My artwork as requested

Hope my big at sweet briar likes this!!!!

Clifford Geertz a Short Biography

One of the Anthropologists talked about in Graeber's book: Toward an anthropological theory of Value, was Clifford Geertz. Clifford Geertz was born on august 23rd 1926 in San Fransisco. His work focused on interpreting symbols that he believed gave both meaning and order to peoples lives. Most of His theories focused mostly on culture and cultural interpretation. he is "considered the founder of interpretive and symbolic anthropology" according to the NY times. His writing has been given numerous awards and is considered to be valuable beyond just the field of cultural sciences and anthropology. Geertz was influenced heavily by Ludwig Wittgenstein and Max Weber and this is clear in many of his works. Geertz's theory of understanding others' understandings and his examining of public meanings or symbols is what he takes away from Wittgenstein. Geerts also uses Weberian framework (use of culture religion and ideals to explain modernization), in a few of his writings such as Agricultural Involution and Peddlers and Princes. Geertz attended grad school at Harvard University  and finished with a philosophy major and a PHD in anthropology.  He continued on to teach a Harvard, University of California, University of Chicago and Oxford University. Geertz did field work in Indonesia and Morocco during this time as well. It is clear in all aspects of his work that the term value to him is referring to how the symbols of a culture are an expression of the underlying principles, values, and behaviors of the culture. Geertz died at age 80 from complications with heart surgery.

Assignment #3

Reba Gagne

Professor Rainville

Assignment #3

The New Sweet Briar Currency

            Barter systems have been used for hundreds of years. Ancient cultures used food such as coco beans to trade for more valuable items. In times of economic struggles people tend to invest in items that will retain their value even if the current currency is worthless. For example in Romania during the presidency of Nicolae Ceausescu the money had no value even though they had an abundance of it. To compensate the people paid for everything in cartons and boxes of cigarettes. In the new sweet briar currency I am taking this same concept and applying it to ramen noodles.

            This new currency is reliable because there are identical parts of measure for each unit. This means that all have the same weight and if opened the currency has then lost its value as currency however still can maintain its value as a delicious food source for college students.

            To relate the values of this resource to modern American currency each individual pack of ramen would be worth approximately $2 to make math straightforward and because that is what you would pay now for an individual package of ramen. That means that the 12 pack boxes of ramen would then be worth $24, and 2 of these boxes (i.e. a crate of ramen) would be worth $48 in traditional American currency. However when $5 is needed you would need to have the Cup o Noodle’s   (ramen in a cup with veggies in it) because that would be equivalent to one pack of ramen plus the extra nutrients and vegetation.  These different values can then be mixed and matched to come up with the value needed for any particular item. (i.e. 1 box and 2 packages would equal $16 of traditional American currency). 

Each value was calculated by its nutritional value and how it can be used as food. Obviously ramen noodles are not the healthiest food in the world therefore, individually wrapped packages are worth less than the cup of noodles that contains actual vegetables. Each unit after this is proportionally valued based on weight amount and nutrition as explained in previous paragraphs.

The theory of value behind the ramen noodles is already in place and therefore a new one does not need to come about. Ramen is not difficult to cook and has an extremely long shelf life therefore; it is already valued by most college students who like to eat or who get sick of eating at Prothro or the Bistro. However because it is still food, it can be traded with others for say either better food or other items of value such as books or school supplies. 

In conclusion I predict that this form of currency would produce new social classes. The people with the most value would not only have the most items of value but also would not go hungry and have a lot of ramen on hand. This new money system is flawed because it is not convenient to carry around. However, a possible solution could be to barter ramen for items of higher value that are easier to carry and can then be traded for something else.

Artwork

This is a picture I found in the art gallery of Benedict. It is entitled "Woods in the Snow" and was painted by Elizabeth Hunt Barrett. It is an oil painting and I like it because I have used this same medium for art and it reminds me of home.