Macquarie University

Wealth, Poverty and Consumption - ANTH222

We are surrounded by economic activity and yet often oblivious to it, like fish in water. Is greed universal? Is a free market inevitable? If Western societies are so wealthy, why do we feel unable to meet our needs and expectations? This unit explores wealth and poverty across cultures, examining the diverse ways people organise their economic life, decide who gets what, and determine what is valuable. From classical studies in anthropology to contemporary events like consumer fads, stock fraud, real estate bubbles, and corporate bailouts, we explore how economic phenomena cut across cultures, uniting what may appear to be different sorts of societies. This unit explores cultural diversity in a range of areas: shopping, gift giving, money, status seeking, trade, advertising, exploitation, and even get-rich-quick schemes. Across many cultures, we study the effects of the corporation, commoditisation, global trade, colonialism, materialism, and a range of other contemporary economic forces affecting the way that people consume. From cargo cults to The Secret, Native American potlatches to bank-busting weddings, Fair Trade to foraging, we find that humans, including ourselves, may be stranger than we think but not all that different from each other, and even that we are connected with those that appear to live a world away.

Timetable Information

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