The quest for the good life in precarious times : ethnographic perspectives on the domestic moral economy / edited by Chris Gregory and Jon Altman.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Gregory, C. A. (Chris A.), editor.

Altman, Jon C., 1954- editor.

Series:

Monographs in anthropology series.

Monographs in anthropology series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic anthropology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 223 pages) : illustrations, maps.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

ANU Press 2018

Acton, Australian Capital Territory : ANU Press, 2018.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The study of the quest for the good life and the morality and value it presupposes is not new. To the contrary, this is an ancient issue; its intellectual history can be traced back to Aristotle. In anthropology, the study of morality and value has always been a central concern, despite the claim of some scholars that the recent upsurge of interest in these issues is new. What is novel is how scholars in many disciplines are posing the value question in new ways. The global economic alignments of the present pose many political, moral and theoretical questions, but the central issue the essays in this collection address is: how do relatively poor people of the Australia–Pacific region survive in current precarious times? In looking to answer this question, contributors directly engage the values and concepts of their interlocutors. At a time when understanding local implications of global processes is taking on new urgency, these essays bring finely honed anthropological perspectives to matters of universal human concern—they offer radical empirical critique based on intensive fieldwork that will be of great interest to those seeking to comprehend the bigger picture.

Contents:

Intro

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Abbreviations

Contributors

Preface

1. Introduction

2. The Good Death? Paying Equal Respects in Fijian Funerals

3. Changing Standards of Living: The Paradoxes of Building a Good Life in Rural Vanuatu

4. 'According to Kastom and According to Law': 'Good Life' and 'Good Death' in Gilbert Camp, Solomon Islands

5. 'This Custom from the Past Is No Good': Grassroots, 'Big Shots' and a Contested Moral Economy in East New Britain

6. A Moral Economy of the Transnational Papua New Guinean Household: Solidarity and Estrangement While 'Working Other Gardens'

7. Cycles of Integration and Fragmentation: Changing Yolngu-Balanda Sentiments of the 'Good Life' in Northern Australia

8. 'The Main Thing Is to Have Enough Food': Kuninjku Precarity and Neoliberal Reason

9. The Rise of the Poverty-Stricken Millionaire: The Quest for the Good Life in Sargipalpara.

Notes:

CC BY-NC-ND

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781760462017

1760462012

OCLC:

1031715825

Publisher Number:

10.22459/QGLPT.03.2018