Year of Award
2011
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
Master of Arts (MA)
Degree Name
Anthropology
Department or School/College
Department of Anthropology
Committee Chair
G. G. Weix
Commitee Members
Christopher Muste, Gregory R. Campbell
Keywords
Coins, Community, Debt, Economic Value, Gift, Habitus, Money, Mutual Aid, Social Solidarity, Social Structures, Barter, Structuring Structures
Publisher
University of Montana
Abstract
Debt structures all relationships in America as well as all of our economic material exchanges. Historically debt has always been seen thus with our religious texts being written both in the terminology of the metaphysical and the economical combining them together in an attempt to understand the social and economic systems that individuals live in. At the core of the social and economic systems is community. In America the myth of the gift is a dominant catalyst that uses debt to make community through time. In order to study the structure of debt within America I will be using an anthropological approach, specifically a method of inquiry called “Anthropology of the Contemporary” in order to build a frame work that will assist in understanding the American community, and the cultural conceptions of debt.
Recommended Citation
Becker, James A., "Debt Structure in the West: Money and Gift, and the Influence on Community" (2011). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 293.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/293
© Copyright 2011 James A. Becker