Economic Systems

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CHAPTER 19

• Economic Systems

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Chapter Preview

• How Do Anthropologists Study Economic Systems?
• How Do Different Societies Organize Their
  Economic Resources and Labor?
• How and Why Are Goods Exchanged and
  Redistributed?

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Economic Systems

• Despite the complexity of the culture, all
  cultures have some form of an economic system
  because they all have some form of subsistence.
• All cultures have a means of producing,
  distributing, and consuming goods.

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The Yam Complex in Trobriand Culture

• Trobriand Island men devote a great deal of time
  and energy to raising yams, not for themselves
  but to give to others ( sisters and married
  daughters).
• The yams which switch hands from the women to
  their respective husbands is to show ones
  respect for her husband.
• The more yams a man has in his yam house the
  higher his status because it shows he is well
  respected and liked.

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Control of Land Water Resources

• The access to land and fresh water is naturally a
  resource all living people must obtain.
• Some societies have private ownership of these
  resources where as others divide them up among
  who has occupied that land the longest.
• We will examine all modes of subsistence by their
  control of land and water.

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Food Foraging

• Land is usually control by kinship groups rather
  than an individual.
• All bands will have their own territory an area
  they occupy that is considered theirs.
• Food foragers determine who will hunt game and
  gather plants in their home range and where these
  activities take place.

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Food Producing

• Pastoralists require a system that determines
  rights to watering places and grazing land for
  their animals. Often land will be divided up
  based on watering holes.
• Farmers (agricultural) must have some means of
  determining title to land and access to water for
  irrigation.
• Small scale farmers generally own land on lease
  and must pay tribute to the chief of the tribe
  who is said to own the land.

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Industrial

• In Western capitalist societies, private
  ownership of land and rights to natural resources
  generally prevails.
• This is also based on the individual not the
  group as it might be for foraging and some
  producing societies.

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Technology Resources

• Similar to economic systems all societies will
  have some form of technology which is best
  described as tools and other material equipment,
  together with the knowledge of how to make and
  use them.
• Technology complexity can vary among groups but
  one thing is important technological advances are
  relative to the society in which they are found.

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Technology

• Food foragers and patoralists who are nomadic
  have fewer and simpler tools than sedentary
  farmers. In fact the average member of the
  Ju/hoansi owns about 25lbs of possessions per
  member!
• The primary tools for horticulturists include the
  axe, digging stick, and hoe.

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Division of of Labor

• Despite variations of labor patterns cross
  culturally it can be said that every society has
  a division of labor by gender and age at the very
  minimum.
• There are three documented patterns of labor by
  gender
• Flexible/integrated pattern
• Segregated pattern
• Dual sex Configuration

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Flexible/Integrated Pattern

• Seen most frequently among food foragers.
• 35 of tasks are performed equally by men and
  women.
• Tasks considered appropriate for one gender may
  be performed by the other without the loss of
  face.
• Boys and girls grow up in much the same way and
  learn to value cooperation over competition.

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Segregated Pattern

• Common to pastoral, intensive agricultural, and
  industrial societies.
• Almost all work is defined as masculine or
  feminine.
• Men and women rarely engage in joint efforts and
  do not help one another.
• Both boys and girls are raised primarily by
  women. After puberty boys will spend most time
  with adult men and girls with adult women.

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Dual Sex Configuration

• Seen among some Native American tribes.
• Men and women carry out their work separately.
• The relationship is one of balanced
  complimentarily rather than inequality.
• Each gender manages its own affairs, and the
  interests of both men and women are represented
  at all levels.

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Division of Labor by Age

• Typical to have a division by age in all
  societies although it varies greatly.
• Food foraging societies such as the Ju/hoansi do
  not expect children to contribute to subsistence
  until their late teens. Elders will also retire
  around the age of 60.

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• In some farming communities both children and
  elders are expected to contribute to the group or
  household. Girls among the Mayan peasant groups
  may begin to do housework and watch younger
  children around the age of 7 or 8 years old.
• Industrial societies may also find younger
  children and elders working in factories to help
  support their families.

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Reciprocity

• There are three main forms of reciprocity which
  one mode of distribution.
• Generalized - The value of what is given is not
  calculated and repayment is not specified.
• Balanced -A direct obligation to reciprocate in
  equal value for the relationship to continue.
• Negative - The giver tries to get the better of
  the deal.
• What do you see most in your culture?

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The Kula Ring

• Form of Balanced Reciprocity
• The ceremonial trading of shell necklaces and
  armbands in the Kula ring encourages trade
  throughout Melanesia.

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Barter

• Bartering occurs when two or more partners from
  different groups negotiate a direct exchange of
  one trade good for another.
• Often this transaction can turn hostile of both
  parties are not in agreement- thus similar to
  negative reciprocity.
• As each party seeks to get the best possible
  deal, both may negotiate until a balance has been
  reached where each feels satisfied at having
  achieved the better of the deal.

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Trade

• Silent trade or bartering with no verbal
  communication may be common due to a lack of a
  common language between neighboring groups.
• Allows for the maintenance of solidarity between
  allies and the building of such allies.

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Redistribution

• Redistribution is the form of exchange in which
  goods flow into a central place where they are
  sorted, counted, and reallocated.
• Redistribution involves a certain amount of power
  and control.
• In societies with a surplus to support some sort
  of government, goods in the form of gifts,
  tribute, taxes, and the spoils of war are
  gathered into storehouses controlled by a chief
  or some other type of leader.
• From there, they are handed out again.

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Motives in Redistributing Income

• The leadership by the chief or person in charge
  of redistribution has three motives in
  redistribution
• Gain or maintain a position of superiority
  through a display of wealth and generosity.
• Assure those who support the leadership an
  adequate standard of living by providing them
  with desired goods.
• Establish alliances with leaders of other groups
  by hosting them at lavish parties and giving them
  valuable goods.

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Gaining Status Prestige

• Conspicuous consumption- a term coined by
  Thorstein Veblen to describe the display of
  wealth for social prestige. This is a way to gain
  social status without actually distributing
  anything.
• Potlatches on the other hand are a form of
  conspicuous consumption where a village chief
  will give away his goods (food) to his people in
  a showy displace of his wealth.

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Gaining Status Prestige

• Potlatches often compel others in the society to
  also give away goods by hosting a public feast so
  that no one person accumulates more wealth than
  another. These are called leveling mechanisms.
• One last method of gaining status and prestige is
  prestige economy. The main difference between
  this and conspicuous consumption is that mass
  wealth is obtained for the purpose of giving it
  away to others.

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Market Exchange

• Buying and selling of goods and services, with
  prices set by rules of supply and demand is known
  as Market Exchange.
• Prices are set on the basis of supply and demand.
  Often money may be used although it is not
  necessary as in some non-industrial societies.
  Other goods may be used for barter/ trade.
• Money is defined as something used to make
  payments for goods and services as well as to
  measure their value.
• The wide range of things that have been used as
  money in one or another society includes salt,
  shells, stones, beads, feathers, fur, bones, and
  teeth.

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Informal Economy (Black Market)

• The production of marketable commodities that for
  various reasons escape enumeration, regulation,
  or any other sort of public monitoring or
  auditing.
• Examples of goods or services that may be
  obtained on this type of market
• Child care, house cleaning, gardening, alcohol,
  drugs, prostitution, illegal labor, gambling,
  etc.