PURIPURI AND WITCHCRAFT—SOMETIMES IT’S NOT RATIONAL TO MAXIMIZE PROFITS.

PURIPURI AND WITCHCRAFT—SOMETIMES IT’S NOT RATIONAL TO MAXIMIZE PROFITS. Keir Martin, an anthropologist, explains in this article in the Financial Times why some farmers in Papua, New Guinea, do not plant all their land even though they would make more money by doing so. Martin says that government workers and development officials often say that they are “lazy or stupid.” Martin’s explanation is expressed by a farmer who plants only half his land: “If they see me planting too much cocoa, they’ll do things to my land and my family, and they won’t bear fruit; really bad things; puripuri and other witchcraft.” Martin thinks that the Papua example proves that it is wrong to assume economic rationality. I think that it is economically rational not to do something that will put your land and your family in jeopardy.