Author Description

With essays published over the last three decades, the twin-volume Sociology and Anthropology of Economic Life provides a comprehensive account of the major issues and debates in economic anthropology and sociology as they pertain to Indian society and culture. Thinking beyond the polarized dichotomies of tradition and modernity, holism and individualism, local and global, both volumes explore the diverse ways in which "economic" life constitutes and is constituted by other social realms.The first volume, The Moral Embedding of Economic Action, focuses on the ways in which ethical, moral, and affective forces shape activities such as production, exchange, and consumption that we habitually characterize as "economic." Combining comparative theoretical formulations with rich ethnographic data, the essays engage with a wide range of questions. What are the appropriate categories and methodologies for understanding economic relations in rural India? How do technologies related to natural resources acquire different institutional forms as they become embedded in social relations of caste, kinship, and local struggles for power? What are the moral and affective valences that give economic activities their force in social life?