11 juni 2009

Meertens Ethnology Lecture door dr. Silke Meyer
Plaats:  Meertens Instituut, Symposiumzaal
Tijd: 15:00 -16:30

Invitation for the 10th  Meertens Ethnology Lecture
Thursday June 11, 2009

Dr. Silke Meyer

Assistant Professor at the Department of Folklore and European Ethnology,
University of Münster

‘In God we trust, all others must pay cash’
The Cultural Logic of Credit and Exchange

Abstract: Bad banks, toxic credits and exceeding debts are keywords in the contemporary financial crisis. And as soon as times and stocks are bad, the failing system of finances turns into a system of failing trust. Borrowing money is, after all, not merely an economic strategy but includes a cultural dimension as well. This cultural logic of credit is based on Marcel Mauss ’ idea of gift and exchange as social network. In my lecture, I will explore historical and contemporary practices of credit and debts from conspicuous consumption and social obligations to symbolic capital and credit as signs and symbols of distinction.

Silke Meyer has studied European Ethnology and Folklore, Art History and English Literature at the universities of Tübingen, Sheffield and Münster. In 2002, she received her PhD from Münster University with an iconographic study of national stereotypes in eighteenth-century prints and caricatures. Her current research project examines the social meaning of money and credit as cultural practice.

Time:  15:00 -16:30
Place: Meertens Instituut, Symposiumzaal
For more information Peter Jan Margry, Tel. 020 – 4628551
Registration: peter.jan.margry@meertens.knaw.nl