Anthropologies of Value: Anthropology, Culture & Society

One of the most vibrant areas of inquiry in anthropology today surrounds questions of the commodification of human and natural life. In a world where cost-benefit analysis dominates economic and governmental decision-making, prices are routinely put on death and environmental devastation—but little thought is given to what those valuations mean, both to those being blithely commodified or to the society behind it.
            Anthropologies of Value brings together a roster of stellar contributors to consider the question of the commodification of life through an anthropological lens. Explicitly questioning the validity of such commonplace binary oppositions as north/south, core/periphery, Western/non-Western, the collection aims to bridge disparate approaches and offer a new way forward for understanding, and combating, the rampant commodification of contemporary life.