Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: To what extent do contemporary critical theories of money operate under the shadow of Rousseau’s sentimentalist horizon of natural equality corrupted by the advent of civilization? This article outlines a Derridean reading of Graeber’s and Wengrow’s recent anthropological study of prehistoric social formations in an effort to demonstrate the unacknowledged influence which Rousseau’s disdain for theatricality holds over many present-day assumptions about the social logic of money. In an attempt to repudiate the orthodox theory of money as a medium of exchange, these anthropologists equate the origin of money with a predilection for adornments and self-display. As soon as money becomes a problem of representation, however, the critical discourse immediately shifts towards an anti-theatrical lamentation for lost authenticity which necessarily rehearses the circular logic of Rousseau’s thought. Money ultimately becomes indistinguishable from sociality as such.
DOI: 10.20901/pm.61.4.05
Author: Darko Vinketa
Institution: Johns Hopkins University
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4407797320