Introduction

Introducing an Inquiry into the Social Economies of Greed and Excess
Rahul Oka, Ian Kuijt | Abstract

SECTION I: History and Contemporaneity of Greed and Excess

System Failure: Institutions, Incentives, and Collective Folly
James Surowiecki | Abstract

Greed Is Bad, Neutral, and Good: A Historical Perspective on Excessive Accumulation and Consumption
Rahul Oka, Ian Kuijt | Abstract

SECTION II: Ambiguities of Surplus: Can Marginalized Peoples Be Greedy and Excessive?

Land, Labor, and Things: Surplus in a New West Indian Colony (1763–1807)
Mark W. Hauser | Abstract

Poverty and Excess in Binge Economies
Richard Wilk | Abstract

The Social and Economic Production of Greed, Cooperation, and Taste in an Ohio Food Auction
Jeffrey H. Cohen, Susan M. Klemetti | Abstract

SECTION III: Who Shares the Surplus: “Greedy” Subsistence Producers in Transitioning Economies

Greed in a “Tribal” Economy? Acquisitiveness and Reciprocity in Lisu Society
E. Paul Durrenberger, Kathleen Gillogly | Abstract

Booms and Busts: Asset Dynamics, Disaster, and the Politics of Wealth in Rural Mongolia
Daniel J. Murphy | Abstract

Risk-Seeking Peasants, Excessive Artisans: Speculation in the Northern Andes
Jason Antrosio, Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld | Abstract

Loci of Greed in a Caribbean Paradise: Land Conflicts in Bocas del Toro, Panama
Gayatri Thampy | Abstract

SECTION IV: Entitled to the Surplus: Greed and Excess among the Elites, Non-Elites, and the Nouveau Riche

The Potentiality and the Consequences of Surplus: Agricultural Production and Institutional Transformation in the Northern Basin of Mexico
Christopher Morehart | Abstract

The Problem of Greed in Economic Anthropology: Sumptuary Laws and New Consumerism in China
Joseph Bosco | Abstract

SECTION V: Some Perspectives and New Directions on the Anthropology of Greed and Excess

Folk and Scientific Concepts in the Study of Greed
Robert C. Hunt | Abstract

The Rich Possibilities of Greed and Excess
Virginia R. Dominguez | Abstract