Economies Across Cultures : Towards a Comparative Science of the Economy

A study containing a combination of theory, ethnography and history, focusing upon critical issues of economic organization and change. Labour organization, land tenure and the division of labour by age and sex are treated in the context of both practical and theoretical problems. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction: Economies across Cultures — The Anthropological Approach....Pages 1-6 Paradigms for Studying Economies across Cultures....Pages 7-24 The Institutional Paradigm in Economic Anthropology....Pages 25-57 The Formal Paradigm....Pages 59-85 Production and the Organisation of Labour among Hunter-Gatherers....Pages 87-111 Administered Production: Continuities in Mexican Political Economy....Pages 113-141 Age and the Institutional Paradigm....Pages 143-169 Towards a Comparative Science of the Economy — Defining Units of Analysis....Pages 171-178 Back Matter....Pages 179-226 The original papers collected here call into question the entire concept of 'economic anthropology' as it is conveniently understood, relating it backwards to the neo-Marxist tradition of the 1960s and 1970s and questioning the nature of the category of the 'economic' and the problem of academic anthropology itself.