Anthropologies of Value: Cultures of Accumulation Across the Global North and South

Book Launch

DATE: Thursday 27 October

TIME: 3:00pm to 6:00pm

LOCATION: Woolley Common Room, John Woolley Building, Manning Rd, University of Sydney, Camperdown

The book editors (Luis F. Angosto-Ferrandez and Geir H. Presterudstuen) will be accompanied by two discussants: Neil Mclean (Anrhropology) and Prof Dick Bryan (Emeritus, Political Economy)

Q&A section will follow, before light refreshments.

Description of the book:

Anthropologies of Value analyses the creation of value in a wide range of political and cultural contexts. It includes anthropological case studies from around the globe; from the commodification of a Venezuelan waterfall to the relative value of penguins in periods of imperialist expansion.

Questioning the validity of binary oppositions such as ‘north/south’, ‘core/periphery’ and ‘west/the rest’ as the basis of generalisations about culturally-mediated engagements with capitalism, this is a comprehensive attempt to understand and define anthropological value theory. The essays provide much-needed, controversial new material for students of anthropology, and propose an alternative method of studying the world system which challenges mainstream existing work in the field.