Rationality as a Social Construction: What Does Individual Behavior Have to Say about Development in an Amazon Community?

Andrés Marroquín Gramajo

Journal of Economic Issues, 2008, vol. 42, issue 1, 115-132

Abstract: This article argues that two different manifestations of rational behavior can coexist and collide in a relatively homogeneous society. In the Ticuna community of Arara in the Colombian Amazon; on the one hand, the majority of villagers tend to reach relatively lower levels of material wealth, following Polanyi’s idea of the pre-modern man (1968a; 1968b; 1968c), and also Sahlins’ (1972) idea of the original affluent man. On the other hand, community leaders and schoolteachers tend to accumulate material wealth, following Polanyi’s idea of modern-man (1968a; 1968b). These behavioral frameworks help explain the limited success of certain types of development programs in the Ticuna community.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1080/00213624.2008.11507117

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