Book
Bitter money: cultural economy and some African meanings of forbidden commodities
American Anthropological Association • (1) • Published In 1989 • Pages: vi, 94
By: Shipton, Parker MacDonald.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This book is about concepts of money and exchange among the Luo of Kenya. It shows that the Luo, who live in a partly monetized economy and a partly Christianized religious environment, classify cash money into two types. One is 'good', and the other 'evil' money. The later consists of money from land sale and the transaction of other religiously forbidden commodities such as tobacco, cannabis, roosters and gold. Building on anthropological theories of money and the morality of exchange, the book analyzes this classification as a reflection of important conceptual and social tensions, stemming partly from disjunctions between new kinds of private accumulation and other, indigenous forms of economic activity. The Luo conceive of money from forbidden transactions as barren, and ultimately useless to its owners, yet they also ritually transform money between good and evil states.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Medium of exchange
- Avoidance and taboo
- Purification and atonement
- Religious offenses
- Cultural identity and pride
- Exchange transactions
- Gift giving
- Ethos
- External relations
- Acculturation and culture contact
- Functional and adaptational interpretations
- Missions
- Revelation and divination
- Real property
- Recreational and non-therapeutic drugs
- Special crops
- Mining and quarrying
- Buying and selling
- Gender status
- Age stratification
- Alcoholic beverages
- Accumulation of wealth
- Family relationships
- Polygamy
- Contracts
- Saving and investment
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Luo
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2010
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Eastern Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Anthropologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Teferi Abate Adem; 2009
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1980-1983
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1900-1989
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Luoland, Kenya
- NotesAdditional notes
- Parker Shipton
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-94)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 89006680
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Luo (Kenyan and Tanzanian people)--Money
- Luo (Kenyan and Tanzanian people)--Economic conditions
- Economic anthropology--Kenya
- Kenya--Economic conditions