ANTH260 Week 9 Debt and Class Malinowski on the Kula Ring Exchange Why would men risk life and limb to travel across huge expanses of dangerous ocean to give away to be worthless trinkets Network of exchanges of bracelets and necklaces across the Trobriand Islands Papua New Guinea How does this contrast compare to western monetary systems Debt The debt system did NOT replace a barter system Debt as moral ethical and financial system In Sanskrit Hebrew and Aramaic debt guilt and sin are all the same word Bank of England 1694 London merchants made a 1 2 million pound loan to the king to conduct war King paid back loan by granting them the right to take the money that he then owed them to loan it to other people in the form of bank notes If king ever paid back the debt there would be no money What is Money According to Graeber Money originates as a unit of account to record and keep track of debts for Debt implies the monetization of obligations that otherwise involve other centralized state apparatus modes of sociality and community Marcel Mauss late 1800s mid1900s the gift Sociologist role of the gift in maintaining relationships between humans o Giving the first step in building social relationships o Receiving accepting the social bond o Reciprocating demonstrating social integrity Debt as social obligation o Polynesia hau o Melanesia Kula o Pacific Northwest US and Canada Potlatch gift giving o Beyond material wealth functions as a form of social solidarity Role of the State Taxation A culture of forms credits receipts deductions regulations and corresponding anxieties and confusions to which we grant the succinct name paying taxes Services provided by the state result in a debt that citizens must then pay US usually thinks in terms of individual instead of society Minimum Wage and Labor Indian context guiding impetus is to maintain productive economy while maintaining low costs to the state Exceeds all other forms of debt within the US including credit card debt Student Debt Valued at over 1 trillion dollars 2013 Cannot be defaulted What does tuition subsidize In some cases roughly 2 3 for actual instruction As class size gets bigger that number goes down
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