Introduction: Anthropological Perspectives on Health, Money, Commerce, and Wealth

As was the case with volume 41 of Research in Economic Anthropology (REA), the present installment is appearing more than a year later than originally expected, also due to effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on academia, on ethnographic research, and on scholarly writing and publishing. (Volume 42 was guest-edited and did not stem from a general call for papers.) Although somewhat smaller than the average for REA, this volume addresses a wide range of topics that are central to economic anthropology and has an equally broad geographic perspective, with articles grounded in fieldwork undertaken in West Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. Money, commerce, and wealth emerge as major topics of concern, and health, work, and uncertainty receive more attention in certain essays. The volume is expected to leave its mark in the ever-unfolding REA narrative.