Course for international guest/part time students

Faculty

Faculty of Social Sciences

Organization

TÁTK Department of Cultural Anthropology

Code

EKAN109

Title

Anthropology of Economics

Usual semester

Autumn

Published semester

2026/27/1

ECTS

3

Language

en

Learning outcomes

The aim of the Economic Anthropology course is to introduce students to the unique relationship of economic and social processes in tribal and non European societies, as well as examination of the non-commodity sectors of societies based on commodity economy. The course assumes a basic, secondary school level understanding of economic and social-historical concepts.

Course content

The course deals with the subject of economic anthropology, its history and the concept of economy, as well as the causes and aims of production. Issues to be discussed are as follows: the system of various production relations, i.e. economic-social and technical-economic relations; tributes and payments in the pre-capitalist systems; economic differences in distribution and exchange; forms and modes of exchange; credit, savings and primitive money; commodity in non-commodity producing societies; production in peasant societies; the main disciplines of consumption and surplus distribution. Examination of the various spheres of social and economic life: social-economic formations from a historical perspective.

Assessment method

exam

Bibliography

Literature to „Economic Anthropology”: Malinowski, Bronislaw. 2014. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. London and New York: Routledge. Marx, Karl. 1887. Commodities and Money In Capital. Volume I/ Book One: The Process of Production of Capital. Part I. 26-102. Online: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Capital-Volume-I.pdf Mauss, Marcel. 1967 (1925). The gift: forms and functions of exchange in archaic societies. New York: Norton. Polányi, Karl. 1944. The great transformation: the political and economic origins of our time. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Sahlins, Marshall. 1972. Stone Age Economics. New York: Aldine De Gruyter

Programmes of the course