Abstract
Focusing on the empirical cases of Brazilian and Argentinean sick currencies (attacked by inflation), this article explore the processes of public denaturalization of currency value, as a contribution to the anthropology of numbers and money. Situated on the border between the anthropology of science (economics) and the anthropology of monetary cultures, the article looks at one of the main devices created by specialists to ‘measure and cure’ inflation (index numbers) as a true cultural device. The aim is to outline the social and cultural meanings of money and index numbers through an analysis of the interconnections between academic and everyday monetary (and number) ideas and practices.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
