Understanding Commodity Cultures

Reviews / Votes

Understanding Commodity Cultures is a theoretically sophisticated, provocative overview of economic anthropology studies of Mexico and Guatemala. Cook forcefully argues that because Mesoamerican societies have long been involved in production for exchange, they must be understood as 'commodity cultures' where individuals pursue their own self-interest. These societies, Cook notes, have been inextricably tied to national and global economies for hundreds of years. He therefore strongly disagrees with the many scholars who have regarded Mesoamerican communities as small-scale 'natural economies' where subsistence production and the collective good are of paramount cultural importance. Cook supports his arguments with remarkably detailed, critical analyses of both the work of such prominent scholars as George Foster, Sol Tax, Julio de la Fuente, Robert Redfield, Eric Wolf, June Nash, and Michael Kearney and the writings of numerous less well-known anthropologists from the United States and Mexico. This book will be an essential addition to the libraries of economic anthropologists and scholars interested in Mexico and Guatemala. -- Michael Chibnik, professor and chair, Department of Anthropology, University of Iowa Scott Cook combines a universalizing approach with a regional focus on Mexican ethnography that takes in the latest developments in NAFTA and world economy. The result is a landmark in economic anthropology from someone who has been a central player since the theoretical wars of the sixties. -- Keith Hart, Goldsmiths College London This is one of the best reads I have had in anthropology in a long time. The book is well-written, clear, interesting and, above all, educational. I found myself anticipating each new chapter with pleasure. Professor Cook brings life to economic anthropology, teaches us a great deal about Mexican society, and critically summarizes the key literature on the topic. I am deeply impressed with the quality of the research, the depth of analysis, and the breath of the coverage. The book adheres closely to the formalist theoretical position, but the case studies and careful exegesis of the work of other scholars avoids some of the vagueness that characterized formalist arguments in the past. The basic concept of 'commodity production' is central to the main argument, and the distinction between petty commodities and capitalist commodities is crucial throughout the work. Students of social and economic processes will be enlightened by the fine-grained analysis of the positions taken by such major scholars as Marx, Weber, Wolf, Tax, Kearny, and numerous specialists in Mesoamerican economics. Cook's theoretical review is nicely complemented by numerous specific case studies of Mexican economies, especially those carried out within the highly variable economy in the -- Robert M. Carmack Scott Cook makes a major contribution to peasant studies and to the economic anthropology of rural Mexico with the publication of Understanding Commodity Cultures. The book will take its place with works by James Scott, Robert Netting, and Marshall Sahlins as one of the truly insightful contributions to peasant studies in the past several decades. Cook brings together analysis of the material conditions of life of rural Mexican people along with astute treatment of the global economic forces that are transforming rural life world-wide. He is intimately familiar with the very best theorizing available on the economic culture of rural people, and he deploys this knowledge to good effect in shedding new light on behavior, causes, and meanings within rural Mexican society. A central thread in his discussion turns around the social construction of the 'commodity,' and the ways in which production, social relations, and rationality weave together to frame rural life as we enter the 21st century. -- Daniel Little, Chancellor and Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan-Dearborn and Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor The volume is conceived as a collection of self-contained essays. In the introduction, the case is argued for a common foundation: indigenous peoples have shared an economic template since at least the Spanish conquest. While this is something more than a collection, readers are bound to favor particular chapters. For this reviewer, the discussion of B. Traven's fictional Mexican stories offers valuable insights on time, place, and ideology. Also noteworthy are the chapters devoted to the work of Sol Tax, Robert Redfield, and other pioneers, and chapters on the consequences of border industrialization, not simply for small-scale producers but for migration, identity, and human rights. Recommended. * CHOICE * The book is not only a comprehensive intellectual history of the prominent anthropologists who have written on the economy of Central America, it is also an original theoretical treatment of commodity culture. The book is a very impressive achievement: the synthesis of a lifetime's work that draws heavily on Cook's extensive fieldwork in Mexico and his wide reading of the ethnographic and theoretical literature. . . The book will be of specialist interest to Central Americanists but also of general theoretical interest to economic anthropologists. Economic anthropology is going through something of a renaissance and this important erudite work can only give impetus to that movement. Cook's gift to economic anthropology has been to synthesize the one hundred years of economic thought and ethnographic analysis from one of economic anthropology's 'sacred' sites. -- Chris Gregory * Comparative Studies in Society and History * Cook is a major figure in economic anthropology, and this is his culminating work of synthesis and reflection. This book excels in combining a sense of common people as intelligent and thoughtful economic actors with attention to unequal power within capitalist development (or underdevelopment) in the wider economic field. In his focus on commodity culture, he rescues the study of small producers from both disdain as backward sectors and romantic notions of them as microcapitalists, viewing them instead as a crucial, culturally distinctive part of world capitalism. Grounded in the rich literature on indigenous Mexicans, this book will be of interest to anthropologists, institutional economists, and students of development from all geographic areas. -- Josiah Heyman, Professor of Anthropology, University of Texas at El Paso