Chapter 6 Flashcards
what is economic anthro?
how people produce, exchange, consume material objects and the role that immaterial things play in efforts to secure livelihood
what are key distinctions of economics from economic anthro?
- focuses primarily on market exchanges
- decisions made and how they interact in the marketplace
- assumes people know what they want and economic choices express wants which are defined by culture
- normative theory (specifies how people should act if they want to make efficient economic decisions)
what are key distinctions of economic anthro from economics?
- self-interested decision-making
- social science (looks at what we do and why)
- assumes agency to act on own desires and that we don’t know what we want
what are the 3 phases of economic activity?
- production
- exchange
- consumption
what is the definition of modes of production?
social relations through which human labour is used to transform energy from nature using tools, skills, organization, and knowledge
what are the 3 modes of production?
- domestic
- tributary
- capitalist
who did modes of production originate with?
Eric Wolf
who was Eric Wolf influenced by and how?
Karl Marx believed human consciousness is determined by basic human activity
what is domestic production?
labour organized by kinship relations
domestic production characterizes the lives of who?
foragers and small-scale subsistence farmers
what are subsistence farmers?
people who raise plants and animals for own consumption
what kind of social structure does domestic production have?
egalitarian
despite being egalitarian, what kind of inequality exists in domestic production?
age and gender inequalities
what is a metate?
grinding stone
what are the 3 key elements of domestic production?
- collective ownership of primary means of production
- lower rates of social domination
- sharing
what is a means of production?
resources used to produce goods in a society
what is tributary production?
social systems divided into classes of rulers and subjects where subjects produce for themselves and their families but also give a proportion to rulers as tribute
how are rulers determined in tributary production?
descent and/or military and political service
what does tributary production characterize?
capitalist, state-level societies
what are the 4 key features of tributary production?
- dominant units of production are communities organized around kinship relations
- state’s society depends on local communities and tributes are used by ruling class rather than exchanged
- relationships between subjects and rulers are often conflictual
- politically-controlled production
what is capitalist production?
workers sell labour and are separated from means production because private property is owned by the capitalist test
when did capitalist production begin?
17th and 18th centuries
what is the most recent mode of production?
capitalist production
how often do we engage in diverse economic practices everyday?
everyday
why do capitalists keep wages low?
to sell products for more than it costs to produce them so that a surplus is generated for profit or reinvestment in production to generate more surplus
what is fair trade?
trading partnership based on seeking greater equity in trade
what is an informal economy?
economy not regulated by the state
what is a saulala?
secondhand clothing markets in Zambia
what is a saulala in Zambia example of?
an informal economy
in modes of exchange, what is the difference between economics and economic anthro?
economic anthro is able to explain reciprocity and redistribution whereas economics is able to understand markets