Today we live in what Ulrich Beck has aptly characterized as a "risk society" shaped by intensifying crises outside of our control and seemingly outside of our comprehension. The master narrative that was supposed to lead us to secular salvation-economics-has proved to be a large part of the problem rather than the much anticipated solution. In The Anthropology of Complex Economic Systems, Niccolo Caldararo offers a much more radical and challenging answer: that the fundamental assumptions on which the modern "science" of economics has been erected are false, and that it is through the medium of anthropology, particularly the relatively neglected field of economic anthropology, that an alternative and sound basis for both the understanding of economic behavior and for the shaping of economic futures can be constructed. Caldararo not only challenges the foundational assumptions of conventional economic theory, but situates economic behavior (something quite different and universal amongst human beings) in both a historical and an ecological context. Contemporary discussions of "sustainability," especially in the field of development studies, have oddly neglected to look to anthropology. Economic anthropology, is the repository of a vast store of wisdom both about actual alternative and workable economic systems and about their evolution. By drawing on this source, Caldararo builds a model of the evolution of human economies which stir up substantial debate, shows how economic anthropology provides a tool for the interrogation of economic theory, and ties economics to ecology. It has been the rupture of this fundamental relationship that lies at the basis of much of our present crisis and the unsustainable economic patterns that humans have created. By bringing together in a new configuration economic anthropology, ecology, and culture history, Caldararo not only proposes a new model of human social evolution, but equally importantly creates a methodology for speaking to, and against, our present economic and environmental situation.
Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: Anthropology and Economics: A Review Chapter 1: Anthropology and the Cosmology of Modern Economics Chapter 2: Wants, Needs, and the Question of Surplus versus Wealth Chapter 3: Complexity and Stability or Stagnation: Declining Returns and the Business Cycle Chapter 4: Wealth, Consumption, Quality of Life & Standard of Living Part II: Introduction to Hominid Economics Chapter 6: Introduction Chapter 7: Forest Fires, Origins, and Myths Chapter 8: Traditional Peoples and Fire Chapter 9: Climate and Fire, Assessing Time's Arrow and the Antiquity of Anthropogenic Fire Chapter 10: Forest Management in Modern and Traditional Society Chapter 11: The Degraded Environment and Homo Sapiens Chapter 12: Co-evolutionary Processes & Environmental Exploitation Chapter 13: Makeup and Nature of Forests: Fire-adapted Species vs `Old Growth' Chapter 14: Determining Fire History: Fire Scars, Fire Histories, and Thermal Alteration Chapter 15: Insects, Biomass Reduction, and Pesticides Chapter 16: Conclusion: Forests and the Future Man Part III: Cycles of Growth & Collapse versus the Possibility of Sustainable Societies Chapter 17: Introduction Chapter 18: The Problem of Population & the Nature of Human Society Chapter 19: Consumerism and Sustainability: Japan as an Example Chapter 20: The Evolution of Modern Japan and its Transformation Part IV: The Role of Ideology and Religious Precepts in the Containment and Change of Society: A Modernist View Chapter 21: The Credit Crisis of 2008 to 201? Chapter 22: Ideology and Religious Precepts and Motivations: Why People Work Chapter 23: Fundamentalism versus Globalism Part V: Conclusion Bibliography Index About the Author
