Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams

Interesting book. It's mostly pretty readable - more so than most academic books, although there are some difficult parts - although it's definitely focused towards a somewhat more academic audience and you'll have problems unless you understand some basic anthropological concepts. I like his talk about focusing on actions and potentials creating a society rather than the common idea of seeing rules that get put into practise with a clear separation between the two. His more typical anthropological discussions are fascinating. Pointing out that market ideology prioritises individual consumption as the only pleasure when almost all pleasures are really social (for example love, friendship) is important to show how market ideology is a show more poor understanding of "human nature". The idea of separation between external visible power - a representation of how you want to be treated based on how people have treated you in the past - and internal invisible power - the capacity for action based on internal powers - is interesting and useful. There's lots of individual interesting stuff.

However, he sort of doesn't really have a conclusion or summation of what he's been saying anywhere. I understood some points he was making but I felt a bit confused as to what he really wanted the take away points to be and how exactly he wanted to improve discourse around value. The ending just sort of peters out. I didn't really feel like I got a coherent set of ideas, more like lots of stuff that's kind of separate. I mean that's obviously still worthwhile, just a bit frustrating cause I feel it could have been improved with another 10 pages focusing as a retrospective and linkage.

Ultimately: good, worthwhile book if you're interested in anthropology, leftist politics, and ideas about value and how society is constructed, but let down a bit by a non-ending and a lack of clarity in how everything ties together. Good book but not essential. show less

For anyone interested in our concepts of Value - how we value our values - this is a MUST READ book by the anthropologist who coined the term 'We are the 99%"