Chapter Six: Economic Systems

Economic Anthropology:
 Studying the economies of nonliterary peoples is where we are most likely
to fall prey to interpreting anthropological data in terms of our own
technologies, our own conceptions of work and property, and our own
determinations of what is rational.
 Conventional economists have come to appreciate the different ways of
approaching the fundamental economics of everyday life.
 To understand how the schedule of wants or demands of a given society is
balanced against the supply of goods and services available, it is necessary
to introduce a noneconomic variable – the anthropological variable of
culture.
 Economic System: The production, distributed, and consumption of goods.

Resources:
In every culture, customs and rules govern the kinds of work done, who does the
work, who controls the resources and tools, and how the work is accomplished.
The rules surrounding the use of resources are embedded in the culture and
determine the way the economy operates.
Patterns of Labour:
 Sexual Division Labour
o Whether men or women do a particular job varies from group to
group, but some types of work are more likely to be set apart as the
responsibility of either one sex or the other.
o “Women’s work” tends to include tasks carried-out near home.
o “Men’s work” tends to include tasks requiring strength, rapid burst of
energy, frequent travel away from home, and higher levels of risks
and danger.
o Instead of looking o biology to explain sexual division of labour, we
should look into cultural practices and historical factors. Researchers
found three configurations.
 Flexibility and sexual integration: Activities are generally
divided up evenly among sexes, some tasks are deemed
appropriate for one sex but may be performed by the other
sex without loss of face. Boys are girls are raised the same way.
  Rigid Segregation by sex: Almost all work is defined as either
masculine or feminine. As a result, men and women rarely
engage in joint efforts of any kind. Women usually raise the
children (both boys and girls), the encourage compliance in
their charge. At some point however, as the boys become
men, they must assert their male superiority over women to
prove themselves. Therefore, the roles end up reversed.
 Dual sex configuration: men and women carry out their work
separately but the relationship between the two sexes is
balanced rather that inequitable. Each sex manages their own
affairs and the interests of both men and women are
represented at all levels. Neither sex asserts dominance over
the other.
 Age Division of Labour:
o Typical among human cultures.
o Children are not expected to contribute to subsistence until they
reach their late teens.
o Around the age 60 “retirement” is considered. Elderly people are not
expected to contribute much, they often play an essential role in
spiritual and ritualistic matters. They also accumulate a lot of wisdom
through the years.
o Many large corporations in the world’s poorer countries are
dependent upon child labour. Children who are child labourers often
supply the main source of income in their families, making them the
main providers.
 Craft Specialization:
o In nonindustrial societies, each person in the society has knowledge
and competence in all aspects of work appropriate to his or her age
and sex.
o In industrial societies, many more specialized tasks are performed
and no individual can begin to learn them all.
o In foragers, there may be one man for crafts their arrow tip better
than others.
 Control of Land:
o All cultures have regulations that determine the way land resources
are allocated.
 o In industrial societies, a system of private ownership of land and
rights to natural resources generally prevails.
o In nonindustrial societies, land is often controlled by kinship groups
such as the lineage or band, rather than by individuals.
o Agriculture raises the stakes for landownership, bringing with it more
secure forms of tenure.
Technology: Tools and other material equipment, together with the knowledge
of how to make and use them.
 All societies have some means of creating and allocating the tools and
other artifacts used for producing goods and for passing them on to the
succeeding generations.
 Among horticulturists, the axe, machete, a digging stick or hoe are the
primary tools.
 With the rise and spread of capitalism, outright ownership of complex tools
has become firmly entrenched.
 Rights to the ownership of complex tools are more rigidly applied; capital
purchases are normally enabled with bank loans, and failure to repay can
result in the bank repossessing the article.
Resource Depletion:
 The way people organize their productive activities is important to all
cultures, but what happens when resources become depleted or disappear
altogether?
 What are the social and economic implications for people who depend on
those resources?
 Marine Transhumance: Seasonal migration of people from one marine
resources to the next.

Distribution and Exchange:

In cultures without money as a medium of exchange, the rewards for labour are
usually direct. Even where no formal exchange medium exists, some distribution
of goods occurs. Three modes of human exchange:
 Reciprocity: The exchange of goods and services of approximately equal
value between two parties.
o Generalized Reciprocity: A mode of exchange in which the value of
the gift is not calculated, nor is the time of repayment specified.
 o Balanced Reciprocity: A mode of exchange whereby the giving and
the receiving are specific in terms of the value of the goods and the
time of their delivery.
o Negative Reciprocity: A form of exchange whereby the giver tries to
get the better of the exchange.
 Barter and Trade:
o A barter is usually a form of negative reciprocity, involving the of
scarce items from one group for desirable goods for another group.
Relative value is calculated, and despite an outward show of
indifference, sharp trading takes place.
o Silent Trade: A form of barter with no verbal communication. Used
when there is a lack of common language.
 Redistribution: A form of exchange in which goods flow into a central
place where they are sorted, counted, and reallocated.
o Distribution of Wealth
 Levelling mechanisms: A societal obligation compelling people
to redistribute goods so that no one accumulated more wealth
than anyone else.
 Conspicuous consumption: A term Thorstein Veblen coined to
describe the display of wealth for social prestige.
 Potlatch: A special celebration in which the people of a
community come together to enjoy elaborate feasts,
ceremonial dancing, and gift giving. The potlatch serves as an
opportunity for the chiefs to enhance their status with public
displays of generosity.
o Market Exchange: The buying and selling of goods and services, with
prices set by the powers of supply and demand.
 Money: Anything used to make payments for goods or labour
as well as to measure their value; may be special-purpose or
multipurpose.

Consumption: The ingestion of food and the exploitation of available

resources.
Economics, Culture, and The World of Business:
 Globalization: The process of opening up world markets using modern
technology.