Anthropology 212f - Shopping and Swapping:Cultures of Consumption and Exchange

Institution:

Mount Holyoke College

Subject:

Description:

(Speaking- and writing-intensive course)We shop for our food, for our clothes, for our colleges.We purchase cars, manicures, and vacations. It seems that there is little that cannot be bought or sold. But we also give and receive gi?s, exchange favors, "go dutch?n restaurants, and invite friends for potlucks. This course examines exchange systems cross-culturally, in order to understand their cultural significance and social consequences. It explores how our own commodity exchange system, which appears to be no more than an efficient means of distributing goods and services, in fact contains intriguing symbolic dimensions similar to the gi? exchange systems of Native North America, Melanesia, and Africa. Meets multicultural requirement; meets Social Sciences III-A requirement J. Roth 4 credits

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.mtholyoke.edu

Phone Number:

(413) 538-2000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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