First as adornment, then as money

To what extent do contemporary critical theories of money operate under the shadow of Rousseau’s sentimentalist horizon of natural equality corrupted by the advent of civilization? This article outlines a Derridean reading of Graeber’s and Wengrow’s recent anthropological study of prehistoric social formations in an effort to demonstrate the unacknowledged influence which Rousseau’s disdain for theatricality holds over many present-day assumptions about the social logic of money. In an attempt to repudiate the orthodox theory of money as a medium of exchange, these anthropologists equate the origin of money with a predilection for adornments and self-display. As soon as money becomes a problem of representation, however, the critical discourse immediately shifts towards an anti-theatrical lamentation for lost authenticity which necessarily rehearses the circular logic of Rousseau’s thought. Money ultimately becomes indistinguishable from sociality as such.