Questioning Norms

“On the inside, we’re all the same.”

Ultimatum Game

Assumption: our economies and economic decisions are shaped by what we perceive to be fair

WHOA. Our economies actually shape our conception of fairness?

Karl Marx (1818-1883): a German philosopher, economist, sociologist and revolutionary socialist

Marx's Ideas

• known for his critique of Capitalism
• Commodity Fetishism
• Class struggle
• Solution: the proletariat revolution

Marcel Mauss (1872-1950): A French sociologist and the nephew of Emile Durkheim

Mauss' Ideas

• The Gift (1922), focused on Polynesian and Melanesian societies
• Argued that gifts are never "free". Rather, gifts give rise to reciprocal exchange that create social bonds
• The gifted object is inextricably tied to the giver