Gifts and Commodities:
The Construction of Value in Social Life

Fall 1996 Deborah Durham
TTh 9:30-10:15 Benedict 310
381-6229
Office Hours: TTh 2-4 durham@sbc.edu
and by arrangement

How do objects, such as gifts, money, commodities, art and aesthetic products, become "valued"? How do exchanges of valued objects shape relationships among people? The relations between persons and objects, the ways in which values are produced and objectified, and the nature of different forms of exchange and transaction have long been central questions to anthropology. Does value inhere in objects as a property of the world, is it arbitrary and symbolical, or is it a product of social relations? How do we deal with its symbolic construction? Who controls value? Is it context-specific, and what happens when objects move from one value-context to another? Is value constructed differently, in pre-capitalist and capitalist economies? How does the introduction of money affect values in non-monetarized economies? Is money a totally rational, abstract measure, or does it too participate more complexly in systems of value? Are there domains from which monetary transactions are excluded, and how are they enclaved? We will compare classic social statements on exchange and value by Mauss and Marx, and current calls to shift attention from systems of production to consumption, and examine some modern interpretations of them. We will discuss the problematics of gifts and commodities in a variety of ethnographic studies, each raising its own particular set of questions and problems.

For the grade: This is an advanced class, and will be conducted as a joint lecture/seminar, which means that while I will present background material, the students will work through the assigned readings together in class. Class participation is an important part of your grade.

There will be three short review essays on the material read and covered in class. Due dates are posted in the syllabus.

Each student will do a case study of one of the classic systems of exchange in anthropology, or of one of the other topics listed below. She will present the material in class - expect to use at least half an hour for your presentation - and will prepare a 15-20 page paper that incorporates both a description of the exchange system and an analytical discussion of it explicitly in light of the issues and theories covered in class. The overall paper should be analytical, not descriptive. Students must choose from the following topics:
>Moka and/or tee in Highland Papua New Guinea
>Potlatch in NW Coast America
>Hxaro among Bushmen of southern Africa
>Gift-giving and presentation in Japan
>Cargo cults of Melanesia
>Australian aboriginal art and the modern art
market
>Money
In accordance with Sweet Briar's academic regulations, this term paper is due December 6, one week before the end of classes.

There will also be a short paper due at the end of the term, discussing the nature of secret gifts at Sweet Briar in light of our readings in the course. This paper will be totally analytical, with only such description as is absolutely needed (5-7 pages).
The grade will be based on: Long paper - 40%
Short, final paper - 20%
Reviews - 30% (10% each)
Class - 10%

Late papers are marked down one full grade per day. There are no waivers, no excuses: all papers are assigned in advance, and due dates are noted on the syllabus as well as above. Papers are to be turned in in class on the day they are due. Any paper turned in after class is late, and will be graded down; the next down-grade occurs after 10:30 the next day. Papers due on non-class days are due by 10:30, and are marked a day late after that.
Any paper may be turned in before its due date with no bad consequences.
I figure grades on a 4-point scale: A=4, A-=3.7, B+=3.3, B=3, etc. to F=0. I often shade grades in between (A-/B+, or B+/A-).

The following books are available at the Sweet Briar Bookshop:
Arjun Appadurai, The Social Life of Things
Jonathan Friedman, Consumption and Identity
Marcel Mauss, The Gift
Daniel Miller, Unwrapping Christmas
Annette Weiner, Women of Value, Men of Renown

These books as well as the other readings are on reserve at Cochran Library. We will discuss assembling a reading packet for purchase.

SYLLABUS AND READING ASSIGNMENTS

Week 1 Introduction to the Themes of the Course
9/10 Film: The Kawelka: Ongka's Big Moka
9/12 Discussion of film and problems for course
Read: Arjun Appadurai, "Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value," in Appadurai, ed., The Social Life of Things, pp 3-63.

Week 2 Commodities and the origins of value (Marx)
9/17 Marx
9/19 Marx's anthropological interpreters
Read: Karl Marx, selections from Capital, v. I, in David McLellan, ed., Selected Writings, pp 421-474
Michael Taussig, "The Genesis of Capitalism Amongst a South American Peasantry: Devil's Labor and the Baptism of Money." Comparative Studies in Society and History (1977):130-155.
[or if you've read Taussig and want to try something different in Marxist anthropology, the following on salt money among Baruya in New Guinea is also a classic:]
Maurice Godelier, Perspectives in Marxist Anthropology, pp. 127-151.

Week 3 Marcel Mauss and The Gift: the grounds of sociality
9/24 Mauss
9/26 Responses to Mauss
Read: Marcel Mauss, The Gift.
Jonathan Parry, "The Gift, the Indian gift and 'the Indian gift'". Man 21 (1986):453-73.
Deborah Durham, "Soliciting gifts and negotiating agency: The spirit of asking in Botswana." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (incorporating Man) 1 (1995):111-128.

Due on 10/1: A 3-page discussion of Marx and Mauss (and Appadurai)

Week 4 Gifts vs. commodities, the social value of objects and the value of social objects
Consumption/consumerism
10/1 Discussion: compare and contrast Mauss and Marx. What do they have in common? What are their differences? Look at Gregory's dichotomy: how does it work for you? Can you think of supporting evidence? Of contradictory evidence?
10/3 Consumer theory
Read: Christopher Gregory, Gifts and Commodities, pp. 29-101. (Chapter 3 is the heart of this, for our current concerns: get what you can out of chapter 2, especially the different processes of 'objectification' and 'personification', and in chapter 4 consider the problems of 'social reproduction')
Colin Campbell, "Capitalism, Consumption and the Problem of Motives" in Friedman, ed., Consumption and Identity, pp. 23-46.

Week 5 "The sociology of primitive exchange"
Transformations of value: spheres of exchange, biographies of things
10/8 Film: The Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea
10/10 Sahlins, Bohannan, Kopytoff
Read: Marshall Sahlins, "On the Sociology of Primitive Exchange," in Stone Age Economics, pp. 185-230.
Paul Bohannon, "Some Principles of Exchange and Investment among the Tiv." American Anthropologist 57 (1955):60-70.
Igor Kopytoff, "The Cultural Biography of Things," in Appadurai, The Social Life of Things, pp. 64-91.

Week 6 Kula: A classic study and its revaluations and permutations
10/15 Classic Kula: Malinowski
10/17 READING DAY: NO CLASS
Read: Bronislaw Malinowski, Argonauts of the Western Pacific, pp. 27-33, 49-78, 81-105, 166-194, 267-281, 350-360.
Start next week's reading: read Weiner now.

Due on 10/22: A short (3-5) page discussion of ceremonial exchange in the Massim

Week 7 Value transformations in the Massim
10/22 Value transformations in Kiriwina: women's exchanges
10/24 Value transformations: from people to kitomu: yams, canoes, bodies and valuables in the northern parts of the kula ring.
Read: Annette Weiner, Women of Value, Men of Renown, pp 11-24, 61-120, 177-185, 195-210, 227-236
Nancy Munn, "The spatiotemporal transformation of Gawa Canoes." Journal de la Societe des Oceanistes 33 (1977):39-53.
Fred Damon, "What moves the kula: opening and closing gifts on Woodlark Island." In Jerry W. Leach and Edmund Leach, eds., The Kula: Perspectives on Massim Exchange, pp. 309-340

Week 8 Student Presentations
10/29 STUDENT PRESENTATION ON HXARO (AMONG BUSHMEN OF SOUTHERN AFRICA)
STUDENT PRESENTATION ON POTLATCH (NORTHWEST COAST INDIANS, AMERICA)
10/31 STUDENT PRESENTATION ON MOKA, MOUNT HAGEN
STUDENT PRESENTATION ON CARGO CULTS (MELANESIA)

Week 9 Money and Transformations of "Primitive" Economies
When Money enters the "cattle complex" in Africa
11/5 Cattle and persons in classic studies of
African pastoralist systems
11/7 Contemporary revaluations
Reading: Parry and Bloch, "Money and the Morality of Exchange". In Money and the Morality of Exchange, pp. 1-32.
E.E. Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer, pp 16-19, 36-50.
E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Kinship and Marriage among the Nuer, pp 74-92.
Sharon Hutchinson, "The Cattle of Money and the Cattle of Girls among the Nuer." American Ethnologist 19(1992):294-316.
John and Jean Comaroff, "Goodly Beasts, Beastly Goods." In Ethnography and the Historical Imagination, pp. 127-154.
James Ferguson, "The Bovine Mystique: Power, Property and Livestock in Rural Lesotho." Man 20 (1985):647-74.

Week 10 Consumption and the value of goods
11/12 Commodities and consumption
11/14 DISCUSSION of "The Harrowing Adventures of A Chippendale Table" by Thatcher Freund, NYTimes Magazine, Jan. 16, 1994. (Article will be distributed ahead of time)
Reading: Michael Rowlands, "The Material Culture of Success: Ideals and LIfe Cycles in Cameroon." In Friedman, Consumption and Identity, pp.147-166.
Jonathan Friedman, "The Political Economy of Elegance: An African Cult of Beauty." In Friedman, Consumption and Identity, pp.167-187.
Alfred Gell, "Newcomers to the World of Goods: Consumption among the Muria Gonds" in Appadurai, ed. The Social Life of Things, pp. 110-138.
[for those interested: Patrick Geary, "Sacred
Commodities: The Circulation of Medieval Relics" in Appadurai. A weird and wonderful piece.]
Brian Spooner, "Weavers and Dealers: The Authenticity of an Oriental Carpet," in Appadurai, ed. The Social Life of Things, pp 195-235.


Week 11 More on auctions, more on consumption
11/19 Auctions
11/21 Students will read one of Chapters 2-5 in Friedman, ed., and report on it to the class. You will report a) the ethnographic material, and b) how the author analyzes the material as discrete parts of your presentations.
Reading: Charles Smith, Auctions: The Social Construction of Value, skim pp 1-19; read 162-184.
J. Gray, "Lamb Auctions on the Borders." Archiv. Europ. Soc. 24(1984):54-82.
Friedman, ed. (as noted above).

Due 11/26: An analysis of the creation of the value/meaning of the Chippendale table (cf. 11/14 class)

Week 12 Japanese gifts and Aboriginal art
11/26 STUDENT PRESENTATION: GIFT-GIVING IN JAPAN
STUDENT PRESENTATION: AUSTRALIAN ART AND THE MARKET
11/28 THANKSGIVING: NO CLASS

Week 13 Christmas spirit and the material world
12/3 Does materialism undermine the spirit of Christmas?
12/5 Material ritual, the family in modern society
Reading: Daniel Miller, ed., Unwrapping Christmas, Chapters1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10.

Long paper is due Friday, 6 December, by 10:30 am.

Week 14 Christmas gifts and secret gifts
12/10 Other Christmases (Japan and Trinidad)
12/12 Discussion of secret gift analyses (due in class): what is the value of these gifts? Use and contrast with other approaches and studies we have looked at in the class. Think particularly about the material from the last week, and link up with the materials from the first section of the course.
Reading: Daniel Miller, ed., Unwrapping Christmas, Chapters 5 and 6.

Short final paper due on 12/13.