2022-23

This course focuses on the Ottoman economy, which was in deep trouble by second half of the 19th century. The main reason for the economic crisis lay in the loans accumulated by the Ottomans, who borrowed from European Great Powers, although there were certainly financial difficulties in the empire before then.  Territorial losses, the corruption of public servants and the concession to certain owners of capital (Mültezim) of the right to collect taxes reduced state revenues, which became the principal feature of the history of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The main aim of the course is to introduce students to the concept of consumption in anthropology. Consumption studies have shown that the material world is not static and fixed.  Instead, objects have their value and their histories and so the material world is part and parcel of any given society. To consume certain goods is a choice, a political act subject to several historical, economic and social conditions and norms. Thus consumption creates and recreates everyday politics. The course deals with various aspects of consumption and uses several ethnographic examples.