Anthropology Research Seminar: Dr Andrew Sanchez (Cambridge University)

Discussing similarities in economies of waste, gifts and art, this paper suggests a new conceptual framework for understanding why some exchange objects are valued in relation to their human provenance. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in an Indian scrap-metal yard, the paper explores why anxieties about stolen materials compel traders to interrogate the biographies and social relations of people that they do business with. This observation raises questions for theories of alienation, value, and agency which see scrap work as an archetypal commodification that erodes an object’s prior social life. Bringing ethnographic data on waste into conversation with debates about gifts and art, the paper outlines a theory of value based on dynamic human appraisals of worth and risk through time.

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