Culturing Money
Double Movements in the Marshall Islands
Will be published approx. on 15. July 2026
Book
Hardback
260 pages
978-1-83695-548-1 (ISBN)
Description
The idea of culture has become a creative framework in Marshall Islanders' quest to realise a community based on communality, meaningful work, and self-reliance. These values are consciously pitted against selfishness, wage-labour, and money dependency, which are values commonly deemed to belong to the realm of "the economy". Culturing Money analyses what sort of conceptual and practical work that the dialectics of culture and economy can do for Marshall Islanders in their quest for a meaningful life where self-reliance is the ultimate goal.
Reviews / Votes
"This is an unusually brilliant contribution to general anthropological theory. It is clearly argued and brings back the concept of culture in engagement with material and social practices in a way that makes it highly relevant to anthropologists at large." * Ingjerd Hoem, Professor, Department of Social Anthropology, University of OsloMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Library binding
Illustrations
Bibliography; Index; 26 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-83695-548-1 (9781836955481)
DOI
10.3167/9781836955481
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Ola Gunhildrud Berta is an MSCA postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen. He has done ethnographic fieldwork in the Marshall Islands since 2013. His ongoing research project is part of the interdisciplinary SEAS program and explores ocean-centered pursuits of sovereignty and development in the Marshall Islands.
Content
List of Illustrations
List of tables, figures, and maps
Preface
Acknowledgements
Notes on the Text
Introduction: M?anit and M?ani, Culture and Money
Chapter 1. Connections: The Local Economy as an Ethnographic Field
Chapter 2. Legacies: Copra, Craft, and Passports
Chapter 3. Mutual Aid: How Work Brings Kinship into Being
Chapter 4. Helping the People: Marshallese Fundamentals for a National Economy
Chapter 5. Be Marshallese, Buy Marshallese: Marketing Culture
Chapter 6. Emergent Authenticity: The Ambivalence of Cultural Commodities
Conclusion: Culturing Money
References
Index
List of tables, figures, and maps
Preface
Acknowledgements
Notes on the Text
Introduction: M?anit and M?ani, Culture and Money
Chapter 1. Connections: The Local Economy as an Ethnographic Field
Chapter 2. Legacies: Copra, Craft, and Passports
Chapter 3. Mutual Aid: How Work Brings Kinship into Being
Chapter 4. Helping the People: Marshallese Fundamentals for a National Economy
Chapter 5. Be Marshallese, Buy Marshallese: Marketing Culture
Chapter 6. Emergent Authenticity: The Ambivalence of Cultural Commodities
Conclusion: Culturing Money
References
Index