By Coin or By Kine? Barter and Pastoral Production in Kazakhstan

Environment and Post-Soviet Transformation in Kazakhstan’s Aral Sea Region

“…The situation was resolved in the end, though I am not sure how. As such loans allow people to avoid the punitive rates of commercial lenders, money, as in other postsocialist settings, does not weaken social networks but puts them to new uses (Ledeneva 2006;McGuire 2014;Wanner 2005). However, because of the complication that arose when the money was lent outside Ornyq's immediate network, the effect was to corrode trust.…”

“…Yet, in post-Soviet Kazakhstan, which has seen major bouts of inflation and devaluation of currency, money is hardly a reliable store of value. Nor is money an abstract, impersonal medium of exchange; rather, it is tangled up with informal interpersonal relations, from the ritual economy through various shades of grey to straightforward bribery (Humphrey 2002, Chapter 6;Humphrey and Sneath 2004;Ledeneva 2006;McGuire 2014;Rigi 2004;Wanner 2008).…”

‘Edgy’ politics and European anthropology in 2016

“…Others explore the social effects of recombinant practices and the power of graphical forms. Brady and Bradley, for instance, examine the agency of graphic forms in sorcery in relation to rock art in Kurrmurnnyini, North Australia (Brady and Bradley ); Cant discusses the role that ‘indigenous art’ aesthetics plays in changing power relations in wood‐carving art markets in Mexico (Cant ); Vasantkumar conducts a close material and historic analysis of several collections of coins to reveal how abstract theorisation often conceals Eurocentric theorisations of currency (Vasantkumar ); and McGuire's paper on barter exchanges in Kazakhstan describes how money is imbued with obligations, leading many to prefer the exchange of livestock as a less obligating form of trade (McGuire ). Questions of materiality, ontology and futures coupled with detailed empirical attention help us to approach the edges of global political and economic thinking.…”

Bêtes et gens

“…À l'ère postsoviétique, alors même que le nomadisme est brandi comme une composante essentielle de l'identité nationale, le pastoralisme kazakh est ignoré des ethnologues locaux et occidentaux, à quelques exceptions près [Werner 1998 ;McGuire 2014], tandis que l'attention de ces derniers se dirige vers le Kirghizstan, géographiquement et culturellement proche [Jacquesson 2010 ;Steimann 2011, entre autres].…”