Anthropology of Money

F2　—　A Neighboring Discipline

The idea that 'money was born from barter' is not accepted in anthropology. Gifts, debts, ritual objects. From the world before money, we will train our eyes to question the conventional wisdom.

Supervised by: Mitsuru Hayama　／　Reading time (main text): About 6 min (3,116 characters of text at 500 chars/min; exercises and readings not included)　／　Beyond the text: 6 exercises · 1 coins · 5 readings

What this course teaches you to do

• Be able to explain that the barter origin theory of money is an 'unverified popular theory'.
• Be able to explain wampum as a 'ceremonial object' and the associated oversight of its function as money.
• Can explain the circulation of shell money in conjunction with its dark side (the slave trade).
• Can cite historical examples of situations where "barter appears after money".

Lessons (6)

1. Dissecting the Myth — The 'From Barter' Story Isn't WrittenBarter does not appear in the oldest records. What does appear are temple ledgers. The common theory has not been verified.
2. The Fabric of Meaning — Before Calling Wampum MoneyWampum was a ceremonial object used to record promises and weave the words of diplomacy. Its identity as money was imposed later.
3. The Light and Shadow of the Shell Road — Millennia of the CowrieShells from the Indian Ocean circulated from Asia to Africa. With those same shells, human beings were counted.
4. The island with no shell money — Using negative evidenceCharacters with the shell radical are a story from across the sea. Shell money did not circulate in Japan—the value of an explicit denial.
5. Barter after coinage — a reversal of orderThe barter trains ran after money had collapsed. The conventional sequence is often the reverse of what is thought.
6. What has continued from before money — Gift, Debt, and PrayerSaisen is the memory of hatsuho; suiko is interest on rice. Money is a layer that was later placed on top of older relationships.

Readings (5)

• Before the beginning　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　3000 BC　Mesopotamia
  Section 1. The original text of "Anatomy of a Myth". To be read with E1.
• A colony without coin　United States　the 17th century　The New England shore
  Section 2. "The Fabric of Meaning". The grammar to be read before calling it money.
• Africa and the New World　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　over several thousand years　The Road of the Cowrie Shell
  Section 3. The light of the first world currency, and the shadow of counting humans.
• Before the coin　Japan　from the Yayoi period to the 7th century　The villages of Wa
  Section 4. The value of explicit negation. The character for "shell" is a story from across the sea.
• When tobacco was money　Germany　1945–1948　The train linking city and countryside
  Section 5. An eyewitness account of the barter that emerged after the death of currency.

Assessment

6 exercises in this course (4 check, 1 compare, 1 written). Progress is recorded by self-assessment.