Economic Anthropology

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Economic Anthropology
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What is Economic Anthropology?
At the most basic, economic anthropology is the
description and analysis of economic life, using
an anthropological perspective (Carrier 20051)
Tomato seller on African marketGhanaian Market
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Economic
Word economics comes from Greek
word Oikonomikos Oikos means household Root nem,
means to regulate, administer, and organize
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A societys economy consists of

• Production
• Distribution/ Exchange
• Consumption

• Economics is the study of production,
  distribution, exchange, and consumption of
  resources.

• Economic Life the activities through which people
  produce, circulate and consume things

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Economizing and Maximization
Classical economic theory assumes that
individuals universally act rationally, by
economizing to maximize profits, but comparative
data shows that people frequently respond to
other motivations than profit
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• economic anthropologists tend to situate
  productive activities and forms of exchange and
  consumption, in larger social and cultural
  frames, in order to see how they affect and are
  affected by other areas of life.

In some societies artistic styles are the
property of certain kinship groups. Only member
of the kin group are allowed to produce them.
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The Trobrianders produce far more yams than they
can ever eat and often simply allow them to rot.
Why?
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Exchange
The act of giving or taking one thing in return
for another The transfer of things between
social actors
What kinds of things are exchanged?
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• the communicative exchange of language (culture)
• the exchange of goods
• the exchange of spouses.

Exchange is a key to social life Exchange is
important for the establishment and maintenance
of social relationships
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Patterns of exchange and circulation, lead us to
the heart of social and cultural organization  
WHO exchange relationships WHAT what is the
significance and meaning of what is
exchanged WHERE what is the significance and
meaning of where it is exchanged WHEN on what
occasions WHY social reasons HOW ceremony,
mechanisms
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WHAT IS A GIFT?

• What kinds of gifts are there?
• Who do we give gifts to?
• When do we give gifts?
• How do we give gifts?
• Why do we give gifts?

Botticelli 1486 Giovanna degli Albizzi Receiving
a Gift of Flowers from Venus
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IS THERE ANY SUCH THING AS A FREE GIFT?
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• What are the consequences of not reciprocating?

• Are there bonds of obligation?
• Is there some competitiveness involved in gift
  giving?
• How do we feel when we havent received a gift
  of at least equal value?
• What if the gift returned is of higher value?

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If Friends make gifts, Gifts Make
Friends Marcel Mauss
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Marcel Mauss 1925 The Gift The Form and Reason
for Exchange in Archaic Societies
Mauss points to three fields of obligation to
give, to receive and to repay Gifts, according to
Mauss, create relationships not only between
individuals but between groups, relationships
which take the form of total prestations
1872 - 1950
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The Potlatch A form of ceremonial exchange of
gifts employed by indigenous groups on NW coast
of BC (Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian and Kwakiutl
(Kwakwaka'wakw))
Described at length by Franz Boas in 1897 in The
Social Organisation and the Secret Societies of
the Kwakiutl Indians
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Aboriginally, The Kwakiutl, were very rich and
their fishing grounds supplied them with
considerable surplus Beginning of summer they
dispersed to go hunting, gather roots and
berries, fish for salmon in the rivers At the
onset of winter they concentrated in small
villages During this period social life became
extremely intense
E.S. Curtis, 1915
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"Interior of Habitation at Nootka Sound"John
Webber (British), April 1778
The Kwakiutl house is constructed of cedar boards
on a framework of heavy logs. The ridge extends
from front to back, the roof-boards run from
ridge to eave, and the wall boards are
perpendicular.
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POTLATCH The word means to feed or to
consume

• held in connection with events in the life cycle,
  initiations, marriages, house building, funerals,
  assumption of certain dance privileges.
• extravagant and lavish preparations including
  much food preparation and the creation of masks
  and art work are made by the host as gifts for
  the guests

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The most central symbol of wealth, power and
prestige is the copper, a shield-shaped plate of
beaten copper that usually has a painted or
engraved representation of a crest animal on its
surface. Contemporary coppers as well as older
ones frequently bear animal names - Sea Lion,
Beaver face - probably referring to the crest of
their original owners.
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The Kwakiutl chief Tulthidi prepares to give away
his valuable copper in honor of his son
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Broken copperTsimshian Gitsan, British
ColumbiaCollected by G.T. Emmons, prior to 1914
Chilkat Blanket" 1890-1900, Tlingit
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• Because of all the gifts, a traditional potlatch
  took years to prepare

• A large potlatch held in 1921 was said to take 17
  years of preparation
• A modern day potlatch may take about a year to
  prepare and cost 10,000.

C. 1900
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Today potlatch gifts include coffee mugs, socks,
hand knit blankets and clothes, as well as carved
masks and murals
Parties, as they are now sometimes called,
commemorate a significant event in an extended
family's or clan's collective life. They are held
today for baby showers, namings, weddings,
anniversaries, special birthdays, graduations,
and as memorials for the dead
Twined grass basketNootka/Makah, British
Columbia/Washington
Cedar carrying basket with handles
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Why would they spend years accumulating wealth
only to give it away - or even throw the objects
into the sea?
Potlatch at Fort Rupert, British Columbia, 1898
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Social Significance

• potlatch celebrations are a significant
  representation of the host's status and the
  display of rank and title
• In return for giving away food and wealth they
  get recognition of their status and that of their
  lineage.

• Marriages for ones children and places in the
  brotherhoods are only won during the potlatch

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• Potlatches become very competitive
• aspiring leaders use competitive potlatching to
  move up the system.
• The potlatch is a system of gift exchange---
  material goods are exchanged for social
  recognition and power

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The obligation to give
The obligation to receive The obligation to
reciprocate
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What rule of legality and self-interest, in
societies of a backward or archaic type, compels
the gift that has been received to be
obligatorily reciprocated? What power resides in
the object given that causes its recipient to pay
it back? (Mauss 1925)
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• Prestation
• Also includes reciprocity and the various
  obligations
• total social phenomenon
• It is not individuals but collectives that
  impose obligations of exchange and contract upon
  each other
• What is exchanged is not solely property and
  wealth

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• Thomas and Jane Carlyles Christmas Presents
• Renowned 19th century English historian and
  essayist
• Spent Christmas in the 1850s with Lord and Lady
  Ashburton (wealthy Scottish banker)

Lord and Lady Ashburton
Thomas and Jane Carlyle
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• In 1851 The Ashburtons gave Christmas presents
  to the Carlyles
• Mrs Carlyle got a scarf and a bracelet
• Thomas got a jigsaw puzzle
• both were well received

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• In 1855 Mrs Carlyle received a black silk dress -
  A novelty because it was only recently that they
  were produced by machine
• Mrs Carlyle claimed that she was being insulted.

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What do we have to know to be able to understand
those meanings attributed to these gifts?

• class,
• social mobility,
• matrimony,
• patronage,
• employment,
• manufacturing processes,
• issues of style,
• conventions of gift-giving.

• Gift Exchange operates not according to market
  laws, but the social rules of power, symbol,
  convention, etiquette, ritual, role and status.
• Exchange (at least gift giving) is embedded in
  social life

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Raffia Cloth among the Lele (Zaire)
The movement of raffia cloth among the Lele is
another example of the mediation of status by
goods. Younger men need raffia to marry.  But
raffia is made and controlled by older men.  In
order to have access to raffia and hence
marriage, younger men need the social approval of
older men. Since more raffia is required to marry
than any one man can produce, it takes community
approval to marry. In modern economy, men can
gain access to raffia through wage labor.  This
undercuts authority of elders and leads to
charges of the selling of brides.
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Economic Anthropology

• Substantivist
• -economic affairs are embedded in social
  institutions and cannot be studied separately
  from other social institutions social structures
• kinship system
• political structure
• religious ideologies
• -people in nonindustrial economies function with
  different logic than capitalist economies.
  Exchanges occur for reasons other than economic
  benefit
• culturally unique values
• group benefits
• rational culturally relative

• Formalists
• maximization of personal gain
• supply-demand relationships
• rational decision-making
• individual self interest
• economy can be analyzed independent of other
  social structures and institutions
• research tools of western economics applicable

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Karl Polanyi Divided economies into three types
according to the dominant mode of distribution
reciprocity-- The return of a gift or
prestation redistribution -- collection from
members of a group and then redistribution within
this group. E.g. tribute, taxes market
--involves money and profit
1886-1964
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Marshal Sahlins Stone Age Economics (1972)

• A material transaction is usually a momentary
  episode in a continuous social relation.
• The social relation governs the nature of the
  immediate exchange and the flow of goods
• Sahlins suggests that there are 3 types of
  reciprocity that form a continuum that correlates
  with kinship and social distance.

1930-
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Reciprocity exchange between social equals

• Generalized
• Balanced
• Negative

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• Generalized reciprocity
• e.g. gifts, or sharing, helping, generosity.
• between close kin and friends
• highly moral no expectation of return
• Generalized reciprocity is correlated with
• Rank
• relative wealth and need
• food
• Geographic distance

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Balanced reciprocity

• return expected
• delayed exchange
• maintains ties with more distant people
• A precise balance between the things exchanged
• Important in e.g.. peace making death payments
  and marriage alliances.

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Kula Ring Balanced Reciprocity

• Kula Ring vast inter-island system of exchange
  of certain classes of ritual objects mens
  armbands and bracelets
• exchange within Massim linguistic group
• not a system of commercial trade in utilitarian
  objects (most islands self-sufficient in staple
  foods goods)
• objects acquired, displayed, and then passed on

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(No Transcript)
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Like the crown jewels, their value is
symbolic There is no practical utility Each
valuable has its own name and history Owning
them provides the owner prestige and pride
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Vaygua Kula Valuables

• assessed for their value based on size, colour,
  and how well they are polished or finished
• shells increase in value with age and both men
  and shells gain prestige in their association
  with one another

• man may gain fame and notoriety for having
  possessed a particularly fine armband
• similarly, a necklace may be highly regarded for
  having been owned by a great man

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• Temporary ownership allowed men to draw a great
  deal of renown, to exhibit the article to tell
  how it is obtained and to plan on whom he is
  going to give it
• This history and renown was the main source of
  their value
• Main principle underlying regulations of exchange
  is that the of bestowing a ceremonial gift, which
  has to be repaid by an equivalent counter-gift
  after a lapse of time, be it a few hours or years
• A form of credit. implies a high degree of
  trust and commercial honour

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• at each meeting, visiting partner bestows gift
  on home partner
• the same object that he received from his other
  partner a few months or years earlier
• over time, value (rarity) of objects exchanged
  increases, as does renown of the partners

necklaces
A
B
D
C
armbands
A
B
D
C
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• Kula Ring had been cited as an example of the
  economic irrationality of savages
• took great risks for fanciful ends
• not survival or commerce, but to obtain baubles
  
• pursued out of sheer habit
• the Kula Ring is a vital institution which
  contributes to the security and continuity of
  Massim cultures
• needs to be seen within the total context of
  Massim society
• ripped out of context, it appears irrational,
  savage

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How does the kula differ from classic economic
ideas?

• Exchange is not done freely
• Not based on need since the aim is to exchange
  articles that serve no utilitarian purpose
• No prices mechanism
• Value not determined by supply and demand

what makes the kula an economic exchange?
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Negative Reciprocity

• less common
• impersonal, distrustful
• not based on ongoing social relations
• exchange without money
• taking items by force

Haggling at the market of Riobamba, Ecuador
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Reciprocity Generalized Balanced Negative

• value unspecified
• return not immediate
• long term view
• no gratitude expected
• Creating AND satisfying
• obligations

• Equal value
• Expectation of
• immediate return
• Similar to trade or
• barter
• Common in more
• distant kin relationships

• Personal gain
• is primary motivator
• something for
• nothing
• - haggling
• - bargaining
• - theft/seizure
• - cheating

Self Interest
Prevalence in band societies
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social distance determines the nature of the
exchange
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Redistribution
Exchange among social unequals

• centralized accumulation and reallocation of
  wealth (taxes, tributes, tithes, spoils)
• maintain power, superior status (internally)
• keep constituents happy, maintain standard of
  living
• use wealth to leverage power (externally)
• leveling mechanisms
• typical mode of exchange in chiefdoms and some
  non-industrial states

These workers in Yunnan Province, China, strive
for an equal distribution of meat.
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Redistribution in Western Society
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Market exchange

• value preset by impersonal market forces
• exchange occurs presumably independent of and
  uninfluenced by social relations

• usually involves money, a widely agreed on
  abstract symbol used to measure value