Anthropology › Section G · Economic anthropology › Topic G.1
Two ways to study economies
Economists and anthropologists both study how people make a living, but they ask different questions and trust different evidence. Knowing the difference, and the famous debate it produced, is the first step in economic anthropology.
In this topic
- What is an economy?
- The economist's lens: universal rules
- The anthropologist's lens: people in context
- Formalists and substantivists
- Polanyi and the embedded economy
- Worked example: one farmer, two explanations
- Moral economy
- Worked example: one game in fifteen societies
- Beyond the old debate
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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