Synopses & Reviews
C. A. Gregoryandrsquo;s
Gifts and Commodities is one of the undisputed classics of economic anthropology. On its publication in 1982, it spurred intense, ongoing debates about gifts and gifting, value, exchange, and the place of political economy in anthropology.
Gifts and Commodities is, at once, a critique of neoclassical economics and development theory, a critical history of colonial Papua New Guinea, and a comparative ethnography of exchange in Melanesian societies. This new edition includes a new foreword by anthropologist Marilyn Strathern that discusses the ongoing response to the book and the debates it has engendered, debates that have only become more salient in our ever-more-neoliberal and evermore- globalized era.
Review
andquot;Leviathans at the Gold Mine is an important contribution to our knowledge of the Porgera mine and mining in Papua New Guinea more generally. Alex Golub offers a subtle, original reading of mine-landowner relations, as well as new information about the microprocesses associated with Porgera mining, such as how landownership is determined and how royalty checks are distributed. Those insights will be welcomed by scholars interested in local-global articulations and the politics and misunderstandings associated with them.andquot;
Review
andquot;Leviathans at the Gold Mine is a game-changing work. Any one of its chapters would be enough to secure its place as a breakthrough book, but the ensemble is a tour de force of the sort that comes along only rarely. Future debates about the politics of resource development or the relation between the states, transnational corporations, and indigenous people will have to start here. Theories about globalization, structure, and agency will have to take it into account. And the bar of Melanesian ethnography has just been raised.andquot;
Review
andquot;Goluband#39;s study of gold mining in Papua New Guinea is not only a fascinating ethnography but a strong tonic for anthropology, for law and courts, and for governments and corporations insofar as they continue to subscribe to the notion of fixed indigenous and#39;societiesand#39; and and#39;culturesand#39;--or truly of any social facts or institutions that they dream have been or can be settled once and for all through the (post)modern techniques of audit and governmentality.andquot;
Review
andldquo;Gregoryandrsquo;s work constitutes probably the single most important body of economic anthropology produced in the last half century. Gifts and Commodities was foundational; with one or two incisive and brilliant interventions, it managed to completely transform the field. It is still seen as a classic, but at the same time, in many quarters, its overall argument remains systematically misrepresented as essentializing or totalizingandmdash;in ways that should have been self-evidently false to anyone who had actually taken the time to read the book. This new edition should undo an historical injustice in this regard as a new generation of young scholars will be able to encounter what surely will be remembered as an enduring classic for a very long time to come.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;Golubandrsquo;s chapter on the Ipili is an ethnographic tour de force.andquot;and#160;
Review
andldquo;Leviathans at the Gold Mine truly does justice to Porgeraandrsquo;s complex reality. The authorandrsquo;s theoretically ambitious approach provides a sophisticated and refreshing perspective on the constantly evolving relationship between mining companies and local communities. It is accessible to multiple audiences and is a go-to book for anyone interested in mining, governmentality, Melanesian anthropology or globalisation. With a variety of writing genres displayed in each chapter andndash; all written in Golubandrsquo;s clear, witty and at times poetic style andndash; Leviathans is a pleasure to read.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Leviathans at the Gold Mine is an ethnography about the Ipili, an indigenous group in Papua New Guinea; an enormous gold mine operated by an international conglomerate on Ipili land; and the process through which "the Ipili" and "the mine" brought each other into being as entities.
Synopsis
First published in 1982, Christopher A. Gregoryand#8217;s Gifts and commodities is one of the undisputed classics of economic anthropology. The book spurred intense debates about gifts and gifting, value, exchange, and the place of political economy in anthropology. Gifts and commodities is, at once, a critique of neoclassical economics and development theory, a critical history of colonial Papua New Guinea, and a comparative ethnography of exchange in Melanesian societies. This new edition, with a foreword by anthropologist Marilyn Strathern, offers a new generation of scholars a fresh opportunity to revisit this classic in light of contemporary socio-economic issues: from the global proliferation of neoliberal economic reforms to the chorus of activism protesting the moral and ideological grounds of capitalism.
1st Edition Publication Data: Gregory, C. A. 1982. Gifts and commodities. [Studies in Political Economy Series, edited by John Eatwell.] London: Academic Press.
About the Author
C. A. Gregory teaches anthropology at the Australian National University and the University of Manchester. He is the author of Observing the Economy, Savage Money: The Anthropology and Politics of Commodity Exchange, and Lachmi Jagar: Gurumai Sukdai's Story of the Bastar Rice Goddess.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Yakatabari Negotiations
2. The Birth of Leviathans
3. Being Ipili in Porgera
4. The Melanesian Way
Afterword
Bibliography
Index