Consumption and exchange Flashcards
consumption
persons intake in terms of each ways of using things, output is spending and using resources to obtain those things. ex- intake: eating a sandwich, outtake: spending money to buy sandwich
mode of consumption
dominant patterns in a culture of using things up and spending resources to satisfy demand
changes in more of production
more consumption
entitlement bunds
through entitlements( own lands, money) people provide for consumption. culturally defined right to life sustaining resources
direct- entitlement bunds
most secure form, produces food for foraging societies. ex owning land. agricultural societies- owning land and producing food.
indirect (capitalist)
riskier, exchange to maintain, industrial societies. ex welfare cheque. depend on exchanging something to obtain consumer needs (labour, money, food slams, animal hides). dependency on others or institutions, riskier bases of support
consumption inequalities
entitlement bunds- rights to life- sustaining resources
direct entitlements-
indirect entitlements-
global entitlement
.
national entitlement
.
modes of consumption- minimalism vs consumerism
wanting what you need vs wanting it as an end to itself
personalized vs depersonalized consumption
knowing where things come from vs
consumption funds
category of personal or household budget used to provide for consumption demands.
household budgeting
household expedentures and who they are spent on depend on decision maker. male and female budgetary control, male and female pooling system, non pooling system
taboos
rule of prohibition. forbidden
mode of exchange
unbalanced exchange-market system- gambling/theft
balanced exchange- reciprocity- generalized (pure gift)
redistribution- movement of goods as form of wealth (potlatch, moka, canadian tax system). dominant way in culture. transferring goods, services and other items between and among other people groups
what is exchanged
material and symbolic goods, labour, money, rights in people
1st theory on exchange
exchange creates network and provides security
2nd theory on exchange
exchange leads and perpetuates slice inequalities
potlach
a feast in which the host lavishes the guests with abundant quantities of the best foods (fish oil, cranberries, seal meat, ceremonial wooden boxes) and many gifts. (embroiled blankets, carved wood boxes, mats, canoed, food)
scarcity and surplus
smooth variation. more surplus=sponsor potlatch leaner years=guests
mode of consumption
intake and output. dominant way in culture of using up goods and services. relationship between demand and supply
consume
food, beverages, food, shelter, tools, weapons, transportation, computers, books, items of communication, art, luxury goods, energy.
foragers
spend on money based time and labour. economies- cash and virtual form of money
minimalism
finite needs of satisfying those needs and sustaining.characterized by few and limited consumer demand and adequate and sustainable means to achieve them. most characteristics of free-ranging foragers but also found to some degree among horticulturalists and pastoralists
consumerism
infinite needs and inability to satisfy all needs. peoples demand are many and infinite. lack of sustainability. means of satisfying them are never sufficient, driving colonialism, globalization and other forms of expansionism. distinguishing feature of industrialization and informatics cultures, globalization is spending consumerism through the world.
environment and biological species of diversity: natural features, (rivers, lakes, forests, mountain, beaches, non-human primates, oil, gold, diamond, species
worlds cultural diversity: people who live in environments being destroyed by consumerism, people currently occupy tropical rainforests, circumpolar regions, deserts, mountain areas). small scale societies: foragers, horticulturalists, pastoralists- consumption items produced by consumers themselves for own use. if not: produced by people when consumer has personal, face-to-face relationship (personalized consumption). multinational corporations manage production of most goods in industrialized countries
leveling mechanisms
unwritten culturally embedded rules preventing an individual from becoming wealthier or more powerful than anyone, social pressure gossip. all societies
social organization- meaning of consumption
vary cross-culturally. foragers- egalitarian. sharing is normal, share meat, clothing, beads, musical instruments, smoking pipes.
agricultural and industrialists and informatics societies- social inequality
the poor anywhere
people whose real and relative incomes place them in poverty and experience an even-wideneing gap between themselves, well-off and super-rich
depersonalized consumption
distancing consumers from workers who produce good exploitation possibilities. people who know where and who produced products, constants markedly with consumption in contemporary globalized world. (apples grown locally). not replaced personalized consumption
multi-sourced
parts assembled in diverse parts of the world by hundred of unknown workers
consumption funds relevant universally
basic needs fund (free-ranging foragers)- food, beverages, shelter. clothing, fuel, tools, involved in producing or providing for them
recurrent costs fund (2nd foragers)- maintenance and repair of tools, animals, shelter, machinery
entertainment funds- leisure activities
rent and tax fund- payments to landowners or governments for use of land, housing
consumption funds budget to each
civic responsibilities- varies in relation to mode of consumption
consumption budgets in consumerist cultures
absolute size of budget is larger. agricultural and industrial societies work longer hours and spend more time and labour providing for consumption .
spending
time, labour and money
class position
weekly cash budgets worth more than their earnings due to stored wealth
size of consumption funds
varies in household budges cross-culturally
largest share of budget
rent and tax fund. entertainment fund larger than ceremonial fund
entitlement
culturally deformed right to provide one life’s needs. (explains why some groups suffer more than others during famine) everyone has a set and bundle of entitlements
during times of economic decline
indirect entitlements are more vulnerable to inpoverism, hunger, forced displacement
entitlements cross-culturally
vary depending on economic systems
foraging- same entitlement bundle (direct)
industrial capitalist societies (indirect)
highly monetized society
large and steady cash income (good job) home ownership, savings, stocks, bonds, retirement fund all equal to most powerful entitlements
international entitlements
expose contrasts between countries with secure and direct access to life-supporting resources
food surplus
equals more secure entitlement
good crops to cash crops, plants grown for sale
indirect entitlements
most countries
direct entitlements, lack access to political resources and use political force, leaves out political power, direct access to energy sources preferable to indirect
state level
governments affect peoples entitlements through policies like employment welfare program, health care. tax structures
political leaders, powerful policy makers
how people will live in poverty and how many people will live in poverty and how many people will be able to become rich and super-rich. Decide or decide not to fund programs that transfer wealth from rich to poor or opposite
intrahousehold entitlements
do not always provide equal entitlements for all members ex. employed, earns wages= more secure position) commonly men have more secure entitlements than women. inheritance practices ensures certain children, more commonly boys, receive assets like land or family business, while others are excluded (women), affects distribution of food and health care.
crises
entitlement structures become glaringly clear. ex. overpopulation, natural disasters not causes
consumption categories
class, gender, age, race. influence entitlement buds and ways of consuming resources.
consumption patterns
rarely consequence of one factor, shaped by affiliation with multiple and intersecting groups determining entitlement bunds and ways of consuming resources. ex. inequalities affecting welfare
class
game of distraction (israeli birthday parties)
class differences
level income reflected in distinctive consumption patters. constitute an important and growing are in anthropology ex. art-higher class-abstract, working class- closer to necessity, realist art. weddings and birthday parties, many individual and wider social movements actively resist spread of upper-class consumption patters, promoting alternate cultural practices
gender and deadly food, kuru eating deceased
consumption patterns marked by gender are related to discrimination and inequality (quantities of food, alcoholic beverages). mens food and women’s food
race and living in africville
racial differences in consumption and welfare exist. access to housing, access by blacks to housing in integrated neighbourhoods-limited to tendency of whites to move out when blacks move in. destruction of community are racially motivated, seek redress for injustices of immunity destruction and relocation
age and consumption patterns
characteristic consumption patterns culturally shaped. foods- infants, children, adolescents, adults. ages=more critical and unique. nutritional needs, category with declining quality of consumption. age affects everyone, wealth can protect from certain kinds of marginalization and deprivation
community care programs
community based care, long-term institutionalized care for income and access to health care
forbidden consumption-food taboos
culturally specific food taboos, rules about prohibited foods. cultural materialist vs symbolic meaning- centred theories
marvin harris food taboos
jewish and muslims-pigs. role of environmental factors during early hebrew times and function of this prohibition to fit local ecology.
systems of meaning- food taboos
what people eat, value of food as a way of communicating symbolic meaning and material conditions of life (hunger) mental categories provide psychological ordering of the world. anomalies and things not in category- reminders to people of moral problems and things to avoid.
pig taboo- contrasts sacred competences and purity with impurity and sinfulness to remind people of gods holiness responsibility towards god.
study food systems
consider material aspect of food practice and communicate and symbolic meaning to explain food prohibitions and preferences acknowledging there is more to food than eating
exchange
transfer or something. material or immaterial between at least 2 people, group or institution
what is exchanged
purely utilitarian, carry meaning, history social life
contemporary industrial society
money, major item of exchange. economy-monetized
non market economy
confronted with peculiar and mysterious meaning of money. Connected through globalization. money less important. time, labour, goods are prominent. money- replaced by other valued items of exchange
non-monetary exchange
exists in contemporary industrial societies (dinner parties-chips)
material goods
food- most common in daily life and ritual occasions
marriage- complex stages of gifts and counter gifts
alcoholic beverages- Juan fiesta
ritual exchange
contributing to social cohesion
symbolic goods
intangible values (scared myths, stones, sacred practices, rituals)
labour
contribute labour to other people on regular basis (seasonal agriculture/harvesting) or irregular basis (crisis rebuilding)
moral economy
labour sharing groups. no one keeps formal groups. Records on how much family puts in or takes out. Accounting- socially regulates group has sense of moral community based on trust and sharing ex. amish
money
cross culturally diverse form.
before-collected and made things, shared an exchanged.
medium of exchange that can be used for a variety of goods.
modern money- coins, bills, portable, divisible, uniform , recognizable, vulnerable to economic change (inflation) reduces its value. spreading throughout the world.
non monetary cultures adopt modern money in limited ways, all forms of money are symbolic
people
exchange in humans relegates humans to objects. ex. gaining control of other people and treating them as items of exchange (slavery, human trafficking) transform thousands of people into property to be bought, sold, used, abused, murdered (women objects in marriage).
incest taboo
rule preventing a man from marrying/cohabiting with his mother or sister. driving exchange of women among men. men do not have rights over women, they make their own choices in partners. women select grooms for daughters (controversial)
balanced exchange
equal value, social relationship, reinforce social in ties. System of transfers in which the goals is to either immediate or eventual balance in value
generalized reciprocity
transition involving at least 2 conspicuous sense of interest in material gain or thought of what might be received in return and when. (goods, services). main form of exchange between people who know and trust each other(foragers, close-kin, cross-cultural friends)
pure gift
something given with no expectation or thought of return. extreme form of generalized reciprocity. does not exist, one always gains good feeling of generosity, parental care- get it back later, return material or immaterial
expected reciprocity
exchange of approximately equal valued goofs and services between people of equal social status. Simultaneous, understanding of time period, time limit. more personal. ex. kula
redistribution
form of expected reciprocity, in which one collects goods and money from many members of group and provides social return at a later time. Centricity, possibility of inequity because what is returned might not be equal
unbalanced exchange
unequal, may or may not be social relationship. System of transfers in which 1 party attempts to make profit.
Globalization
security for securely entitled people, improves in low income countries
market exchange
may or may not be personal relationship. prominent form, buying and selling commodities under competitive conditions. Forces of supply snd demand determine value, seller seeks to make profit. overrides social relationship. less formal context of trade, formalized exchange of one thing for another according to set standards of value. Associated with regional specialization producing goods and trade between regions. informal (small stands) to huge multi-sourced shopping centres
periodic market
goods, table awning, site for being and selling takes place on a regular basis, particular location without physical structure
permanent markets
built structures in fixed location
market places
social interactions, needs performances, solicit customers, meet and chat government officials stop by, religious organizations, traditional healers. particularities of market structures spatially and socially, how culture shoes market transactions- rich topics of ethnographic research.
other forms of unbalances research
more likely in large scale, culturally complex societies. transfer of goods, with no equivalent return
gambling (gaming)
attempt to make profit by playing a game of chance win a certain item of value sneaked to win a much larger return if you win. if you lose what is staked is lost. Ancient practice, common cross-culturally, casino capitalism- on the high
theft
taking something with no expectation thought of returning anything to original owner for it. logical opposite of pure gift (children food stealing) looting expresses deep-seated resentment abut economic discrimination, links uprising to domain if crime, prison. motivated by greed, no permission to study criminal and dangerous activity
exploitation
getting something of greater value for less in return: persistent, extreme, unbalanced exchange (slavery) social relationships involving substantial unequal exchange exist between members of different social groups inkling no evert coercion, certain degree of return. Some degree of covert compulsion and dependence ill key to be present to endure relationships of unequal exchange. ex eye (forest goods) and else (cultivated goods)
changing patterns of consumption and exchange
local cultures adopt and adapt to global patterns of consumption and exchange and sometimes resist them..
basic needs fund
major approach to measurement of absolute poverty in developing countries. Defines absolute minimum resources necessary for long-term physical well bring in terms or consumption goods.
ceremonial fund
resources allocated for maintenance of social structure as a peasant society
