Capitalism as we know it presents typical dialectical features that isolate it from nature, in which real oppositions make evolution revolutionary: A dialectical metaphysics replaces the free flow of events allowing capitalist relationships but preventing the practice of materialism. Some...

This article explores why a deep understanding of Marx's project is essential for developing an adequate science of society. Marx focused on two aspects of social reality that are critical to its understanding, but are absent from the contemporary practice of social science. First, he viewed...

Until about 13,000 years ago all humans obtained their food through hunting and gathering, but thereafter people in some parts of the world began a transition to agriculture. Recent data strongly implicate climate change as the driving force behind the transition in southwest Asia. We propose a...

Debating markets requires debating values. To answer questions of how free markets affect women, we must first ask about standards of measurement. We should also ask how we can have a “free” market when the participants can never be free from gender bias.

Provides ethnographic observations and analysis of a laboratory experiment in economics.

The shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture, some 10,000 years ago, triggered the first demographic explosion in history. Along with population, working time increased, while food consumption remained at the subsistence level. For that reason, most anthropologists regard the adoption of...

Firms in modern western world are often said to encourage people to prioritize work over family life. This imbalance, some personnel psychologist claim, causes tension and unhappiness. The story, however, is not new. Something very similar happened during the shift from hunting and gathering to...

Using the 2009 data of the China Health and Nutrition Survey from Guizhou province, this paper analyzes whether an official ethnic label can be linked to a lower probability of non-agricultural employment. Results suggest that the Buyi and the Miao are less likely to work in non-agricultural...

The key assumption of economic anthropology—maximizing behavior by the individual (or Max U)—has been subject to criticism both from outside and within economics. This article suggests that the philosophical or theological approach known as “personalism” may be useful in generating an...

Educational expansion has often been discussed in terms of possiblydeclining returns to education. The theoretical debate provides arguments supportingboth expectations about declining and increasing returns. Declining returns wouldnot only menace individual investment strategies but also put...