas themselves with a sophisticated deployment of political theory, Agrawal has produced a volume that will interest scholars in a broad range of academic disciplines, including Asian studies, political science, human ecology, anthropology, comparative politics, rural sociology, & environmental studies & policy.

The Memory of Trade is an ethnographic study of the people of Aru, an archipelago in eastern Indonesia. Central to Patricia Spyer's study is the fraught identification of Aruese people with two imaginary elsewheres -- the 'Aru' and the 'Malay' -- and the fissured construction of community that has ensued from centuries of active international trade and more recent encroachments of modernity.

Drawing on more than two years of archival and ethnographic research, Spyer examines the dynamics of contact with the Dutch and Europeans, Suharto's postcolonial regime, and with the competing religions of Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism in the context of the recent conversion of pagan Aruese. While arguing that Aru identity and community are defined largely in terms of absence, longing, memory, and desire, she also incorporates present-day realities -- such as the ecological destruction wrought by the Aru trade in such luxury goods as pearls and shark fins -- without overlooking the mystique and ritual surrounding these activities. Imprinted on the one hand by the archipelago's long engagement with extended networks of commerce and communication and, on the other, by modernity's characteristic repressions and displacements, Aruese make and manage their lives somewhat precariously within what they often seem to construe as a dangerously expanding -- if still enticing -- world. By documenting not only the particular expectations and strategies Aruese have developed in dealing with this larger world but also the price they pay for participation therein, The Memory of Trade speaks to problems commonly faced elsewhere in the frontier spaces of modern nation-states.

Balancing astute analysiswith classic ethnography, The Memory of Trade will appeal not only to anthropologists and historians but also to students and specialists of Southeast Asia, modernity, and globalization.

This collection of Timothy Earle's major essays provides a comparative analysis of prehistoric economies. They look at trajectories of economic development as they affect, and are affected by, political institutions.

Lewellen gives us the first analytic overview of an important new subject area in a field that has long been identified with the study of relatively bounded communities. "Globalization" refers to the increasing flows of trade, finance, culture, ideas, and people brought about by the sophisticated technology of communications and travel and by the worldwide spread of neoliberal capitalism. Unlike dependency theory and world systems analysis, which tended to assume a bird's-eye perspective, globalization offers a down-and-dirty, ground-up approach in which ethnographic research is not marginal but essential.

Market Cultures examines the spectacular growth of capitalist enterprise among overseas Chinese & Southeast Asians. It does so, not through formal models, but by way of the varied cultures & organizations in which Asian capitalism is embedded. Eschewing talk of a uniform Asian "miracle," the book shows that there existed complex precedents for & against market capitalism in East & Southeast Asia, precedents that reflected subcultural heritages of religion, ethnicity, gender, & class. The case studies illuminate a cultural variety unacknowledged in most analyses of modern capitalism but vitally important for anyone wishing to understand one of the great economic transformations of our time. Contents: Introduction: Society & Morality in the New Asian Capitalism, Robert W. Hefner. CHINESE CAPITALISMS & CULTURAL PLURALISM. Culture & Organization in Taiwan's Market Economy, Gary G. Hamilton. Divided Market Cultures in China: Gender, Enterprise, & Religion, Robert P. Weller. Getting Rich Is Not So Glorious: Contrasting Perspectives on Prosperity Among Muslims & Han in China, Dru C. Gladney. INDIGENES & CHINESE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. Business Success Among the Southeast Asian Chinese: The Role of Culture, Values, & Social Structures, Jamie Mackie. Constituting Capitalist Culture: The Singapore Malay Problem & Entrepreneurship Reconsidered, Tania Murray Li. The "Great Transformation" Among Negeri Sembilan Malays, with Particular Reference to Chinese & Minangkabau, Michael G. Peletz. SOUTHEAST ASIAN CAPITALISMS. Women Traders in Javanese Marketplaces: Ethnicity, Gender, & the Entrepreneurial Spirit, Jennifer Alexander. Markets & Justice for Muslim Indonesians, R. W. Hefner. Contingent Moralities: Social & Economic Investment in a Philippine Fishing Town, David L. Szanton. State Stigma, Family Prestige, & the Development of Commerce in the Red River Delta of Vietnam, Shaun Kingsley Malarney. Engendered Entrepreneurship: Ideologies & Political-Economic Transformation in a Northern Vietnamese Center of Ceramics Production, Hy van Luong.