Money Counts

Mario Schmidt is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School of the Humanities at the University of Cologne. He has published in journals including Africa, Ethnohistory, and HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. His research interests include the rise of behavioral economics in East Africa, the importance of part-whole relations for an understanding of money, and the impact of concepts from the natural sciences on the development of Émile Durkheim’s and Marcel Mauss’s thought.

“The book points to a domain of research that is still understudied by anthropologists, and is thus a stimulation to explore it further.”  • Anthropological Forum“This is a compelling collection that contributes rich case studies and sharp theoretical insights for more serious anthropological attention to money, number, and calculation.” • Anthropos“This compact collection focuses on money as number, seen from a wide range of perspectives. The style is impressively dialectical, offering hope that anthropologists may soon be open to more promising ways of engaging with money.” • Keith Hart, University of Pretoria“Why do anthropologists get so uncomfortable when it comes to working with (and on) numbers? This book provides answers and exemplifies what a quantity-embracing, yet ethnographically rich, economic anthropology can look like.” • Stefan Leins, University of Konstanz

• Introduction: The Quality of Quantity: Monetary Amounts and Their MaterialitiesSandy Ross, Mario Schmidt, and Ville KoskinenChapter 1. Is Gold Jewelry Money?Peter OakleyChapter 2. Injury and Measurement: Jacob Grimm on Blood Money and Concrete QuantificationAnna EchterhölterChapter 3. Five Thousand, 5,00, and Five Thousands: Disentangling Ruble Quantities and QualitiesSandy RossChapter 4. “Money is Life:” Quantity, Social Freedom, and Combinatory Practices in Western KenyaMario SchmidtChapter 5. Money and Morality of Commensuration: Currencies of Poverty in Post-Soviet CubaMartin HolbraadChapter 6. ‘Money on the Street’ as a Hoard: How Informal Moneylenders Remain UnbankedMartin FottaChapter 7. What is Money? A Definition Beyond Materiality and QuantityEmanuel SeitzAfterwordNigel Dodd