ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discusses the major theoretical issues. The first issue concerns the types of explanations and models that can be developed by anthropologists studying economies and economic behavior. The second issue concerns the relationship between individual choice and institutional constraint in an economic system. The third issue concerns the practical problems of constructing social scientific knowledge in the American agricultural system where powerful players seek to shape knowledge creation to meet the interests of a few. Finally, the fourth issue concerns how the study of American agriculture can emerge from its preoccupations with classification to merge with the more holistic interests of anthropology of institutions. 'Networks' provide the basis for a broadly organic form of economic explanation in which both the behavior of individuals and the role of the institutions are united.
