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Abstract
This is our contribution to the project on Conversations between Anthropologists and
Economists, focusing on analysis of the Commons. The short note is in the form of a “talk and
response” exchange, coming as close to a conversation as it is possible to do on the printed page.
This is worth trying because most conversations in print turn out to be separate papers from
economists and anthropologists, brought together in a volume. We start by specifying what each
of us believes the Commons problem to be, and then, in perhaps a novel reversal, each of us
specifies the weaknesses of our discipline and the strengths of the other in analyzing the problem
as we have defined it. Finally, we discuss the way forward in light of the exchange.