For Introduction to Anthropology 2016 course, there were two readings on anthropologists studying economics:
- Lavenda & Schultz, “Why Do Anthropologists Study Economic Relations?” in Anthropology: What Does it Mean to be Human?
- Jason De León, Introduction in The Land of Open Graves
More Anthropologists Studying Economics
For 2017, Erin B. Taylor and Fabio Mattioli wrote a great review of 10 Groundbreaking Books that Uncover the Human Faces of Economics. Their review is in the Journal of Cultural Economy and documents many contemporary anthropologists studying economics.
For more of the history and findings of anthropologists studying economics, see the 2021 update, see Economies.
The rest of this post concentrates on the relationship of Jason De León’s Land of Open Graves to anthropologists studying economics, immigration, and contemporary capitalism.
Why do people immigrate? (De León:7)
What is “immigration pornography”? (De León:5)
Why not do participant observation of crossings? (De León:11-13)
“my argument is quite simple” (De León:3)
Anthropological Holism (De León:14)
What is “structural violence”? (De León:16)
Is Jason De León telling us how to vote? (De León:5-6; 8)
It is here interesting to note that the increase in deportations he was investigating occurred mainly under Obama, and that the strategy of Prevention Through Deterrence (see notes from next class) began in the 1990s under Bill Clinton.