Introduction to an anthropology of wealth

In this special issue, we ask what meaning should be attributed to a concept of wealth. We think there are good reasons for looking closely at the concept, first of all because we are often led to believe that wealth is something to which most of us do not have access. But while people tend to think it is not within their reach, the lesson from anthropology has been that wealth is actually at the core of ordinary life and its relational reproduction, and we will argue that this insight is still important. Once we get the concept of wealth back in our analytical grasp, we can also begin to see how it is exploited and distanced by the financial world and appreciate the tensions between the various forces that pull at it.