This essay discusses the question if money has a commercial or cultural meaning. The main purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of how money is embedded in society and what kind of role it could play. For a better understanding of this context the essay based mainly on case studies to visualize the main arguments. The paper first is intended to give a general overview of money and to show its role in capitalism and society. Furthermore, the personal and impersonal characteristics in an expanded social context will be briefly discussed. The second part shed light on three different case studies to illustrate the importance of money or money-like commodities in non-European cultures. Thirdly, a special currency in London and the Euro will be concerned. In conclusion, the final chapter draws upon the entire topic and summarizes the discussed points.
Since the invention of money and at the latest since the invention of capitalism, everything has revolved around money. As one of the oldest technologies we have, money shapes the society we are living in and is, of course, a key player in today’s economies. In other words: money can be seen “as the crucial agent of social and economic transformation” (Perry and Bloch, 1989). But how is money implemented in cultures? Is there really more than just an instrument for economic transactions? Or is money even the prerequisite for a cultural together?
Does money have a commercial or cultural meaning?
Since the invention of money and at the latest since the invention of capitalism, everything has revolved around money. As one of the oldest technologies we have, money shapes the society we are living in and is, of course, a key player in today’s economies. In other words: money can be seen “as the crucial agent of social and economic transformation” (Perry and Bloch, 1989, pp. 14-15). But how is money implemented in cultures? Is there really more than just an instrument for economic transactions? Or is money even the prerequisite for a cultural together?
This essay discusses the question if money has a commercial or cultural meaning. The main purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of how money is embedded in society and what kind of role it could play. For a better understanding of this context the essay based mainly on case studies to visualize the main arguments. The paper first is intended to give a general overview of money and to show its role in capitalism and society. Furthermore, the personal and impersonal characteristics in an expanded social context will be briefly discussed. The second part shed light on three different case studies to illustrate the importance of money or money-like commodities in non-European cultures. Thirdly, a special currency in London and the Euro will be concerned. In conclusion, the final chapter draws upon the entire topic and summarizes the discussed points.
What is money? In general, money is a human-made invention. Because of this circumstance, the logic of money is not created by itself; money has a social logic that changes over time. The logic of money needs to be seen separately from the logic of capitalism which has its own one (McCabe, 2018). McCabe states that the greatest trick that capitalism ever played was convincing the world that money was neutral (McCabe, 2018, p. 32). But as we know today, money could be seen as a social need. Mitchell puts it in these words: “Money is probably the most emotionally meaningful object in contemporary life: only food and sex are its close competitors as common carriers of such strong and diverse feelings, significance, and strivings.” (Mitchell, 1999, p. 569). It is often associated with the four most important characteristics people are yearning for: power, achievement and recognition, respect and status, and freedom and control (Mitchell, 1999). Additionally, money is used to demonstrate status and worth (Cohen, 2019). Mostly through work or income, a person is subjectively assigned to a social class. Especially in the capitalist western world, this view of money is an important component in the societal context. However, in the classic interpretations of the development of the modern world money is pictured as “a key instrument in the rationalisation of social life” (Zelizer, 1989, p. 342).
The commercial meaning of money seems to be clear. Money is the main factor in the establishment of commerce because people start a business to gain money. Furthermore, companies pay money to their employees in exchange for their labour. Money is used to motivate, retain, recognize, and reward people. The meaning of money got more organisationally because of the complexity of our lives (Mitchell, 1999, p. 569). McCabe argues, that people sell their labour-power in order to receive money that they spend on the human necessities that have created and marketized by themselves. The circle of money binds it all together (McCabe, 2018, p. 32). Money can be seen as “the principal catalyst for the transformation of social life” (Perry and Bloch, 1989, p. 4). In this connection, money is a representation of value and therefore can be exchanged for potentially anything. Money enables the buyer to purchase a product immediately and ensures the same exchange potential for the seller, which is delayed later and in which another person is involved. The exchange thus created goes beyond the limits of a one-to-one relationship. Money enables exchange via dense social networks that are determined by norms other than a personal acquaintance. In an unpersonal way, we give most of our money to strangers (Capeloa Gil and Gonçalves da Silva, 2015). In the capitalist sense, money, therefore, stands for alienation, detachment, impersonal society, the outside (Hart, 2007, p. 13). But at the same time, it also stands for social relationships in (capitalist) societies.
Bloch and Perry claimed in their book that it is widely argued that “outside the ideological ambit of the capitalist market, the economy is seen as being ‘embedded’ in society, that the relentless individual pursuit of material self-gain is generally discountenanced, and that collective goals are normally accorded primacy over those of the individual.” (Perry and Bloch, 1989, p. 25). Therefore, in order to understand the way in which money is viewed it is highly important to understand the cultural matrix in which it is integrated (Perry and Bloch, 1989). In the following two paragraphs this context will be considered in more detail using different types of case studies from different cultures.
In the first chapter, the characteristic of money was placed on society in a wider context and its personal and impersonal traits were presented, and how they affected society. This paragraph now uses different case studies to illustrate the importance of money in another area of society. First, there are the Zulu Zionist churches in urban South Africa.
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- Quote paper
- Maximilian Scheller (Author), 2019, Does money have a commercial or cultural meaning?, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/1193431
