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Reviews

“From the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, economically successful people have often devoted their earnings to the needs of their community. Prista Ratanapruck’s close-up look at the business practices and community life of the Nepalese Manangi offers up a host of insights into the complex motivations underlying economic initiative and the interplay between competition and cooperation in closely knit groups. Reading a deeply researched analysis like hers makes us wish there were more case studies done in economics.” • Benjamin M. Friedman, Harvard University

Description

In the established historiography of trade in Asia, the emergence of Western trading empires invariably triggered the decline and dispersal of old trading networks. In this transregional ethnographic history of the Manangi, a Buddhist trading community from northern Nepal, Prista Ratanapruck provides counter evidence, elucidating how kinship, social, and religious institutions have facilitated the expansion of Manangi trade across South and Southeast Asia. Expounding on how social and moral values shape capital production, accumulation, and redistribution, Market and Monastery examines the entwining relationship between trade and the Manangi’s pursuit of social and spiritual aspirations, ultimately illuminating an intriguing form of capitalism.

Subject: Political and Economic AnthropologyDevelopment StudiesAnthropology (General)

Area: Asia

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