Category Archives: Notes on ‘Value and Worthlessness’

In Value and Worthlessness, Kalb has set out to do something that nobody has attempted to do since the 1970s. He develops a programmatic line of Marxist research in anthropology and outlines a conceptual toolbox that binds together political economy, social history, and ethnography. In this feature Jaume Franquesa, Sharryn Kasmir and Ida Susser, three leading US-based Marxist anthropologists, wrote down the reflections on the book they shared during the launch of Value and Worthlessness at the 2025 AAA annual meeting. In the texts gathered in this feature, each of them celebrates the book while extending it in a distinct direction. Kasmir theorizes Kalb’s ethnographic method as “Marxian intimacy,” Susser presses him to take counter-hegemonic culture and processes of commoning more seriously, and Franquesa salutes the book as a courageous manifesto that equips Marxist anthropologists with vocabulary and purpose.

Sharryn Kasmir: Marxian Intimacy

Don Kalb first sent me Value and Worthlessness: The Rise of the Populist Right and Other Disruptions in the Anthropology of Capitalism in manuscript form. I had read most of the chapters in their original publications and welcomed the chance to revisit familiar arguments and scenes. What I did not anticipate was the emotional force […]

Jaume Franquesa: For an anthropology of capitalism

Having the opportunity to say a few words about the work of an esteemed colleague and an intellectual reference like Don Kalb is a rare privilege. Value and worthlessness: The rise of the populist right and other disruptions in the anthropology of capitalism is a fantastic book, worthy of discussion and celebration. It compiles some […]

Stefan Voicu: Huffing and Puffing with a Marxist Anthropologist

This text is not about the huffing and puffing you would expect. Although Don Kalb is Dutch, his new book, Value and Worthlessness: The Rise of the Populist Right and Other Disruptions in the Anthropology of Capitalism is about a different kind of huffing and puffing. Kalb borrows this expression from E.P. Thompson to foreground […]

Stefan Voicu: Notes on ‘Value and Worthlessness’: Introduction

In Value and Worthlessness, Kalb has set out to do something that nobody has attempted to do since the 1970s. He develops a programmatic line of Marxist research in anthropology and outlines a conceptual toolbox that binds together political economy, social history, and ethnography. In this feature Jaume Franquesa, Sharryn Kasmir and Ida Susser, three […]