Paul Sillitoe
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300142266
- eISBN:
- 9780300162950
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300142266.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
Among the Wola people of Papua New Guinea, using the term “economy” is problematic. Distribution is unnecessary; the producers of everyday needs are the consumers: produce goes largely “from land to ...
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Among the Wola people of Papua New Guinea, using the term “economy” is problematic. Distribution is unnecessary; the producers of everyday needs are the consumers: produce goes largely “from land to mouth”—with no implication that resources are scarce. Yet transactions featuring valuable things—which are scarce—are a prominent aspect of life, where sociopolitical exchange figures prominently. The relationship—or rather the disconnection—between these two domains is central to understanding the fiercely egalitarian political-economy. In this investigation of a Highland New Guinea agricultural “economy” and acephalous political order the text interrogates the relevance of key economic ideas in noncapitalist contexts and challenges anthropological shibboleths such as the “gift.” Furthermore, it makes a reactionary-cum-innovative contribution to research methods and analysis, drawing on advances in information technology to manage large data sets.Less
Among the Wola people of Papua New Guinea, using the term “economy” is problematic. Distribution is unnecessary; the producers of everyday needs are the consumers: produce goes largely “from land to mouth”—with no implication that resources are scarce. Yet transactions featuring valuable things—which are scarce—are a prominent aspect of life, where sociopolitical exchange figures prominently. The relationship—or rather the disconnection—between these two domains is central to understanding the fiercely egalitarian political-economy. In this investigation of a Highland New Guinea agricultural “economy” and acephalous political order the text interrogates the relevance of key economic ideas in noncapitalist contexts and challenges anthropological shibboleths such as the “gift.” Furthermore, it makes a reactionary-cum-innovative contribution to research methods and analysis, drawing on advances in information technology to manage large data sets.
