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Toward An Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams
Now a widely cited classic, this innovative book is the first comprehensive synthesis of economic, political, and cultural theories of value. David Graeber reexamines a century of anthropological thought about value and exchange, in large measure to find a way out of ongoing quandaries in current social theory, which have become critical at the present moment of ideological collapse in the face of Neoliberalism. Rooted in an engaged, dynamic realism, Graeber argues that projects of cultural comparison are in a sense necessarily revolutionary He attempts to synthesize the best insights of Karl Marx and Marcel Mauss, arguing that these figures represent two extreme, but ultimately complementary, possibilities in the shape such a project might take. Graeber breathes new life into the classic anthropological texts on exchange, value, and economy. He rethinks the cases of Iroquois wampum, Pacific kula exchanges, and the Kwakiutl potlatch within the flow of world historical processes, and recasts value as a model of human meaning-making, which far exceeds rationalist/reductive economist paradigms.
350 pages, Paperback
First published December 13, 2001
About the author
David Graeber
87 books4,548 followersDavid Rolfe Graeber was an American anthropologist and anarchist.
On June 15, 2007, Graeber accepted the offer of a lectureship in the anthropology department at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where he held the title of Reader in Social Anthropology.
Prior to that position, he was an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University, although Yale controversially declined to rehire him, and his term there ended in June 2007.
Graeber had a history of social and political activism, including his role in protests against the World Economic Forum in New York City (2002) and membership in the labor union Industrial Workers of the World. He was an core participant in the Occupy Movement.
He passed away in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
On June 15, 2007, Graeber accepted the offer of a lectureship in the anthropology department at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where he held the title of Reader in Social Anthropology.
Prior to that position, he was an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University, although Yale controversially declined to rehire him, and his term there ended in June 2007.
Graeber had a history of social and political activism, including his role in protests against the World Economic Forum in New York City (2002) and membership in the labor union Industrial Workers of the World. He was an core participant in the Occupy Movement.
He passed away in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
May 1, 2013
DAvid grubber im goin to try readin all your books even the real boring ones. wish me luck
October 22, 2013
Interesting book. It's mostly pretty readable - more so than most academic books, although there are some difficult parts - although it's definitely focused towards a somewhat more academic audience and you'll have problems unless you understand some basic anthropological concepts. I like his talk about focusing on actions and potentials creating a society rather than the common idea of seeing rules that get put into practise with a clear separation between the two. His more typical anthropological discussions are fascinating. Pointing out that market ideology prioritises individual consumption as the only pleasure when almost all pleasures are really social (for example love, friendship) is important to show how market ideology is a poor understanding of "human nature". The idea of separation between external visible power - a representation of how you want to be treated based on how people have treated you in the past - and internal invisible power - the capacity for action based on internal powers - is interesting and useful. There's lots of individual interesting stuff.
However, he sort of doesn't really have a conclusion or summation of what he's been saying anywhere. I understood some points he was making but I felt a bit confused as to what he really wanted the take away points to be and how exactly he wanted to improve discourse around value. The ending just sort of peters out. I didn't really feel like I got a coherent set of ideas, more like lots of stuff that's kind of separate. I mean that's obviously still worthwhile, just a bit frustrating cause I feel it could have been improved with another 10 pages focusing as a retrospective and linkage.
Ultimately: good, worthwhile book if you're interested in anthropology, leftist politics, and ideas about value and how society is constructed, but let down a bit by a non-ending and a lack of clarity in how everything ties together. Good book but not essential.
However, he sort of doesn't really have a conclusion or summation of what he's been saying anywhere. I understood some points he was making but I felt a bit confused as to what he really wanted the take away points to be and how exactly he wanted to improve discourse around value. The ending just sort of peters out. I didn't really feel like I got a coherent set of ideas, more like lots of stuff that's kind of separate. I mean that's obviously still worthwhile, just a bit frustrating cause I feel it could have been improved with another 10 pages focusing as a retrospective and linkage.
Ultimately: good, worthwhile book if you're interested in anthropology, leftist politics, and ideas about value and how society is constructed, but let down a bit by a non-ending and a lack of clarity in how everything ties together. Good book but not essential.
October 6, 2017
not as dense and academic as other are saying imo, though probably at least an introductory level of anthropology & its history is needed before going in. Graeber presents diverse and fascinating views on value, exploring the histories of formalism vs substantivism and other debates around anthropology (especially concerning value, economic anthro and exchange), while maintaining a normative framework to imagine a better world and how examining and changing these value systems in question can do just that. Mind you he does introduce certain technical anthropological terms, but these are explained adequately. His writing flows like conversation, which is a great relief to an easily distracted reader :) bonus: his injection of critical realist philosophy is a fantastic rebuttal to some of postmodernisms' uglier, idealist outgrowths. If only the peddler's of the ontological turn had done the same...
May 22, 2016
Crap, I have no idea how to review this book. So complex, and written for people more familiar with the field. But it did underline how difficult it is to extricate the idea of value from culture. I've been looking around and going, "Really? That ____ makes you feel like you're an individual? How's that working out for you?" and "stuck doing the invisible work again" and "antagonistic gift exchange." Maybe in a year or two I'll be able to tell you what the title means :)
June 7, 2007
Still mulling over the impact of this book. Unlike most important anthro books these days, Graeber writes with clarity and wit in a language that people might actually speak to each other. Graeber is post-postmodern in the sense that he is all about building grand narratives if in a more critical and measured way than most. The intial review of recent exchange theory is helpful and his rereading of Mauss as a political thinker both simultaneously helped me put into words what always bugged me about The Gift and is a tour de force well tour of Kwakiutl and Maori symbolic universes. While I usually hate looking to the ancient greeks to explain things once and for all, his contrast of Parmenidian (and Platonic) in essence categorical positivism and Heraclitian process/action/pattern theories of self and society puts this contrast in a frame which western philosophy heads (those fuckers) might actually get. And there are some choice Foucault disses as well.
Still I'm not so sure I buy his rereading of Marx. Or that his big discovery -- there is a fundamental distinction between hidden and displayed potentiality is 1. that earth shattering or 2. that universalizable. Also his conclusion is disappointing. He moves far too swiftly for my tastes from an abbreviated treatment of the "fetish" in african contexts (a treatment which is particularly impoverished compared to his approach to wampum or even the hau of the gift) to his own malagasy materials. He could be read as saying hey look my research is another example of the fetish which is probably not what he means. Still overall I recommend it pretty highly.
Still I'm not so sure I buy his rereading of Marx. Or that his big discovery -- there is a fundamental distinction between hidden and displayed potentiality is 1. that earth shattering or 2. that universalizable. Also his conclusion is disappointing. He moves far too swiftly for my tastes from an abbreviated treatment of the "fetish" in african contexts (a treatment which is particularly impoverished compared to his approach to wampum or even the hau of the gift) to his own malagasy materials. He could be read as saying hey look my research is another example of the fetish which is probably not what he means. Still overall I recommend it pretty highly.
December 11, 2012
This is a book that could not be interesting or comprehensible in its entirety to more than about a thousand professional anthropologists and economic philosophers. Even for the trained and interested reader, this book presents a challenge to the attention span. The problem is not entirely in the authoring; the writing is crisp, confident and witty, and the author devoted much apparent effort into not losing his readers even in the course of threading subtle arguments that required the inclusion of considerable background knowledge. The largest share of fault should be given the publisher, who ought to have invested in serious editing to ensure that a book with such intellectual merits not be crushed under the weight of often unnecessary detail and serpentine complexity. That's not how academic publishing works, unfortunately.
What of the content or arguments of the book? Goodreads is not really the proper forum to discuss these, nor have I the inclination to spend a day sorting out the arguments so as to responsibly present them here. I'd imagine there are professional reviews one can read to find summaries and evaluations of the book's content and it would only be fair to the author to urge potentially interested readers to look up those sources, or to consult the book directly. I bother to post any comments whatever in this forum because the author is becoming a minor celebrity outside of narrow academic circles for his more recent book, Debt, and his involvement in the Occupy Wall Street movement. The reader who hears of Graeber's reputation in those contexts and then wanders into "Toward and Anthropological Theory of Value" will not find easy satisfaction.
What of the content or arguments of the book? Goodreads is not really the proper forum to discuss these, nor have I the inclination to spend a day sorting out the arguments so as to responsibly present them here. I'd imagine there are professional reviews one can read to find summaries and evaluations of the book's content and it would only be fair to the author to urge potentially interested readers to look up those sources, or to consult the book directly. I bother to post any comments whatever in this forum because the author is becoming a minor celebrity outside of narrow academic circles for his more recent book, Debt, and his involvement in the Occupy Wall Street movement. The reader who hears of Graeber's reputation in those contexts and then wanders into "Toward and Anthropological Theory of Value" will not find easy satisfaction.
July 11, 2014
Después de haber leído algunos de sus ensayos más recientes, y especialmente Debt, the first 5,000 years, las reflexiones de Graeber en este libro resultan algo desordenadas. El primer capítulo sugiere una contrastación entre las axiologías filosóficas y las reflexiones antropológicas sobre el valor (dispersas y asistemáticas, estas últimas), pero el resto del texto desaprovecha esa oportunidad perdiéndose en episodios interesantes, pero ya agotadísimos para cualquier antropólogo: el ensayo del don y la noción del hau, la disputa entre formalistas, sustantivistas y neomarxistas, etc.
La conclusión añade un punto crucial que desgraciadamente está desatendido en el cuerpo del texto: la insatisfacción con las teorías del deseo y del placer contemporáneas. El rechazo de Graeber de la obra de Deleuze en este punto me parece muy taxativa, y aparece agrupada bajo el amplio paraguas de las filosofías de inspiración Nietzcheana. Desgraciadamente sus referentes teóricos (Marx, Mauss y Piaget en primer lugar) no tienen mucho que decir sobre el deseo y el placer, y los intentos de exprimir de ellos alguna reflexión al respecto me refuerzan la impresión de que Toward an Anthropological... fue una oportunidad perdida.
La conclusión añade un punto crucial que desgraciadamente está desatendido en el cuerpo del texto: la insatisfacción con las teorías del deseo y del placer contemporáneas. El rechazo de Graeber de la obra de Deleuze en este punto me parece muy taxativa, y aparece agrupada bajo el amplio paraguas de las filosofías de inspiración Nietzcheana. Desgraciadamente sus referentes teóricos (Marx, Mauss y Piaget en primer lugar) no tienen mucho que decir sobre el deseo y el placer, y los intentos de exprimir de ellos alguna reflexión al respecto me refuerzan la impresión de que Toward an Anthropological... fue una oportunidad perdida.
May 4, 2017
I get a lot of energy from reading Graeber. I find him curious, playful, well-read, open and a very original thinker. In his writing, including this book, I find there's some kind of truth bomb every 10 pages or so.
I'm still processing The False Coin of Our Own Dreams. In fact I have it on my pile to re-read. I'm not a professional anthropologist, but I like his central question -- is there any way to measure value across cultures? -- as well as the conversation of ideas he generates from some interesting, concrete examples.
I'm still processing The False Coin of Our Own Dreams. In fact I have it on my pile to re-read. I'm not a professional anthropologist, but I like his central question -- is there any way to measure value across cultures? -- as well as the conversation of ideas he generates from some interesting, concrete examples.
January 21, 2016
A commendable attempt to define value according to anthropology. Unfortunately the conclusion leaves one wanting more as no set definition or theory of value is established, but considering the title, one should not be too disappointed.
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October 7, 2023anlamakta fevkalade zorlandım; antropolojiyle ilgilenen birine iktisat teorisi sunmaktan ziyade iktisat bilen birine antropoloji anlatmak amacıyla yazıldığını söyleyebilirim. Marx ve Mauss hakkında okumalar yapıp antropoloji literatürümü geliştirdikten sonra kitaba geri döneceğim.
April 21, 2020
Kolmas Graeberin kirja, kolmas kerta kun joutuu painamaan päänsä Graeberin nerokkuuden edessä.
Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value on genreltään huomattavasti akateemisempi kuin Fragments of Anarchistic Anthropology tai Bullshit Jobs mutta siitä huolimatta se oli elävöittävä lukukokemus. Graeberilla on käsittämätön lahja yhdistellä briljantilla tavalla ensi silmäykseltä yhteensopimattomia asioita (kuten marxismia ja piaget'laista kasvatusfilosofiaa) ja toisaalta yhtä käsittämätön kyky nostaa havainnollistavia, mieltä kutkuttavia esimerkkejä antiikin jokien metafysiikasta 1700-luvun asusteiden sukupuolipolitiikkaan.
Kirjan ytimessä on kysymys: "Miksi asiat ovat jonkin arvoisia?" Graeberin ongelma on kahtalainen: käsitystämme arvosta häiritsee taloustieteen hyödyn maksimoinnin periaate, mutta myös paljon perusteellisempi asioiden staattisuuteen liittyää parmenidialainen perinne. Graeber itse on sitä mieltä, että arvossa on kyse siitä, että teot tulevat merkittäviksi toimijoille kun ne sijoitetaan laajempaan, keksittyyn tai todelliseen, sosiaaliseen yhteyteen.
Tätä ajatusta Graeber pallottelee kahden hyvin erilaisen sosialistin Karl Marxin ja Marcel Maussin ajatusten välissä. Etnografiset esimerkit heittelevät Graeberin omalta erikoisalueelta Madagascarilta Irokeeseihin, Maoreihin ja Kwakiutleihin, unohtamatta kuitenkaan ajottaisia hyppyjä nykykapitalismin syövereihin. Näissä esimerkeissä nousee esiin se miten tärkeä nimenomaan toiminta ja sen mahdollisuudet ovat suhteessa arvon muodostumiseen.
Täytyy toki myöntää, että tämä oli niin tiukkaa tykitystä, että en tietenkään päässyt sisään ihan kaikkiin Graeberin teoreettisiin tanssiliikkeisiin. En ymmärrä miten näin paljon on voitu mahduttaa näin pieneen kirjaan. Maailma spleinattuna, uskomaton teos.
Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value on genreltään huomattavasti akateemisempi kuin Fragments of Anarchistic Anthropology tai Bullshit Jobs mutta siitä huolimatta se oli elävöittävä lukukokemus. Graeberilla on käsittämätön lahja yhdistellä briljantilla tavalla ensi silmäykseltä yhteensopimattomia asioita (kuten marxismia ja piaget'laista kasvatusfilosofiaa) ja toisaalta yhtä käsittämätön kyky nostaa havainnollistavia, mieltä kutkuttavia esimerkkejä antiikin jokien metafysiikasta 1700-luvun asusteiden sukupuolipolitiikkaan.
Kirjan ytimessä on kysymys: "Miksi asiat ovat jonkin arvoisia?" Graeberin ongelma on kahtalainen: käsitystämme arvosta häiritsee taloustieteen hyödyn maksimoinnin periaate, mutta myös paljon perusteellisempi asioiden staattisuuteen liittyää parmenidialainen perinne. Graeber itse on sitä mieltä, että arvossa on kyse siitä, että teot tulevat merkittäviksi toimijoille kun ne sijoitetaan laajempaan, keksittyyn tai todelliseen, sosiaaliseen yhteyteen.
Tätä ajatusta Graeber pallottelee kahden hyvin erilaisen sosialistin Karl Marxin ja Marcel Maussin ajatusten välissä. Etnografiset esimerkit heittelevät Graeberin omalta erikoisalueelta Madagascarilta Irokeeseihin, Maoreihin ja Kwakiutleihin, unohtamatta kuitenkaan ajottaisia hyppyjä nykykapitalismin syövereihin. Näissä esimerkeissä nousee esiin se miten tärkeä nimenomaan toiminta ja sen mahdollisuudet ovat suhteessa arvon muodostumiseen.
Täytyy toki myöntää, että tämä oli niin tiukkaa tykitystä, että en tietenkään päässyt sisään ihan kaikkiin Graeberin teoreettisiin tanssiliikkeisiin. En ymmärrä miten näin paljon on voitu mahduttaa näin pieneen kirjaan. Maailma spleinattuna, uskomaton teos.
February 7, 2022
Graeber es realmente un fuera de serie, probablemente el antropólogo más interesante que he leído, en tanto logra difundir conocimiento a la vez que trae ideas innovadoras para la ciencia social. Este libro en particular es la representación fiel de su estilo. Marx, Mauss, Malinovski, Strathern, Godelier, Levi Strauss, Piaget, Althusser, muchísimos autores recorren estas páginas, dando una muestra de la erudición del autor pero también permitiendo al lector conocer de forma simple algunas ideas que son clave para la ciencia social y encontrar bibliografía para seguir investigando. También se nombra a Derrida, Foucault y Bourdieu y se reconstruyen sus ideas, pero sin dudas para criticarlas y mostrar la necesidad de una nueva teoría crítica no posmoderna para la emancipación, lo que personalmente me agrada, pero puede resultar chocante. Para quienes no somos antropólogos la reconstrucción de las ideas más contemporáneas del campo nos permite ver en qué anda la disciplina a inicios del siglo XXI, más allá de los clásicos ya conocidos. Incluso creo que estudiantes de antropología también van a encontrar buena información sobre el tema. Es un poco difícil luego seguir la teoría central del libro sobre que el valor refiere a la creatividad humana y su capacidad de accionar en base a eso, pero vale la pena gastar ceso en releer para entender porque lo que plantea es sumamente interesante. Quizás hacía el final no termina de concluir todo de forma clara pero igual se entiende. Es de destacar la experiencia etnográfica de Graeber en Madagascar, que le otorga al libro una narrativa en primera persona que suma mucho a la teoría. Sin más, un libro para cualquier estudiante de ciencia social que no tenga miedo a las ideas nuevas.
August 9, 2018
Having read his book, "Debt" I was curious about his notion of there being 3 modes of being which overlap each other in all social relations, independant of the institutional forces at play. This book is an in-depth elaboration on that suggestion. He gives fragmentary commentaries on important anthropological ideas and seeks to suggest a kind of 'dynamic-structuralism' which accomadates both the top-down Ideal based approach to value, and the more bottom-up approaches of say, Lacan, Piaget, Derrida, Bordieu and others. Ultimately, it's Marx's notion of creativity and unalienated magical labour along with Maus's notion of The Gift that creates a picture of what an Anarcho-Communism could look like even amidst the outward flux of Capitalism. The very end hints towards Deleuze and Nietszche which is not at all surprising: this political vision is a Subterranean Creativity not without it's magical and esoteric implications, a rhizomatic and dialectical movement of possibility.
September 22, 2024
5 Sterne, nicht weil es das beste Sachbuch aller Zeiten ist (das ist natürlich „Schulden. Die ersten 5.000 Jahre“ von selben Autor), sondern weil es Passagen und Gedanken enthält, die so nur von David Graeber kommen, eingebettet in streckenweise wirklich unlesbare, hunderte Seiten lange Kapitel über die Ökonomien und Bräuche der Irokesen oder der Maori. Das ist extrem spannend zu lesen, aber er kommt vom Hundertsten ins Tausendste, ohne dass man währenddessen auch nur ansatzweise erkennen könnte, wie das zum Thema des Buchs passt. Am Ende schnürt er aber all das wieder zusammen und hinterlässt so mutige Gedanken und Ideen, die gleichzeitig so nahe liegen, dass man sich fragen muss, warum man das nicht in jedem Möchtegern-Weltverbessererbuch steht, und man nichts anderes als 5 Sterne geben kann.
May 21, 2019
This demands multiple reading. Understanding and memorising many of technical and anthropological terms is not an easy task. However, the book offers interesting account in exploring the theoretical aspect of understanding value. I like how Mauss and Marx meshed in this book to see the possibility of dialogue from both established theories; to see value not only from the labour and market perspective but from action and cosmological approach.
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April 10, 2024i could feel my brain literally getting bigger and all sparky as i read this. i appreciate Graeber's simple, conversational tone and how it allows him to present some huge ideas about creative potential and value and social structure. i need a few days to digest this i think
June 14, 2021
A fantastic book! I agree with many other reviewers who wished for a more developed theory, but the title does say "Towards..."
January 16, 2022
dg's commentary on relevant marcel mauss simply other worldly.
September 11, 2024
Some Chicago anthropologists are mad bc it's a carbon copy of their intro anth course (fair), but it's a readable entryway to the discipline
September 13, 2024
Une autre masterclass du David qui nous rappelle encore une fois que les thèmes dominants de l'égoïsme et des valeurs matérialistes ne sont vraiment qu'un mythe néoclassique moderne.
October 29, 2020
RIP Graeber. This is one of his best books.
May 29, 2022
Started off extremely interesting - he challenges the post-structural assumption that all-encompassing systems of value judgment have been made impossible by an increasingly complex world by pointing out that global trade and the acceptance of the greenback as a world reserve currency has in fact brought nearly all human action into the same "totalizing mechanism". Within the first maybe 50 pages he brilliantly postulates that value is nothing more than the means through which society reproduces itself. And then... not much. The rest of the book is largely devoted to discussing the social hierarchy and associated rituals of various indigenous peoples, with interspersed mentions of how the attitudes of such peoples about such rituals played nice with the theory. I kind of wish I hadn't spent a month reading the last 100 pages.
May 9, 2024
Lecture de la traduction française.
Première lecture d'un livre de David Graeber.
Bon équilibre entre ébauche d'une théorie globale et exemples/comparaisons de situations concrètes, avec en prime une introduction engagée qui situe le propos du livre et lui donne un objectif de transformation sociale (lointain et vague, car cela se veut surtout théorique). Le dernier chapitre est une tentative de généralisation à d'autres aspects, passage qui me semble moins réussi que les autres mais c'est surtout une ouverture : c'est pertinent dans la réflexion, mais comme le contenu est déjà assez dense, cela amène un peu vite d'autres questions sur un socle qui est déjà à intégrer !
Première lecture d'un livre de David Graeber.
Bon équilibre entre ébauche d'une théorie globale et exemples/comparaisons de situations concrètes, avec en prime une introduction engagée qui situe le propos du livre et lui donne un objectif de transformation sociale (lointain et vague, car cela se veut surtout théorique). Le dernier chapitre est une tentative de généralisation à d'autres aspects, passage qui me semble moins réussi que les autres mais c'est surtout une ouverture : c'est pertinent dans la réflexion, mais comme le contenu est déjà assez dense, cela amène un peu vite d'autres questions sur un socle qui est déjà à intégrer !
January 18, 2013
This is an academic and rigorous text. This review is not. The book is also not for the armchair teabagger who's only knowledge of Marx or Mauss is Groucho and Mickey. Graeber, who is well-known for his work on debt, takes on the theory and meaning of value from an anthropological perspective. Value is by no means universal. Modern capitalism, as we experience it today, takes some of the social values from our smaller tribal experiences and enhances them. You'll never look the same way at exchange again.
April 13, 2015
I am not the target audience for this book. I would have gotten a lot more out of it if I was a) an anthropologist, and b) more familiar with primary source material such a Mauss and Marx. Not that he doesn't explain them, it's just a lot to take in on a first pass.
It's more detailed that what I needed, but still plenty of interesting (technical) stuff about why different societies want different things and what might unify them.
It's more detailed that what I needed, but still plenty of interesting (technical) stuff about why different societies want different things and what might unify them.
September 8, 2007
Excellent, but a pity it's not more informed by the anarchist tradition -- Graeber reinvents the wheel a few times.
Currently reading
January 9, 2008Interesting synthesis of Marx and Mauss. More soon.
August 21, 2012
Good book. I feel like it's fairly important, and I'd like to re-read it.
August 22, 2024
DeUne montagne d'érudition. Instructif et passionnant même si j'ai pas tout pigé 😂
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews