Ch. 6 Production and Exchange Terms Flashcards
agriculture
a subsistence system that requires constant and intensive use of permanent fields for plant cultivation
articulation
the strategic use of several modes of subsistence at the same time
balanced reciprocity
a form of exchange in which roughly equivalent good or services are exchanged immediately, or within a relatively short amount of time, with or without the use of money
biomass
all living things, plants and animals, contained in and supported by a particular area of land
economic anthropology
the study of how people meet needs through production, exchange, and consumption
ethnocide
the death of a culture when its members shift to a different way of life, even as the people group survives
exchange systems
social processes by which people give and receive goods and services
extensive farming
farming practices that involve putting relatively little energy into the land for the calories extracted
fissioning
- splitting a group into numerous smaller groups
- a practice used by foragers to maintain group size and reduce interpersonal conflict
foraging (hunting and gathering)
a subsistence strategy based on gathering plants that grow wild in the environment and hunting available animals
formalist theory
an economic theory that teaches that the logic people use to pursue economic goals is culturally universal and can be explained by universal economic models
generalized reciprocity
a form of exchange involving gift exchanges with no precise accounting of value and no precise expectation for type or time of return
genocide
the systematic killing of most members of a culture
horticulture
a subsistence strategy in which people cultivate varieties of wild or domesticated crops, primarily for their own use, using relatively little technology
intensive farming
agricultural or horticultural techniques that directly replenish the nutrients in the soil, producing marginally higher crop yields
leveling mechanism
a redistribution process that reduces social inequality
market economy
a system of exchange in which people exchange their labor (physical, mental, creative, etc) for money, which is exchanged for goods and services
monocropping
growing one species of plant in a garden or field
multicropping
growing several species of plants in a single garden
negative reciprocity
a form of exchange in which one or both parties seek to receive more than they give
nomadic pastoralism
a form of pastoralism that involves moving animals in response to food and water supply
pastoralism
a subsistence strategy based on the use of domesticated herd animals
potlatch
a form of redistribution and exchange traditionally practiced by Pacific Northwest Native American groups
production
any human action intended to convert resources in the environment into food
property rights
the cultural understanding that some family or person has a right to the land and crops into which labor has been invested
redistribution
a system of exchange in which a centralized authority collects goods and services from a group of people and redistributes them
subsistence farming
growing food exclusively, or at least primarily, for consumption by one’s own family or group
subsistence strategy (mode of subsistence)
a culturally created means of securing food
substantivist theory
an economic theory that teaches that economic behavior and motivations vary by culture
swidden farming (shifting cultivation or slash-and-burn)
a form of horticulture involving the clearing and burning of a section of forest for cultivation, and after some time, moving on to a new forest space
transhumant pastoralism
the practice of moving herds seasonally between high meadows in the summer and human settlements in the winter
usufruct rights
- an understanding of property rights in which a plot of land “belongs” to the person or family using it
- when they are done using it, their rights to the land end
