Wari Matters

Money, or wari as it is commonly known across the Mande region, matters and it matters in complex and important ways. The international contributors to this volume further the agenda pioneered by Guyer and colleagues in Money Matters: Instability, Values and Social Payments in the Modern History of West Africa (1995). The chapters draw on extensive field research in the region to offer theoretically compelling and ethnographically nuanced perspectives on the practical and conceptual integration of currency into the lives of contemporary West African people. Stephen Wooten is assistant professor of international studies at the University of Oregon.