SDG Detail

ANTHRO 237 : Economy and Culture

Undergraduate course

Project description

This course examines production, exchange, and consumption from a comparative perspective. Topics covered will included cultural understandings of land, technology, and work; concepts of property; similarities and differences between gift exchange and commodity exchange; forms of reciprocity and redistribution; money; spheres of exchange; markets and market exchange; and connections between power and material conditions of life. The relationship between gender and economy will be examined throughout the course. The course will also consider the cultural metaphors in terms of which people in different societies describe their economies and the implications of such metaphors for anthropological understanding of economic life, including the appropriateness of economic models developed in capitalist societies for understanding non-capitalist societies.

Year 2022

Location New Zealand

Organization University of Auckland

Project aims

Project outcome

By the end of this course, students will be able to: Understand and explain the relationship between culture and economy. (Capability 1.1, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 4.1, 6.2 and 6.3) Recognise the cultural bases of economic concepts. (Capability 1.1, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 4.1, 6.1 and 6.2) Understand and describe the various ways in which people make a living. (Capability 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 4.1, 5.2, 6.1 and 6.2) Identify and analyse various types of reciprocity. (Capability 1.1, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 4.1, 5.2, 6.1 and 6.2) Understand and explain the ways in which economic activities and concepts are embedded in social relationships. (Capability 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 4.1, 6.1 and 6.2) Understand and explain the significance of culturally-specific ideas about social persons for economic activities. (Capability 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 4.1, 6.1 and 6.2)