Download Chapter 8 - International Institute of Anthropology

Chapter 8
Economics
What We Will Learn
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How do anthropologists study economic
systems cross-culturally?
How do people use culture to help them
adapt to their environment?
How are resources such as land and
property allocated in different cultures?
What principles of distribution are used in
various parts of the world?
Focus of Economics
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Production
Distribution
Consumption
Economic Anthropology
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Economics focuses on production,
distribution, and consumption within the
industrialized world.
Economic anthropology studies
production, distribution, and consumption
comparatively in all societies of the world,
industrialized and nonindustrialized.
Formal Economic Theorists
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Those economic anthropologists who
suggest that the ideas of Western
economics can be applied to any
economic situation.
Question
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The sub-discipline of ________ studies
production, distribution, and consumption
comparatively in all societies of the world,
industrialized and non-industrialized alike.
a) economic anthropology
b) cultural anthropology
c) applied anthropology
d) material culture
Answer: a
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The sub-discipline of economic
anthropology studies production,
distribution, and consumption
comparatively in all societies of the world,
industrialized and non-industrialized alike.
Cross-cultural Examination of
Economic Systems
1.
2.
3.
Regulation of resources: How land,
water, and natural resources are
controlled and allocated.
Production: How material resources
are converted into usable commodities.
Exchange: How the commodities are
distributed among the people of the
society.
Allocation of Resources
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Individual property
rights are strongly
valued and protected
in the United States,
but in some parts of
the world they are
more loosely defined.
Pastoralists and Resources
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Because this group of
East African
pastoralists treats
land as belonging to
everyone in the
society, you are not
likely to find any “No
Trespassing” signs
here.
Kikuyu and Resources
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During the colonial
period in Kenya, the
British failed to
understand that land
among the Kikuyu was
allocated according to
lineage membership and
had much more than
mere economic
importance.
Property Rights
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Western concept of individual ownership
(an idea unknown to some non-Western
cultures) in which a large kinship group,
instead of the individual, determines
limited rights to property.
Universalism
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Rewarding people on the basis of some
universally applied set of standards.
Particularism
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The propensity to deal with other people
based on one’s particular relationship to
them rather than according to a
universally applied set of standards.
Production
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A process whereby goods are obtained
from the natural environment and altered
to become consumable goods for society.
Religion and Food Production
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In Hindu India the
cow is sacred and
never killed for food.
This is an excellent
example of how a
religiously based food
prohibition can be
economically rational
as well.
Division of Labor
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Deciding which types of people will
perform which categories of work.
Every society, whether large or small,
distinguishes between the work
appropriate for men and women and for
adults and children.
Gender Specialization
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Women generally tend crops, gather wild
foods, care for children, prepare food,
clean house, fetch water, and collect
cooking fuel.
Men usually hunt, build houses, clear land
for cultivation, herd large animals, fish,
trap small animals, and serve as political
functionaries.
Theories of Gender
Specialization
1.
2.
3.
Because men have greater body mass
and strength, they are better equipped
physically to engage in hunting, warfare,
and land clearing.
Women do tasks that are compatible
with child care.
In terms of reproduction, men tend to be
more expendable than women.
Age Specialization
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usually become involved in work activities
at a considerably earlier age.
According to a study by the U.S.
Department of Labor, approximately 250
million children between the ages of 5 and
14 work throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin
America, and of these, nearly half work
full-time.
Child Labor
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These Pakistani children
are working full time in
an embroidery shop for
pennies a day rather
than going to school.
According to the
International Labor
Organization, there were
246 million children
between the ages of 5
and 17 in the workforce
worldwide in 2002.
Durkheim and Division of Labor
Two types of societies
• Mechanical solidarity - societies with a
minimum of labor specialization.
• Organic solidarity - highly specialized
societies, solidarity is based on mutual
interdependence.
Question
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Whether based simply on gender and
age, or more complex reasons, all
societies have established ________ to
allocate tasks.
a) divisions of labor
b) divisions of gender
c) age set categories
d) hierarchical roles
Answer: a
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Whether based simply on gender and
age, or more complex reasons, all
societies have established divisions of
labor to allocate tasks.
Question
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Lack of knowledge and physical strength
may be a reason for ________ division
of labor.
a) gender
b) age
c) specialization
d) hierarchical
Answer: b
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Lack of knowledge and physical strength
may be a reason for age division of labor.
Question
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The term ________ refers to social
solidarity resulting from increased labor
specialization and mutual
interdependence.
a) labor solidarity
b) organic solidarity
c) social solidarity
d) mechanical solidarity
Answer: b
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The term organic solidarity refers to
social solidarity resulting from increased
labor specialization and mutual
interdependence.
Modes of Distribution
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Reciprocity - The exchange of goods and
services of roughly equal value between two
trading partners.
Redistribution -Goods and services are given
to a central authority and reallocated to the
people according to a new pattern.
Market exchange - Involves the use of
standardized currencies to buy and sell goods
and services.
Three Kinds of Reciprocity
1.
2.
3.
Generalized - involves giving a gift without
any expectation of immediate return.
Balanced - exchange of goods and services
with the expectation that equivalent value will
be returned within a specific period of time.
Negative - exchange of goods and services
between equals in which the parties try to gain
an advantage.
Redistribution
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Goods are given to a central authority and
then given back to the people in a new
pattern.
Redistribution involves two distinct stages:
1.
An inward flow of goods and services to a
social center.
2.
An outward dispersal of these goods and
services back to society.
Big Men/big Women
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Self-made leaders, found
widely in Melanesia and
New Guinea, who
convince their followers
to contribute excess food
to provide feasts for the
followers of other big
men or big women.
Silent Trade
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A form of trading found in some smallscale societies in which the trading
partners avoid face-to-face contact.
Kula Ring
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A form of reciprocal trading found among
the Trobriand Islanders involving the use
of white shell necklaces and red shell
bracelets.
Trading
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These shell
necklaces and
bracelets have been
used for generations
to facilitate trade
among the Trobriand
Islands.
Bridewealth
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The transfer of goods from the groom’s
lineage to the bride’s lineage to legitimize
marriage.
Potlatch
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A form of competitive giveaway found
among Native Americans from the
Northwest Coast that serves as a
mechanism for both achieving social
status and distributing goods.
Potlatch
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Tlingit dancers in Alaska
pose in traditional
ceremonial attire (circa
1895) during a potlatch
ceremony, which serves
as a mechanism for
allocating social status
and distributing goods.
Market Exchange
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A form of distribution in which goods and
services are bought and sold and their value is
determined by supply and demand.
Standardized currency (money)
• A medium of exchange that has well-defined
and understood value.
Barter
• Direct exchange of commodities between
people that does not involve currency.
Question
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_______ refers to how commodities are
distributed among the people of a
society.
a) The regulation of resources
b) Allocation of resources
c) Production
d) Exchange
Answer: d
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Exchange refers to how commodities are
distributed among the people of a society.
Informal Economy
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This man selling
goods on the streets
of New York City
illustrates the
informal economy
operating in the
United States.
Globalization
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Since the 1980s the economies of the
world have become globalized.
Tariffs are lowered and trading is
deregulated.
Increased the gap between the haves and
the have-nots.
Globalization
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Protestors
demonstrate against
the abuses of
globalization at the
1999 meetings of the
World Trade
Organization in
Seattle.