"Graeber does not recognize what money and credit mean in pre-capitalist societies, what distinguishes them from each other. He works with trans-historical phenomena, without raising questions as to their historical-social form. This is a trait he shares with the economic mainstream that he otherwise criticizes. Graeber writes that systems of credit and accounting are as old as civilization itself. He admits that he finds it difficult to distinguish between gift-giving and credit; but this is only a problem if one discusses these forms of social intercourse independent from their respective dominant forms of production, when one does not clarify exactly what is characteristic of capitalism, what makes it capitalistic and thus what distinguishes it from other social formations."
Full: http://communism.blogsport.eu/2012/06/12/debt-and-punishment-a-critical-review-of-david-graebers-debt/ _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
