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“The Image of Limited Good”: Comments on an Exercise in Description and Interpretation
Author(s) -
PIKER STEVEN
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1966.68.5.02a00070
Subject(s) - peasant , interpretation (philosophy) , george (robot) , epistemology , psychology , sociology , social psychology , aesthetics , computer science , political science , philosophy , artificial intelligence , law , linguistics
Thai peasants exhibit most of the behavioral characteristics that George Foster describes for peasants generally. But the Thai peasant's society is open, and there are things he values as important “goods” that he perceives as unlimited. Such observations make unclear to whom Foster's model of the Limited Good is to apply, and open to question the psychological premises on which his interpretation rests.