Chapter 11 Flashcards
social organization
The patterning of human interdependence in a given society through the actions and decisions of its members.
economic anthropology
The part of the discipline of anthropology that debates issues of human nature that relate directly to the decisions of daily life and making a living.
institutions
Complex, variable, and enduring forms of cultural practices that organize social life.
neoclassical economic theory
A formal attempt to explain the workings of capitalist enterprise, with particular attention to distribution.
capitalism
An economic system dominated by the supply—demand—price mechanism called the “market”; an entire way of life that grew in response to and in service of that market.
status
A particular social position in a group.
gift exchanges
Noncapitalist forms of economic exchange that are deeply embedded in social relations and always require a return gift.
commodity exchanges
Impersonal economic exchanges typical of the capitalist market in which goods are exchanged for cash and exchange partners need have nothing further to do with one another.
modes of exchange
Patterns according to which distribution takes place: reciprocity, redistribution, and market exchange.
reciprocity
The exchange of goods and services of equal value. Anthropologists distinguish three forms of reciprocity: generalized, in which neither the time nor the value of the return is specified; balanced, in which a return of equal value is expected within a specified time limit; and negative, in which parties to the exchange hope to get something for nothing.
redistribution
A mode of exchange that requires some form of centralized social organization to receive economic contributions from all members of the group and to redistribute them in such a way as to provide for every group member.
market exchange
The exchange of goods (trade) calculated in terms of a multipurpose medium of exchange and standard of value (money) and carried out by means of a supply—demand—price mechanism (the market).
labor
The activity linking human social groups to the material world around them; from the point of view of Karl Marx, labor is therefore always social labor.
**mode of production
A specific, historically occurring set of social relations through which labor is deployed to wrest energy from nature by means of tools, skills, organization, and knowledge. See pg 324!!!!
**means of production
The tools, skills, organization, and knowledge used to extract energy from nature.
