Bill Maurer is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of "Recharting the Caribbean: Land, Law, and Citizenship in the British Virgin Islands", and the co-editor of "Gender Matters: Re-Reading Michelle Z. Rosaldo" and "Globalization under Construction: Governmentality, Law, and Identity".

• List of Illustrations and Tables xi Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvii A Note on Transliteration xxi INTRODUCTION: Lateral Reasons for a Post-reflexive Anthropology 1 CHAPTER 1: In the Matter of Islamic Banking and Local Currencies 24 CHAPTER 2: Of Law and Belief 55 CHAPTER 3: Of Monetary Alternatives and the Limits of Values Past 77 CHAPTER 4: Innumerate Equivalencies: Making Change with Alternative Currencies 100 CHAPTER 5: Wiseman's and Fool's Gold 122 CHAPTER 6: Mutual Life, Limited: Insurance, Moral Value, and Bureaucratic Form 136 CONCLUSION: Restaging Abstraction and Adequation 154 Notes 169 References Cited 185 Index 205

Winner of the 2005 Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing, Society for Humanistic Anthropology "A fascinating study... It is ... quite possibly the best study in the English language on the topic and, to those involved in banking, currencies, and anthropological facets of economies, should prove of unquestionable value."--Haidar Moukdad, Digest of Middle East Studies

Bill Maurer is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of "Recharting the Caribbean: Land, Law, and Citizenship in the British Virgin Islands", and the co-editor of "Gender Matters: Re-Reading Michelle Z. Rosaldo" and "Globalization under Construction: Governmentality, Law, and Identity".

• List of Illustrations and Tables xi Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvii A Note on Transliteration xxi INTRODUCTION: Lateral Reasons for a Post-reflexive Anthropology 1 CHAPTER 1: In the Matter of Islamic Banking and Local Currencies 24 CHAPTER 2: Of Law and Belief 55 CHAPTER 3: Of Monetary Alternatives and the Limits of Values Past 77 CHAPTER 4: Innumerate Equivalencies: Making Change with Alternative Currencies 100 CHAPTER 5: Wiseman's and Fool's Gold 122 CHAPTER 6: Mutual Life, Limited: Insurance, Moral Value, and Bureaucratic Form 136 CONCLUSION: Restaging Abstraction and Adequation 154 Notes 169 References Cited 185 Index 205

Winner of the 2005 Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing, Society for Humanistic Anthropology "A fascinating study... It is ... quite possibly the best study in the English language on the topic and, to those involved in banking, currencies, and anthropological facets of economies, should prove of unquestionable value."--Haidar Moukdad, Digest of Middle East Studies

Bill Maurer is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of "Recharting the Caribbean: Land, Law, and Citizenship in the British Virgin Islands", and the co-editor of "Gender Matters: Re-Reading Michelle Z. Rosaldo" and "Globalization under Construction: Governmentality, Law, and Identity".

• List of Illustrations and Tables xi Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvii A Note on Transliteration xxi INTRODUCTION: Lateral Reasons for a Post-reflexive Anthropology 1 CHAPTER 1: In the Matter of Islamic Banking and Local Currencies 24 CHAPTER 2: Of Law and Belief 55 CHAPTER 3: Of Monetary Alternatives and the Limits of Values Past 77 CHAPTER 4: Innumerate Equivalencies: Making Change with Alternative Currencies 100 CHAPTER 5: Wiseman's and Fool's Gold 122 CHAPTER 6: Mutual Life, Limited: Insurance, Moral Value, and Bureaucratic Form 136 CONCLUSION: Restaging Abstraction and Adequation 154 Notes 169 References Cited 185 Index 205

Winner of the 2005 Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing, Society for Humanistic Anthropology "A fascinating study... It is ... quite possibly the best study in the English language on the topic and, to those involved in banking, currencies, and anthropological facets of economies, should prove of unquestionable value."--Haidar Moukdad, Digest of Middle East Studies