The need for an anthropology of wealth

Silvano Petrosino

pp. 207-217

in: Mauro Magatti (ed), The crisis conundrum, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

The 2008 crisis drives towards a new conceptualisation of the notion of wealth: this chapter exposes the principles of a new anthropology of wealth. This latter is the base on which humanity's economic activities (always marked by excess—excess accumulation and excess in waste) can be understood. This anthropology examines the reasons that drive people to consider a particular object as precious, dear, attractive, worth being owned and collected. The basic question is: what is "wealth" for human being?