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The Polanyi School of Anthropology on Money: An Economist's View 1
Author(s) -
MELITZ JACQUES
Publication year - 1970
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.1970.72.5.02a00020
Subject(s) - economic anthropology , scholarship , quantity theory of money , economics , positive economics , term (time) , payment , sociology , neoclassical economics , keynesian economics , monetary policy , economic growth , finance , physics , quantum mechanics
This paper questions the popular anthropological assumption that all purpose money rules in the West today. Contrary to the followers of Karl Polanyi in anthropology, modern as well as primitive money is special purpose money. It is argued further that serious difficulties and confusions arise from indiscriminate use of the term money to refer both to (1) media of exchange and means of payment and (2) units of account. Lastly, the scholarship and perspicacity of the Polanyist verdicts about economists' views in the area of money is disputed.