ANTH 340
Culture and Capitalism Spring 2014
Division II Writing Skills
This is not the current course catalog

Capitalism is a set of economic and social arrangements that have transformed human relations across the planet. This course considers classical and contemporary accounts of capitalism’s main attributes, how it arose, the habits of mind that it promotes, and its tendency to naturalize itself to such an extent that participants come to believe that it expresses fundamental properties of human nature. Among topics to be addressed in the course are capitalism’s historical roots, its links to religion, its internal contradictions and inherent instability, and the sometimes strange ways that it is perceived by societies when they first come into contact with it. Course readings will include works by Marx, Weber, Polanyi, Graeber, Harvey, Hayek, Sennett, Taussig, and others.