Money and modernity : state and local currencies in Melanesia / edited by David Akin and Joel Robbins.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Akin, David, 1955-

Robbins, Joel, 1961-

Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania. Meetings (1996 : Kailua Kona, Hawaii)

Series:

ASAO monograph ; 17.

ASAO monograph ; 17

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Money--Melanesia.

Money.

Melanesia.

Physical Description:

vii, 284 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, [1999]

Summary:

This collection of original essays explores money and its social dynamic in eight different Melanesian communities in order to determine why the people of Melanesia continue to use traditional kinds of currency, such as shells, alongside more modern types. When the answer to this question is examined in relation to the use of money in other countries, an entirely new model for thinking about money develops.

Contents:

An Introduction to Melanesian Currencies: Agency, Identity, and Social Reproduction / Joel Robbins, David Akin 1

1. Magical Money: Commoditization and the Linkage of Maketsi ("Market") and Kangakanga ("Custom") in Contemporary North Mekeo / Mark S. Mosko 41

2. Meaning, Contingency, and Colonialism: Reflections on a Papua New Guinea Shell Gift / Doug Dalton 62

3. This is Our MOney: Modernism, Regionalism, and Dual Currencies in Urapmin / Joel Robbins 82

4. Cash and Shell Money in Kwaio, Solomon Islands / David Akin 103

5. Pecuniary Schismogenesis in the Massim / John Liep 131

6. Money and the Morality of Exchange Among the Kwanga, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea / Karen Brison 151

7. Objects, Relationships, and Meanings: Historical Switches in Currencies in Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea / Andrew Strathern, Pamela J. Stewart 164

8. The Meaning of Money in the Age of Modernity / Edward LiPuma 192

9. In God We Trust? The Legitimacy of Melanesian Currencies / Robert J. Foster 214

10. Comparisons and Equivalencies in Africa and Melanesia / Jane I. Guyer 232.

Notes:

Papers presented at the 1996 meetings of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, in Kona, Hawaii.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-272) and index.

ISBN:

0822940876

0822956896

OCLC:

40043515