ESSAY SUBMISSION THROUGH TURNITIN:

Each essay must go through a submission process.

ALL essays MUST be electronically submitted by students to the Turnitin plagiarism system. Go to http://www.lib.mq.edu.au/infoethics/plag.html for information about how to submit through Turnitin.

NOTE: Assignments will NOT be marked unless processed by the Turnitin system.  

FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:

Your essay must be typed in 12-point font and double spaced. Make sure all of the pages are numbered.

Please include the essay title, your name, student I.D. number, class number (e.g ANTH831, 731), the essay question you have chosen to answer, and word count.

Correct grammar and spelling is required and part of the assessment for your written work will reflect this.

Extensions and penalties

LATE SUBMISSIONS:

Late submissions will incur a penalty, unless the unit convenor has granted an extension due to certificated medical problems or to 'unavoidable disruption' (see Undergraduate Student Handbook). 

ESSAY WORD LIMIT:

There is a word limit for each essay task, and you must include the word count for your paper on the cover page. Papers that exceed the word limit will be deducted 1 percentage point for each 10 words over the limit. Please take the word limit very seriously and try to make your argument concisely and clearly. The word limit is designed to level the essay-writing field, so to speak: it is unfair to fellow students if one person has much more space to argue their case while another student sticks firmly to the length guidelines. If you fail to provide a word count, you will be deducted 1 percentage point and the assessor will estimate length and mark accordingly.

While there is a penalty for exceeding the word limit, there is no penalty for going under the recommended essay length.

PLAGIARISM:

The University defines plagiarism in its rules: "Plagiarism involves using the work of another person and presenting it as one's own." Plagiarism is a serious breach of the University's rules and carries significant penalties. You must read the University's definition of plagiarism and its academic honesty policy. These can be found in the Handbook of Undergraduate studies or on the web at: http://www.student.mq.edu.au/plagiarism/ and http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.htm The policies and procedures explain what plagiarism is, how to avoid it, the procedures that will be taken in cases of suspected plagiarism, and the penalties if you are found guilty. Penalties may include a deduction of marks, failure in an assignment, failure in the unit, and/or referral to the University Discipline Committee.

Lectures

Lectures are NOT recorded for the post-graduate course. Attendance is compulsory.  

UNIT WEB PAGE

The Unit Homepage can be accessed through iLearn.

For information on the use of the Web site (e.g. username and password, bulletin board, calendar) access: ilearn.mq.edu.au

For information for online training and technical problems see Library Homepage: http://www.lib.mq.edu.au/ (‘Support Services'). 

Course Readings

All readings are available online. You can find them in E-reserve. There is no hard-copy booklet for this course.   

Returning Assignments

Student work will usually be marked and returned with feedback within two weeks after the due date, while late submissions are marked within two weeks of submission. The essay will be available online for your perusal. 

Feedback and unit evaluation

The Faculty of Arts values student feedback and seeks to continually improve its teaching. At present, the Faculty collects student feedback in two ways:

1. Anonymous evaluation surveys which are disseminated at the completion of each unit.

2. Student feedback meetings which are held twice a year in the Faculty of Arts. These meetings are advertised on campus and all students are encouraged to attend.

We also warmly welcome ongoing student feedback via less formal media. Please, if you have a word of compliment or a suggestion for improvement during the semester, don't wait until the end of the year to convey this feedback to the unit convenor. Feel free to write me during consultation hours, send an e-mail, or post your comment to the Blackboard Discussion Board.

LECTURE AND TUTORIAL PROGRAM

This unit outline includes a short description of each lecture, the tutorial question for that week, followed by a listing of the readings; core tutorial readings are available online.

WEEK ONE: What is Economic?

What do we mean by ‘economic’? What types of human activity do we call economic? And what might anthropology have to say about the economic activities of human beings? Do people everywhere behave in a relatively consistent fashion when deciding how to allocate resources, produce the necessities of life, or distribute what they make? What sorts of economic systems have anthropologists encountered in cultures around the world?

The introductory lecture will discuss the history of relations between anthropology and economics, the goals and requirements of this unit, and an introduction to the topics we will be discussing in this course.

NO TUTORIALS THIS WEEK

WEEK TWO: Rationality and Society: Understanding the 'Economy' 

The dominant model in neo-classical economics makes certain assumptions about what motivates human beings and how they make decisions. It supposed especially that individuals use a means-ends calculation when making decisions that economists call ‘rationality’. Anthropologists have disagreed, both with each other and economists, about whether or not these traits (such as rationality, utility maximization, and profit seeking etc.) exist amongst all people, or if the terms are just too general. Some have argued that the terms are circular – for example, by definition, you are pursuing ‘utility’ with every decision you make to allocate your resources; therefore, we can be confident that you will always choose the option that gives you the most utility (rather than act out of fear, loyalty, morality, laziness, short-sightedness, habit, etc). 

In this lecture, we will discuss some of the basic assumptions of economics as well as consider the polarised anthropological responses to neo-classical economic assumptions. We will ask if the economic model of ‘markets’ resembles actual markets or daily economic activity; in particular, we will ask if market economics describes non-economic behaviour.

Tutorial Question

What do economists treat as universal human traits? What sorts of factors might shape your decisions about how to spend money, what occupation to pursue, how to invest time and resources, and other economic choices? 

Tutorial Readings

Smith, Adam, 1910 (1776) Excerpt from An Inquiry in the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Volume One. Pp. 4-19. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. 

Antonioni, P and Sean Masaki Flynn, (2007) Getting to Know Homo Economicus, The Utility Maximizing Consumer. In Economics for Dummies Pp. 191-209

Recommended

Granovetter, M., 1985 Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 91, No. 3, Pp. 481-510

Oritz, S.,  Decisions and Choices: The Rationality of Economic Actors. In A Handbook of Economic Anthropology. Carrier, J.G., 2005, Pp. 59-77

WEEK THREE: Irrationality

If we are all rational actors, as some economic theories seem to argue, what are we to make of crazy, hare-brained get-rich-quick schemes? For instance, every year, millions of dollars are defrauded from westerners as a consequence of Nigerian 4-1-9 scams. Despite the obvious risk of sending large sums of money to persons who explicitly introduce themselves as corrupt African bureaucrats, such scams are efficacious largely because they play off the distorted understandings about Africa that some westerners hold.

Likewise, traditional societies in the South Pacific follow religions characterised by a seemingly ‘irrational’ use of resources. Following World War II, a number of groups in the pacific islands became the cradle of religious movements that awaited the return of yankee G.Is who had brought material wealth during the war. Called Cargo Cults because they awaited goods from abroad, these groups are an example of how people who have not fully understood the economic processes around them and yet have tried to harness economic power.

And finally what are we to make of the billions of dollars that move between migrants in developed countries and their friends and family in developing countries in the form of remittances? The total sum of such flows eclipses the total sum of money poured into official development and relief projects. This lecture looks at the role of irrational forces in the economic behaviours of social actors; special attention is given to my research into the motivations of resettled refugees to support their friends and family living in refugee camps in West Africa.  

Tutorial Question

How are cargo cults like John Frum’s similar to Nigerian 419 scams? What part does faith and trust play in cargo cults, 419 schemes, and in our own economic confidence? Are such phenomena exemplary of 'rationality' in socio-economic exchanges?

Tutorial Readings

Smith, D 2007: ‘Urgent Business Relationship’: Nigerian E-Mail Scams, in A Culture of Corruption: Everyday forms of Deception and Popular Discontent in Nigeria, Pp. 53-88, Princeton University Press 

Raffaele, P, 2006. In John They Trust. Smithsonian Magazine 36 (11) (February 2006): 70-77

WEEK FOUR: The Gift

In his book The Gift, French anthropologist and sociologist Marcel Mauss famously contrasted gifts with commodities.  He asked: what power is in the gift that compels the recipient to give a gift in return? Ironically, he concluded that gifts were ultimately inalienable, that is, they retain a connection to their giver, building a relationship of reciprocity.

During this week’s lecture and discussion, we will think more about the rules of gift giving in our own and others’ cultures, as well as how exchanges of money, objects and assistance form an important part of our social relationships. Although economic models tend to assume that transactions are determined only by rational consideration of one’s own benefit, the relationships we actually observe often involve many other social considerations. We will look at different forms of reciprocity across a variety of cultures.

Tutorial Question

To whom do you give gifts, and what sorts of gifts do you give? What are the ‘rules’ of the gift in our society?

Tutorial Readings

Mauss, M. 1967 The Gift and Especially the Obligation to Return It. The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Society. Pp. 1-16. New York and London: W. W. Norton.

Zelizer, V. 1996, Payments and Social Ties. Sociological Forum 14 (3) 481-495.

Recommended

Ruth, J A., Otnes CC, Brunel F. F., 1999. Gift Receipt and the Reformulation of Interpersonal Relationships. Journal of Consumer Research 25: 385-402

WEEK FIVE:  Wage Labour and Resistance

This lecture examines the ways in which ‘work’ has been conceptualised by leading philosophers and anthropologists. We will consider the different functions of production, the organisation of production in ‘traditional’ and capitalist societies, and the consequences of such modes of organisation upon our experience of work.

We will also consider the forms of resistance to wage labour that have emerged in different workplaces, in both western and traditional societies. Far from being passive objects that are manipulated by employers, workers around the world have developed innovative ways of expressing discontent with prevailing work conditions. The so-called ‘weapons of the weak’ are explored in this lecture.  

Tutorial Question

How important is control over time to the experience of work? How do workers respond to, negotiate and resist social and organizational relations of workplaces?

Tutorial Readings

Ong, A. The Production of Possession: Spirits and the Multinational Corporation in Malaysia. American Ethnologist, Vol. 15 no. 1.

Edwards, P., Collinson, D., & Della Rocca, G., 1995. Workplace Resistance in Western Europe: A preliminary Overview and Research Agenda, European Journal of Industrial Relations, 1995, 283-316   

Week Six: Livelihoods and Identity Work

Amongst other things, economic anthropology examines how people engage with their environment in order to eek out a living. Building on the core concept of ‘embeddedness’, this lecture examines the concept of ‘livelihoods’ as a means of understanding ‘production’. I will discuss the notion of ‘identity work’ in order to explore the ways in which livelihoods are attained under conditions of extreme hardship. Drawing on my fieldwork experience in the internet cafes of Buduburam refugee camp, I will describe how performances of ‘refugee identity’ in online chat rooms enable Liberians in exile to elicit resources from distant – often unfamiliar – others.   

Tutorial Question

In what ways is the notion of livelihoods useful for the analysis of economic activities, in particular the concept of work? Why, do you think, has the notion been popular in refugee studies? 

Tutorial Readings

Porter, G., Hampshire, K., Kyei, P., Adjaloo, M., Rapoo, G., Kilpatrick, K.,  2008., Linkages Between Livelihood Opportunities and Refugee-Host Relations: Learning From The Experiences Of Liberian Camp-Based Refugees in Ghana. Journal of Refugee Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press Pp. 230-252

Black, R., Livelihoods Under Stress: A Case Study of Refugee Vulnerability in Greece. Journal of Refuge Studies, Vol. 7, No. 4. 1994. pp. 360-377.   

WEEK SEVEN: Commodities and Consuming

Commodity fetishism, described by Marx and discussed by many theorists, has been an important concept for understanding the ‘illusions’ created by market relations. That is, many economists argue that the market and market transactions are a model for transparent social relations; Marx argues that the form of the commodity conceals more than it reveals, hiding the social relations and conditions of its production. In the end, Marx argues, commodities seem to have the qualities of people, as if the objects were themselves animated. This lecture considers both classical and Marxist theories of commodities, how they are given prices, and what effect this has on the price of labour, part of a person’s life.

If the commodity fetish helps us understand the ways that social relations of production are concealed by the market, under contemporary capitalism it is clear that many people see themselves as constituted in their acts of consumption. That is, what we buy and consume is often treated as our truest and freest expression of our essential self. Material restrictions, demands that we work, and social constraints, from this perspective, are all inauthentic obstacles to our self-expression in buying.

During this week’s lecture, we will talk about theorists who argue that our choices of what we consume are shaped by powerful cultural and structural systems. Instead of being an expression of a purely individual independent self, these theorists argue that consumption obeys various logics. Some acts of consumption may resist dominant frameworks of meaning for things, but others merely reproduce forms of distinction among people. That is, we try to create difference in part through what we consume, defining the kind of people we are or are not through showing our good ‘taste’.

Tutorial Question

What does Marx mean when he writes about the commodity as a fetish? Do we live to consume, or consume to live? Basing your opinion on Robbin's discussion,  what was distinctive about the 20th century's relationship to goods and their consumption?   

Tutorial Readings

Marx, K. 1867. Section 4. The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof. In Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 1 Pp. 76-87. New York

Robbins, R H. 2005 Constructing the Consumer. In Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism. Third Edition. Pp. 13-38. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Recommended

Koptyoff, I   The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as a Process. In The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Arjun Appadurai, ed. Pp. 64-91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

WEEK EIGHT: ' Volunteer' Work: Bridging Exchange, Consumption and Production

Volunteer work is an activity that overlaps with forms of consumption, production, and exchange.  Volunteer tourism is the booming sector of the tourist industry. This week's lecture discusses the various ethical positions that international volunteers - e.g., aid workers, volunteer tourists, and NGO interns - have come to occupy in the local economies of recipient countries. Volunteers have been framed by academics and policy makers as: a means by which the wealth of western nations may be redistributed  and as a force for the production of social capital for 'isolated' groups (i.e., socio-economic exchange). However, the industry clearly accommodates those who would act as 'consumers of poverty', as well as to those who would volunteer for personal purposes (e.g., their latent or explicit interests in building CVs).    

Yet, western societies have developed other forms of volunteer work in the contemporary market, exemplified by the phenomena of the unpaid internship (such as Macquarie's 'PACE' program) and reality TV shows. By looking at the industry of volunteer work alongside the emergence of other forms of volunteer work in the west, this week's lecture explores the nuanced ways in which free labor is being mobilized around the globe for profit, the adverse and positive impacts of such movements, and consider the degree to which volunteer work embodies neo-liberal values and agendas.     

Tutorial Question

In what ways can volunteer work be regarded as an economic activity? What positive and negative impacts might ‘voluntourism’ have on local economies?

Tutorial Readings

Guttendag, D., 2009      The Possible Negative Effects of Volunteer Tourism. International Journal of Tourism Research, 11. Pp. 537-551

Simpson, K., 2004  Doing Development, the Gap Year, and a Popular Practice of Development. Journal of International Development. 16, Pp. 681-692

WEEK NINE:  Money (its a crime)

Classical philosophical studies of money have described it as both a kind of social acid and an economic lubricant. On the one hand, money dissolved previous social ties, just as wage labour eventually undermined serfdom and slavery; on the other, money made transactions easier, smoother, and faster, so that trade did not have to wait for the slower price of barter. We tend to see money as transparent; our day-to-day activities demand that we have confidence in the concrete value of coloured paper notes.   

In fact, money takes many forms across cultures. Its ubiquity in our lives makes us unaware of the extraordinary social accomplishment that money represents. In this lecture, we will talk about some of the different forms that money can take, and what these unusual forms teach us about the almost magical properties of our own currencies, including new forms of money generated by financial markets, electronic banking, credit cards, and other technological innovations. 

Tutorial Question

Is money a universal means of exchange? What is meant by special purpose moneys and why are anthropologists interested in them? Are there any special purpose moneys in your life?

Tutorial Readings

Bohannon, P., 1959 The Impact of Money on an African Subsistence Economy. The Journal of Economic History 19 (4): 491-503 

Walsh, A., 2003 "Hot money" and daring consumption in a northern Malagasy sapphire-mining town. In American Ethnologist, Vol. 30. No. 2, 290-305 

 Recommended Reading

Parry, J.P. On The Moral Perils of Exchange in Parry, J.P., and Bloch M., Money and The Morality of Exchange. Cambridge University Press pp., 64-93

WEEK TEN: Poverty, Society, and (Structural) Violence

The gap between the rich and the poor is immense.  For many of us in the developed world – or in the middle and upper classes of the developed world – it is almost inconceivable that anyone could survive on less of a daily income than we might spend on a cup of coffee.

During this lecture, we will consider the objective measures of poverty in the world, together with the social causes and consequences of extreme inequality. Although we tend to think of deprivation as the outcome of a simple lack (i.e., a ‘scarcity’ of money, of resources, of skills), some societies are structured so as to deny opportunities to some members; for example, we will consider economist Amartya Sen’s discussion of ‘entitlement problems’ and the possibility of famine, as well as the controversial theory that a ‘culture of poverty’ engenders socio-economic deprivation.  Finally, we look also at the ways in poverty is related to affluence, mapping out the precise nature of the social relationships that engender deprivation.   

Tutorial Question

What social and political phenomena produce poverty? What measures, do you think, would be required to challenge – or indeed disrupt - the ‘structural violence’ that poverty entails?

Tutorial Readings

Farmer, P., 2004, On Suffering and Structural Violence: A View From Below. Chapter 1, in Pathologies of Power:  Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor, University of California Press, 2005, pp29-50

WEEK ELEVEN: Reading Week

WEEK TWELVE: Experiencing Poverty

Turning our attention away from the scholarly and the institutional understandings of poverty, as well as its social causes and their consequences, this lecture explores the ways in which poverty is experienced. We look first at the ways in which poverty is represented in the popular media. Then, we explore a sample of the ways in which experience has been theorised, and the extent to which the notion of experience is relevant to a better understanding the struggles of the poor.  Finally, we look at the espoused answers to deprivation and poverty, and question the degree to which the poor’s perspectives, needs and experiences are addressed by such solutions.   

Tutorial Question

What is it like to be really poor?  

Tutorial Readings

Abhijit, B., and Duflo, E., 2006. The Economic Lives of the Poor. Journal of Economic Perspectives 21 (1): 141-167

WEEK THIRTEEN: Economies in Crisis and Conflict

Contemporary neo-Liberal theory proposes that ‘free trade’ is essential to national security and common prosperity. At the same time, liberal thinkers believe that ‘non-liberal’ economies and black markets foster crisis, as well as constituting a threat to national and international peace.  Particular kinds of economies – and the so-called ‘weak states’ in which they are ‘embedded’ – are thus linked to disorder, crisis and conflict, both at home and abroad.

Such understandings do not acknowledge the ways that contemporary forms of liberalism may promote insecurity and conflict; nor how non-liberal and black markets in the midst of conflict zones may express the failings of free-trade, or function to re-structure and re-organize the inequalities latent in the prevailing socio-economic system. Put differently, neo-liberal philosophy has yet to grapple with the ways that economies in conflict zones produce – and express – certain kinds of ‘order’. 

This lecture looks at economies in the midst of crisis from a macro- and micro-economic perspective. It raises questions about the actual relationships between ‘weak states’ and capitalism, as well considers the ways that persons within conflict zones behave in the market under conditions of extreme scarcity.   

Tutorial Question

In what ways do conditions of extreme scarcity – as well as limited social mobility – cause eruptions of conflict? What economic possibilities does conflict facilitate for combatants in conflict zones?

Tutorial Readings

Outram, Q.,   2007 Its terminal either way: An Analysis of Armed Conflict in Liberia, 1989-1996. Review of African Political Economy, 24:73, Pp. 355-371

Schetter, O., ‘The Bazaar economy of Afghanistan’ access online at http://www.zef.de/fileadmin/webfiles/downloads/conferences/Bazar_Economy_of_Afghanistan.pdf