Lamb auctions on the borders

Bibliographic Data

ID4180910
AuthorsJohn N Gray (corresponding author)
Year1984
Volume25
Issue1
Pages54-82
Publication date1984-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-9756 • E-ISSN: 1474-0583
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0003975600004161
OpenAlexW2050163091
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited10

Weber could very well have been referring to the England- Scotland borderlands when he characterized the basic relation which 'transcends the boundaries of neighborhood, kinship, group or tribe' (Economy and Society, I: 637) as taking one of two forms-war or trade. He also said of the market, as a particular form of the trading relation: 'It is [...] only this physical assemblage which allows the full emergence of the market's most distinctive feature, viz. dickering' (Economy and Society, I: 635). The lamb auctions which are the focus of this paper do involve a physical assemblage of individuals from different sides of the border who dicker over the value of lambs. But as implied by Weber, this is not just a simple trading relation. It is a meaningful exchange of value in which sheep embody for the Scots a distinctive world and in which the haggling over the price of sheep is about the distancing of this world from the over-whelming social, economic and political power of England. In sum, auctions in the Scottish borders occur at and are partly constitutive of social boundaries

Archaeology · Art · Assemblage (archaeology · Common value auction · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Distancing · Economic geography · Economics · Economy · Genealogy · Geography · Kinship · Microeconomics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Relation (database · Scots · Sociology · Tribe · Value (mathematics · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Irish and British Studies · Law

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