Anthropologies of Value analyses the creation of value in a wide range of political and cultural contexts. This edited collection includes anthropological case studies from around the globe; from the commodification of a Venezuelan waterfall to the relative value of penguins in periods of imperialist expansion.
Questioning the validity of binary oppositions such as 'north/south', 'core/periphery' and 'west/the rest' as the basis of generalisations about culturally-mediated engagements with capitalism, this collection leaves no stone unturned in its search to understand and define anthropological value theory.

It provides much-needed, controversial new material for students of anthropology, and proposes an alternative, rarely discussed method of studying the world system which challenges mainstream existing work in the field.

List of Figures

Series Preface

Acknowledgements

The Value of Everything and the Price of Nothingness by Luis Fernando Angosto-Ferrández

Part I: Emerging Value in the 'Global South'

1. On the Capacity to Change the Structural Parameters of Value: The Sale of One Particular Cook Island Tivaivai - Jane Horan

2. Value and the Art of Deception: Public Morality in a Papua New Guinean Ponzi Scheme - John Cox

3. Asbin: A 'Has-Been' of Papua New Guinea Highlands Gift Exchange? - Olivia Barnett-Naghshineh

4. The Value of the Vanua: The Nexus of People and Land in Fiji's Market Economy - Geir Henning Presterudstuen

5. Natural Value: Rent-Capture and the Commodification of a Waterfall in Gran Sabana, Venezuela - Luis Fernando Angosto-Ferrández

6. Capitalist Ventures or Solidarity Networks? Self-Employment in Post-Soviet Cuba - Marina Gold

Part II: Tribulating Values in the 'Global North'

7. The Relative Value of Penguins - Moira White

8. Quota Systems: Repositioning Value in New Zealand, Icelandic and Irish Fisheries - Fiona McCormack

9. Distributions of Wealth, Distributions of Waste: Abject Capital and Accumulation by Disposal - David Boarder Giles

10. 'The University is Kind of an Impossible Place': Universities Towards and Against Capitalism - Fern Thompsett

Notes on Contributors

Index