Open AccessAn Overview of Rossel Island Exchange
Author(s) -
John Liep
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
suomen antropologi
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.141
H-Index - 7
eISSN - 1799-8972
pISSN - 0355-3930
DOI - 10.30676/jfas.116561
Subject(s) - ethnography , reciprocity (cultural anthropology) , feeling , sociology , media studies , history , anthropology , philosophy , epistemology
FORUM: A DISCUSSION OF JOHN LIEP’S RECENT BOOK, A PAPUAN PLUTOCRACY: RANKED EXCHANGE ON ROSSEL ISLAND (2009)
In September 2009 a group of scholars met at Aarhus University, Copenhagen, for the defence of Mag. Scient. John Liep’s doctoral thesis, published by Aarhus University Press under the title, A Papuan Plutocracy: Ranked Exchange on Rossel Island (2009). The book is the first full-scale modern ethnography of the well-known shell money system on Rossel Island—one of the most complex such systems on record. Liep’s ethnography is very powerful, but more than that, the book is built around an ambitious and unusual critique of notions of reciprocity and the gift economy that are of great general importance. Liep’s three examiners were Joel Robbins, Chris Gregory and Ton Otto. In light of the depth of debate that marked the occasion of the defence, there was a eneral feeling that the discussion deserved a wider forum. The result is the texts that are published together here.