The child everyone has inside: anthropology and the labor theory of value

Abstract

This paper revisits the debate on the relevance of the labor theory of value for the anthropological task. It argues that the labor theory of value can creatively inform and reformulate in critical ways a variety of social issues addressed through anthropological lenses. The argument is sustained by two main exercises: first, a critical overview of the foundations of the labor theory of value outlines the reasons why it opened new grounds for anthropological and, more generally, for social-scientific enquiries. Second, a discussion of the key points of friction between scholarship that attempts to develop an “anthropological” theory of value as an end in itself and anthropological scholarship that resorts to the (labor) theory of value to critically inform research.

Introduction to special issue: Value, values, and anthropology

“…Contributors to previous special issues of this journal drew from political ecology to show how the politics of value, values, and valuation can even become inscribed in physical landscapes (Rissing & Jones, 2022). Meanwhile, some scholars are mining earlier approaches to value for new insights, such as Angosto‐Ferrández's (2022) recent reappraisal of the Marxian labor theory of value.…”