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Economic Analysis in an Anthropological Setting: Some Methodological Considerations 1
Author(s) -
EDEL MATTHEW
Publication year - 1969
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.1969.71.3.02a00020
Subject(s) - economic analysis , tracing , maximization , production (economics) , positive economics , economic data , sociology , economic model , economics , neoclassical economics , computer science , microeconomics , classical economics , macroeconomics , operating system
The substantivist‐formalist debate over the applicability of economics to non‐Western societies may be illuminated by consideration of the nature of economic analysis. Because this analysis takes as data preferences technical production or exchange possibilities and an inventory of resources, it is shown incapable of being an exhaustive model of a society, but since these patterns interact in any human group, there is always a use for economic analysis in tracing how resources are allocated to needs, whether on a basis of maximization or of fixed targets. Applications of economic analysis to anthropologists' problems and alternative definitions of “the economy” are also considered.