THE DOUBLE HELIX OF EXCHANGE: A CULTURAL-OPPOSITIONAL MODEL OF “PROFIT” AND “LOSS”
Keywords:
economic anthropology, cultural semiotics, profit and loss, moral economy, binary opposition, value theoryAbstract
This article proposes a cultural-oppositional model for understanding the concepts of “profit” and “loss,” arguing that their significance extends far beyond economic calculation into the realms of morality, identity, and social semiotics. Drawing on economic anthropology and cultural theory, the analysis deconstructs the binary as a core symbolic axis that structures Western thought. The model reveals three interconnected layers of opposition: the moral encoding of the ledger, where spiritual value can invert material outcomes; the semiotics of the balance sheet, where selfhood is constructed through the language of assets and deficits; and the logic of the negative, which frames loss as the dramatic precondition that sanctifies profit. The article demonstrates that this binary does not neutrally measure value but performatively produces it, embedding a volatile heroism of risk into the cultural psyche. Ultimately, it calls for a critical displacement of this oppositional model to recover notions of value based on inalienable wealth and communal thriving that exist beyond the zero-sum arithmetic of loss and gain
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