Of Relations and the Dead: Four Societies Viewed from the Angle of Their Exchanges Explorations in Anthropology
by: Cecile Barraud; Daniel de Coppet; Andre Iteanu;

Softcover. Providence RI, Berg Publishers, 1st US, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 131 pages. Exchanges are fundamental to human societies. The authors show that the study of exchanges not only serves as a key to understanding particular societies as totalities but also helps to frame a comparative mode of analysis expressed in terms of a hierarchy of values. Starting with a comparative analysis of the different vocabularies used when dealing with exchange, the authors go on to provide a detailed account of how each society's exchanges form a genuine value-oriented system. Their conclusions shed light on important issues in anthropology such as the difference between subject and object; the construction of the person in the matrix of social relations; and the contrast between 'socio-cosmic' systems and other societies which recognize a universal term of reference beyond their community. WITH A CARD SIGNED BY ALL 3 AUTHORS LAID IN.

Record # 384859