Greed

A. F. Robertson is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

• List of Figures and Captions. Acknowledgements.1. Introduction.2. What Do We mean By Greed?.Part I: Denials and Apologies:.3. Beastly Passions and Legitimate Desires.4. Discipling Greed.5. Scholars and Idiots.Part II: How Greed Grows:.6. Feeling and Meaning.7. Growth and History.Part III: Three Bio-Histories:.8. The Gluttonous Peasant.9. The Avaricious Pensioner.10. The Venal Professional.11. Corporate Greed.References.Tailpiece.

'Robertson's subject is the human catastrophe of a modern society built on separation and division, especially of the mind and the body. His method is to use a focus on greed as a means of conceptually reuniting meaning and feeling. Greed is in turn linked to the reality and metaphor of growth on which so much in modern society depends. This is not just imaginative; it is unique.' Keith Hart, King's College, Aberdeen'Robertson daringly goes to the heart of the private and collective body in search of the dark forces of social and ecological destruction. This is no ordinary work, but an ambitious reach across discourses and vast time spans. He challenges us to think in fundamental ways about "growth", and how the very concept once misapplied leads to malignant outcomes.'Harvey Molotch, New York University "The book is a compelling and timely read -fast paced, at times quite playful, and decidedly passionate- in which the author develops a critique of anthropological theory, as well as of capitalism, by using greed as the analytical focal point...This is a finely crafted book that will readers much to consider through its provocative advocacy of a new moral economics" James H. McDonald, Anthropogical Theory Although it is fluent, engaged, and ocassionally funny, this is not an easy book. THat is because Robertson asks us to make a significant change in the ways that we as academics think about the world. It is worth the effort, though. The rewards are great." James G. Carrier, The Journal of The Royal Anthropological Institute