Money, Money, Money!

I'm going to continue today in a similar vein to yesterday; looking at how anthropologists are researching or commenting on current affairs. The latest issue of Anthropology Today finishes with a section running comment on the credit crunch; largely replies to an earlier article by Hart and Oriz entitled Anthropology in the Financial Crisis (AT: 24(6)). The responses do inevitably get bogged down in the little details - such as Muniesa's comments on the use of quotation marks in the article and their implication, they also get a little bitchy at some points. Yet collectively the article and its responses make a good point. With the current economic crisis, anthropologists should seize a golden opportunity to join forces with economics and look a contemporary, global issue. After all, anthropology has a long history of analysing economic transfer, even if we haven't quite realised it (ie, Malinowski's Kula Rings). The monetary current actions of ordinary people, such as hoarding, selling, buying etc play right in to the hands of anthropologists looking at agency and the power of money.

Much of this blog looks at the percieved crisis in anthropology - where are we going? How should we react to new technologies? What are our links with other disciplines? But the answers are written all around us, the current journal issues are full of really excellent suggestions, even ansewers to these questions. Why are we not listening?!