Stephen Gudeman: 4 books

Comparative and critical, Anthropology and Economy offers a uniquely cross-cultural view of economy. Using examples from market and non-market situations, the book shows how economies are built on five increasingly abstract spheres, from the house to community, commerce, finance, and meta-finance....

Why are we obsessed with calculating our selections? The author argues that competitive trade nurtures calculative reason, which provides the ground for most discourses on economy. But market descriptions of economy are incomplete. Drawing on a range of materials from small ethnographic contexts to...

Bridging a gap between macro- and micro- viewpoints, the work shows the ways in which an economy is socially and historically determined. Subsistence is shown to be not only a form of agriculture but a determinant economic organisation and particular attention is paid to the problem of understanding...

Representing a departure from traditional studies of social organisation, the book asserts that a kinship system is best understood as a system of concepts rather than as a set of empirical relationships. Three aspects of life in the Panamanian community of Los Boquerones are described First published in 1976.