"   Sorry to come to this conversation late, but I have been rather overwhelmed with my (ultimately quixotic) efforts to try to juggle being an activist (at least a little), professional author, and full-time academic all at the same time.…"

"Thanks, Adam, and I appreciate your reflections on time and agree it's critical. I would add that there is a difference between treating someone a certain way because you actually will have ongoing relations, and treating them "as if"…"

"my pleasure! okay off to the LSE occupation. Then Goldsmiths. Then Slade... "

"Yes, it is peripheral, but if you're curious, yeah, I do have a problem with that too. Maurice Bloch, interestingly enough, believes that Latour, and also Thevenot and Boltansky (don't know about Callon), if I remember, are all basically…"

"yeah, I didn't go. If I remember the tickets were pretty expensive. "

"That's an enlightening analysis. I guess the danger in deconstructive readings is that they do start from, and end in, texts. Does it make a difference that Marx isn't the author of the phrase "from each according to their…"

"My answer to your last question would be "yes." I'm a little dubious of Mauss' advocacy of the redistributive feast, potlatch-style, as the salvation of modern capitalism. I'm not sure he really believed it himself to be…"

"Oh, I wasn't aware you'd been vainly trying. I must have missed some posts! Apologies. By the way there's no link to the text version only the video. "

"The ecological aspect is often lacking in my work, truth to tell; it wasn't fully developed in my value book either. In my debt book (for which this argument was developed) I do take on the notion of "debt to nature" which I find…"

"Thanks, Heesun, for the always-interesting reply. You're right of course, when you say that the formal "my pleasure," "no the pleasure is mine!" (or much gusto, el gusto es mio) sort of exchanges are about a denial of…"

"thanks, Keith! I wasn't much looking forward to having to explain why I'm not indistinguishable from a sociobiologist! Phew. (For what it's worth Gustav very kindly sent a personal note acknowledging he'd misread the…"

"Well I think I stand with Mauss in holding there is no necessary contradiction between the two imperatives. But maybe that's just me. Anyway, I think for me the question really comes down to: "does it really give you a richer notion of…"

"Another response: I have no idea whatsoever why Gustaf thinks he is criticizing me by saying these terms have to be put in context to be made useful. Did I give any indication that I didn't think this? To the contrary I ended with examples that…"

"I must confess myself to be profoundly confused by Gustaf's use of the term "functionalist." My understanding of functionalism is that it is a principle of explanation, whereby social phenomenon are explained exclusively or primarily…"

"Yes I agree anthropologists - or at least, those of the current dominant generation - have largely taken themselves out of the big discussions and this is something I've always felt was the same. The reaction to my own work is telling here.…"