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Dear colleagues,
Please see the CALL FOR PAPERS below.
The Enchantment of Money. Money as Bodily Ornament
Conference: AAA Chicago, November 20-24, 2013
Convenors:
Dr Emilia Ferraro (University of St. Andrews, [log in to unmask])
Dr Margherita Margiotti (University of Bristol, [log in to unmask])
Discussants:
Prof Emily Gilbert (University of Toronto)
Prof Paul Stoller (West Chester University)
If interested, please send a 250words abstract by 28 of February to [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
We look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes,
Margherita Margiotti and Emilia Ferraro
PANEL ABSTRACT:
By addressing the aesthetic and ornamental qualities of money, our panel seeks a radical revisioning of classical theories and assumptions about the nature of money.
In the last decade there has been a resurgence of interest in money in and beyond anthropology, sparked by the liberalization and expansion of international financial markets during the mid- to late-1980s; the rise of 'transnational' and 'alternative' currencies; the recent financial collapses around the world, and new monetary developments. Building on theorists such as Marx, Weber, Simmel, Polanyi and Giddens among others, anthropology has accorded money a special place in its study of capitalist and non-capitalist relations and forms of exchange; the nature of cultural encounters, and even the nature of the sacred. Although anthropological studies have made visible money's multiple roles, meanings, and modalities, and more widely scholarly debates in the social sciences have privileged an attention to its distinctive qualities of commensuration, abstraction, quantification and reification, so far little has been said on money's quality to enchant and adorn.
Ethnographic and archaeological data all over the world show that pierced coins are worn as decorations and jewellery forms; yet, no other quality of money seems more neglected in anthropological, social and economic theories than ornamentation. How do money's material qualities both impinge on its use and exchange, and creates ornamental value? To what extent does the use of coins in jewellery, clothing, or other forms of body ornamentation, both add to our understanding of coins-as-icons (Shell 1995), and challenge theoretically the conventional image of modern money as a radical leveller void of value and leading to social homogenization (Giddens 1990)? Is money really neither 'place-bound' nor 'place-less' (Harvey 1989)?
Our panel seeks to explore the relationship between money, “bodiliness”, the senses, and aesthetic visualities. We invite scholars working in economic, social and cultural theory, archaeologists and scholars interested in the body to examine money as an artefact with sensual qualities. We are interested in bringing together realms of enquiry and traditions that have been kept apart, namely the economic attention to money as currency; the anthropology of art’s attention to the technology of enchantment (Gell 1992), and the anthropology of the body’s interest in the senses.
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