Chapter 6

Question 1

agriculture

Answer 1

a subsistence system that requires constant and intensive use of permanent fields for plant cultivation.

Question 2

articulation

Answer 2

the strategic use of several modes of subsistence at the same time.

Question 3

balanced reciprocity

Answer 3

a form of exchange in which roughly equivalent goods or services are exchanged immediately, or within a relatively short amount of time, with or without the use of money.

Question 4

biomass

Answer 4

all living things, plants and animals, contained in and supported by a particular area of land.

Question 5

economic anthropology

Answer 5

the study of how people meet needs through production, exchange, and consumption.

Question 6

ethnocide

Answer 6

the death of a culture when its members shift to a different way of life, even as the people group survives.

Question 7

exchange systems

Answer 7

social processes by which people give and receive goods and services.

Question 8

exchange systems

Answer 8

social processes by which people give and receive goods and services.

Question 9

extensive farming

Answer 9

farming practices that involve putting relatively little energy into the land for the calories extracted.

Question 10

fissioning

Answer 10

splitting a group into numerous smaller groups. A practice used by foragers to maintain group size and reduce interpersonal conflict.

Question 11

fissioning

Answer 11

splitting a group into numerous smaller groups. A practice used by foragers to maintain group size and reduce interpersonal conflict.

Question 12

foraging

Answer 12

a subsistence strategy based on gathering plants that grow wild in the environment and hunting available animals.

Question 13

formalist theory

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

generalized reciprocity

Answer 14

a form of exchange involving gift exchanges with no precise accounting of value and no precise expectation for type or time of return.

Question 15

genocide

Answer 15

the systematic killing of most members of a culture.

Question 16

horticulture

Answer 16

a subsistence strategy in which people cultivate varieties of wild or domesticated crops, primarily for their own use, using relatively little technology.

Question 17

intensive farming

Answer 17

agricultural or horticultural techniques that directly replenish the nutrients in the soil, producing marginally higher crop yields.

Question 18

leveling mechanism

Answer 18

a redistribution process that reduces social inequality.

Question 19

market economy

Answer 19

a system of exchange in which people exchange their labor (physical, mental, creative, etc.) for money, which is exchanged for goods and services.

Question 20

monocropping

Answer 20

growing one species of plant in a garden or field.

Question 21

multicropping

Answer 21

growing several species of plants in a single garden.

Question 22

negative reciprocity

Answer 22

a form of exchange in which one or both parties seek to receive more than they give.

Question 23

nomadic pastoralism

Answer 23

a form of pastoralism that involves moving animals in response to food and water supply.

Question 24

pastoralism

Answer 24

a subsistence strategy based on the use of domesticated herd animals.

Question 25

potlatch

Answer 25

a form of redistribution and exchange traditionally practiced by Pacific Northwest Native American groups.

Question 26

production

Answer 26

any human action intended to convert resources in the environment into food.