The course examines capitalism as unevenly formed clusters of cultural practices and belief systems. In this seminar, we will analyze the social and cultural aspects of value and exchange, and compare various forms of capitalism. Some of the fundamental principles and practices of the capitalist system entail contradictions, tensions and enigmatic conventions. While these tensions generate debates as well as many social problems, in everyday life these foundational ideas and practices are often left unquestioned. For instance: How is the equivalence of exchange assumed in a market? How does money work? How does a thing become a commodity? How is "value" produced? We will bring in anthropological modes of inquiry in order to analyze the social and cultural specificities of ideas and practices that support capitalism, and to examine how people engage and disengage with these ideas and practices. We will investigate how capitalist and other forms of social interaction co-exist, compete with, and transform one another. Specific attention will be paid to the social and historical context in which particular forms of capitalism have emerged.