Download
1 / 66
1.46k likes | 3.52k Views
Economic Anthropology. Cross-cultural study of the production , distribution , and consumption of goods and services. Production. How people organize their work Preindustrial society divide labor by: Gender Age In Industrial societies, detail labor (labor split into subparts).
E N D
Economic Anthropology Cross-cultural study of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Production • How people organize their work • Preindustrial society divide labor by: • Gender • Age • In Industrial societies, detail labor (labor split into subparts)
Distribution • Once produced, goods and services must be distributed • Three ways by which goods are distributed • Reciprocity: direct exchange of goods and services • Redistribution: Flow of goods and services to central authority, then returned in different form • Market Exchange: buying and selling through price mechanism • Ex: Yanomamo: trade is part of political alliance
Consumption Access to goods and services
Economic System • The part of society that deals with production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services • The way production is organized has consequences for the family and the political system • Economics is embedded in the social process and cultural patterns
Marcel MaussThe Gift (1925) • Laid the foundation for economic anthropology • Mauss noted that a gift is never free; it entails three obligations: • To give • To receive • To reciprocate
Obligations of Gift Exchange • Obligation to give: • To extend social ties to other person or groups • Obligation to receive: • To accept relationship • Refusal: • Rejection of offered relationship • Induces hostilities • Obligation to repay • Failure to repay renders one a beggar
Types of Reciprocity: Generalized • Reciprocity: people’s informal exchange of goods and services, and labor • Generalized Reciprocity: Generalized reciprocity is the exchange of goods and services without keeping track of their exact value, but often with the expectation that their value will balance out over time. • Ex: meat distribution among the !Kung • Ex: Parents providing for children • Kids expected to care for parents in the future, love them, give grandkids, etc • Example: family pooling of resources • Ex: birthday presents • Usually occurs among close kin
Kula Ring Exchange A pattern of exchange among many trading partners in the Trobriands and other South Pacific islands Participants travel at times hundreds of miles by canoe in order to exchange Kula valuables which consist of red shell-disc necklaces that are traded to the north (circling the ring in clockwise direction) and white shell armbands that are traded in the southern direction (circling counterclockwise)
Generalized Reciprocity: Whaling • Inuit whale hunting involves 10 to 15 boats • The first 8 boats to harpoon the whale receive stipulated portions of the meat • The captain of the first boat gives the shaman a narrow strip cut from the belly between the 8th boat’s strip and the genitals • The top of the head is cut up and eaten at once by everyone in the village • Portions of the tail are saved for feasting in the spring and autumn
Types of Reciprocity: Balanced • Balanced Reciprocity: occurs when someone gives to someone else, expecting a fair and tangible return - at a specified amount, time, and place. • Ex: Selling surplus food • Sell food when ripe / ready… known price for food per pound, package, etc. • Ex: • trading of baseball cards • holding of dinner parties • buying a round of drinks • Usually occurs among distant kin
Types of Reciprocity: Negative • Negative Reciprocity: an exchange where one party tries to get the better of the exchange from the other party • Examples: • Hard bargaining or deception • Bartering • Gambling • Stealing • Selling used cars • Selling prepared food to a captive market • Usually occurs among unrelated persons
Redistribution • Process where goods and services flow to a strong central authority (king, chief, government, kinship based leadership) where they are sorted, counted, and reallocated according to culturally specific principles • Impersonal and occurs without regard to the social position of the participants. • When this is the key economic institution, social and political goals are less important than financial goals. • Ex: • Pure communism (commune, monastery, early Christianity) • Government programs and services • Ex: Potlatch • a competitive giveaway practiced by the Kwakiutl and other groups of the northwest coast of North America • Ex: Taxes • Redistribution of resources occurs where these resources are allocated back to individuals or groups within society either through the provision of public services or directly through welfare benefits.
Redistribution Leveling mechanism is a practice, value, or form of social organization that evens out wealth within a society. Cargo system is a ritual system common in Central and South America in which wealthy people are required to hold a series of costly ceremonial offices.
Potlatch • A potlatch is a gift-giving festival and primary economic system practiced by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States • At potlatch gatherings, a family or hereditary leader hosts guests in their family's house and holds a feast for their guests. • The main purpose of the potlatch is the re-distribution and reciprocity of wealth. • Within it, hierarchical relations within and between clans, villages, and nations, are observed and reinforced through the distribution or sometimes destruction of wealth, dance performances, and other ceremonies. The status of any given family is raised not by who has the most resources, but by who distribute the most resources. • It equalizes the distribution of produce and confers prestige on those who give it. • Creates reciprocal obligations with those who receive • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_gYjQw9Bf4
Blankets, the dominant potlatch item in the late nineteenth-century, are shown piled high in preparation for giving.
Alert Bay potlatch showing masks, bracelets and kitchen utensils on display under strung bolts of fabric
The “Big Men” of New Guinea Surplus economic resources – especially pigs – are accumulated and then distributed as gifts Giving pigs increases the personal prestige and political influence of the giver – the “Big Man” Creates obligation among those that receive it
Market Exchange • Exchange of goods among many buyers and sellers directly, by barter, or indirectly, by money and pricing • Ex: Yoruba market in Nigeria; Haitian market woman • Markets include: • Crowds of buyers and sellers • Instant information on prices • Freedom of market entry and exit
Market Exchange • Buying and selling of goods and services • Prices set by supply and demand • Usually happens at specific times and places • Money exchanged instead of goods
Market Economy: Formal and Informal Sectors • That which is counted in the GNP (gross national product) is the formal sector. • In much of Third World, formal sector accounts for less than half of the economy. • Economic activities that aren’t counted in the GNP are in the informal sector: • Ex: • prostitution • flea markets • drug trade • bake sales • Illegal immigrant labor
Capitalism • Economic system • People work for wages. • Land and capital goods are privately owned. • Capital is invested for individual profit. • A small part of the population owns most of the resources or capital goods.
Division of Labor By Gender Universal characteristic of society In foraging societies, men generally hunt and women generally gather In agricultural societies, both men and women play important roles in food production
Division of Labor: Craft Specialization / Detail Labor • With intensive cultivation more people can devote full time to specialized crafts • Craft Specialization • Knowledge extends to all aspects of a given craft • Individual Assembly • Detail Labor • Industrialization • Work on one specific part of assembly • Which is more efficient in pin production? • One man cutting wire, pointing pin, putting head on it, whiting it, and papering it • Or five me, one on each task?
Industrial Production System Detail labor involves breaking each task down to its subtasks in production Assigning each subtask to each individual and ordering each individual how to do each subtask.
Effects: Globalized Division of Labor • Has enabled globalization of production • Labor intensive tasks sent to Third World • Such as leatherworking operation in Ecuador • Result: downsizing and plant closures • Ex: Mexican maquiladoras close • As low wages in China and Bangladesh draw factories there
Economic Inequality Inequality of wealth grows as society becomes more complex
If All of the Wealth of the U.S. were Represented by $100 and the Population were 100 people: 1 person would have $38.10 4 people would have 5.32 each 5 people would have 2.30 each 10 people would have 1.25 each 20 people would have .60 each 20 people would have .23 each 40 people would have ½ cent each
Warren Buffet, the World’s Fourth Richest Man • Income: $46 million last year • Tax rate: 17.7 % • His secretary earned $60,000 and paid at the 30 % rate
Lifestyles of the Superwealthy Mirage Villas, Las Vegas, 4,500 square feet of luxury for only $4,500 per night
Check It Out: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Gg5BnIkDs • The Villas at the Caesars are even nicer— 8,800 sq ft for only $40,000 a night:
Life of the Super Rich http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFAvvk9gM9U
Bill Gates’ Net Worth: 2010 Over $50 billion in Microsoft stock, and an annual income of about $176 million $30 to $40 billion that he has donated to his own charity, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, which is currently his main work. Compare this with the average net worth of the top 1 percent – only $14.8 million.
