Understanding Commodity Cultures: Explorations in Economic Anthropology with Case Studies from Mexico

Review

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. (Chibnik, Michael)

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. (Hart, Keith)

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)

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