Tappers and sappers

Rubber, gold and money among the Mundurucú

Bibliographic Data

ID2990889
AuthorsBrian Burkhalter, S Brian Burkhalter (University of South Florida), Robert F Murphy (0000-0002-4710-9180)
Year1989
Volume16
Issue1
Pages100-116
Publication date1989-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Ethnologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1525/ae.1989.16.1.02a00070
OpenAlexW1972837456
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited6

The following paper presents a description and analysis of social and cultural change among the Mundurucú Indians of the upper Tapajós River, Brazil, from Robert Murphy's 1952-1953 fieldwork through the 1979-1981 field trip of Brian Burkhalter. This is a period that saw a transition from a Mundurucú trade economy in wild rubber, exchanged through a barter-credit system, to digging, or sapping, of placer deposits of gold within the context of a cash economy. The change has had far-reaching effects on the Mundurucú system of social relations, which has seen a further erosion of institutions based on communality, commensality, and cooperation, and a growing prevalence of monetary objectification of persons and their labors. [Mundurucú Indians, South American ethnology, social change, monetary exchange, trade

Archaeology · Barter · Cash · Context (archaeology · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Geography · Gold coast · Market economy · Political science · Sociology · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Finance

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