Economic Systems Flashcards
What is an economic system?
It is the patterned way in which the goods are produced, distributes, and consumed in the society.
- Human relationships –> resources, negotiation, organization of labour.
What is economic activity?
- social process
- culturally constructed
What is economics?
The study of the ways in which the choices people make (as group or individuals) determine their society’s use of its scarce resources to produce and distribute goods and services.
The idea of___is a fundamental assumption of Western microeconomic theory.
scarcity
What are three assumptions of Western economy?
1) needs and wants (larger the we realize)
2) get as much as we can
3) cannot satisfy wants fully because of scarcity of resources
What s economizing behaviour?
Choosing a course of action that pursues the perceived maximum benefit.
- How to most optimize your work. Quick and effective
- path towards most effective outcome
- less time consuming
What is benefit acc. to Dalton (1961)?
material well-being and profit
What is prestige linked to?
accumulation of wealth
What is the difference between Ju’hoansi vs. Westerns with the idea of prestige?
Boasting (Western) vs. Humility (Ju’hoansi)
What serves as wealth and prestige in Troiband societies?
yams
What does production relay on?
-religes on the availability of resources
What are the three types of resources?
- basic resources (land, water, raw materials)
- labour
- technology
What do societies have that regulate access to and control over the basic resources as well as control and organization of labour.
rules and norms
What is the level of access to the resources an important characters of?
an economic system
What are the resources of foragers?
weapons and tools, land and water
How do foragers gain access to resources?
through membership in bands loosely based on kinship links
What is the relationship of foragers to the land?
right of access
What is the relationship of Ju’hoansi to the land?
- water holes belong to certain families
- relationship between group and land
- women walk about 12 miles (~20 km) per day to gather
- leader discussing permitting another group to work in their territory –> intense conversation
- no ‘real’ property
- difficulty saying ‘no’
Why are foraging bands kept small?
to ensure land is not exploited
What are pastoralist resources?
livestock and land
How do pastoralists gain access to resources?
through membership in corporate kin groups
What is the relationship of pastoralists to the land, as in, how do they gain access to the land?
- in contemporary context, through contract with land owners
How do pastoralists gain access to livestock?
right of ownership, owned by family heads
Do resources increase or decrease when you go from foragers to pastoralists?
grow
How is a pastoralist society more regimented than a foraging society?
- genealogical groups
- male dominated social structure and relationships
- kinship group regulates access to resources
True or False: access to land in pastoralist societies has to be negotiated.
true
What are the resources of horticulturalists?
tools, land and water, and storage facilities
How do horticulturalists gain access to resources?
through membership in kinship
What is the relationship of land with horticulturalist?
land: right of collective ownership
Why are horticulturalists more tempted to define reaction to land?
- collective ownership…invent labour in land…labour is investment.
What was the ability to store food with horticulturalists important for?
human evolution
What are the resources of intensive agriculturalists?
land, water, raw materials, technology, labour, technological knowledge
How do intensive agriculturalists gain access to resources?
ownership of resources may be limited to a small group
What is the relationship to land with intensive agriculturalists?
land: right of ownership by right of sale and within the limits of the law
What type of society is intensive agriculturalists?
stratified and diversified
Do owners of land in intensive agriculturalists societies usual work the land too? What other way can land be own?
- no, they rent it out
- ownership can also be institutionalized (ex. certain religious institutions)
Why do intensive agriculturalist need many children?
larger families because children are critical labour fore
How did land change with intensive agriculturalists?
- land becoming capitol
- selling land
- defined in terms of it being capitol
- idea that you can buy and sell land
- economic value, capitol, surplus
- expansion
What 2 things may depletion of resources lead to? Examples for both.
1) economic decline
- ex. fishing cod off Newfoundland ( 1950s-1990s)
2) collapse of the civilization
- ex. Easter Island (400 AD - 1700s)
What is the basic unit of production and consumption in small scale economies?
a household or extended kin
True of False: There is no distinction between food gathering and food producing.
False
Food fathering: small scale economy
Food producing: large scale economy
What is household?
Group of people united by kinship or other links who share a residence and organize production, consumption,and distribution among themselves.
Is household relevant to small or large scale societies? Why?
- relevant to small-scale societies because e not much takes place outside the household
- element of distribution
What is the basic unit of production in large scale economies?
business firm
What is a business firm?
An institution composed of kin and/or non-kin and organized primarily for financial gain.
How are individuals rited to firm?
Through sale of their labour for wages.
What is the division of labour in every society?
Every society ahas a division of labor by gender and age.
What is the benefit of division of gender?
makes learning more efficient
What is the benefit of division by age?
provides sufficient time to developing skills
What led to skills specialization?
emergence of agriculture
-specialization in large-scale societies
Why is is s necessity to divide labour by gender?
- physiological necessity
- nature facture figures in because of this
What is cultigen?
- women are more responsible for cultivated food
- men more free
What happened when we discovered grain?
Women became more an more dependent.
- women more concerned with growing food produced within the household
- men put effort into raising crops that went out into the market –> no immediately consumed within household
- challenge for women’s labour to be seen as prestigious. Women have become less independent.
What are three patterns of work by gender?
1) flexible/integrated pattern
2) rigid segregation patter
3) dual sex pattern
What percent of tasks are performed equally by men and women in foraging and horticulturalist societies?
35%
How do boys grow up in horticulturalist and foraging societies?
boys and girls grow up in much the same way and learn to value cooperation over competition
True or false: in foraging and horticulturalist societies, tasks deemed appropriate for one gender may be performed by the other.
true
How is work divided in pastoral nomadic, intensive agricultural and industrial societies?
almost all work is defined as masculine or feminine and men and women rarely engage in joint efforts
In pastoral nomadic, intensive agricultural, and industrial societies, who raises children?
both boy sand girls are raised primarily by women
How is labour divided in some North American Aboriginal cultures and som West African kingdoms?
- men and women carry out their work separately
- the relationship is one of balanced complementarity rather than inequality
- each gender manages its own affairs, and the interests of both men ad women are represent at all levels
What are the 3 parts of distribution?
- reciprocity
- redistribution
- market exchange
What three types of reciprocity?
- generalized
- balanced
- negative
What is generalized reciprocity?
The value of what is given is not calculated and repayment is not specified .
Where is generalized reciprocity usually carried out?
among close kin, highest degree of moral obligation
What is - gift giving in Canada - Inuit bear hunting - Ju/' necklaces as gifts examples of?
generalized reciprocity
What is balanced reciprocity?
an exchange of goods of nearly equal value with a clear obligation to return them within a specific period of time
Where is balanced reciprocity common?
typical of friends or members of different tribes in the settings without market economies
What is the Kula ring an example of?
THIS IS ON TEST SO DON’T SKIMP OUT
- Balanced reciprocity
- Trobriand Islands
- Soulava, long necklaces make of red shell move clockwise
- Mwali, bracelets of white shell, move counterclockwise
What is negative reciprocity?
- the giver tries to get the better of the deal
- bargaining
- unsociable extreme in exchange
What are theft, gambling, cheating, and bargaining examples of?
negative reciprocity
Where is negative reciprocity common?
exchange between strangers or peoples hostile to one another
What is an example of a group that practices negative reciprocity?
navajo trading fracties
- to deceive when trading with outsiders is morally accepted practice
What is redistribution?
A form of exchange: goods are collected from or contributed by embers of a group and them redistributed to the group, often in the form of ceremonial feasts
Where is redistribution typical?
- household food sharing
- societies where political organization is the one of chiefdoms (chiefs as social centres)
- state societies, through taxation
What was the Inca Empire known for having?
The most sophisticated tax system of its time
What form of redistribution is common among pacific northwest groups, Tshmshan, Tlingit, Haida, Nootka, Bella Coola, and Kwakwaka’ wakw?
potlatch
What is market exchange?
An economic system in which goods and services are brought and sold at a money price determined primarily by the forces of supply and demand.
In market exchange, what is used as a measurement of value of exchange?
money
True of False: market exchange occurs without regard to the social status of participants?
true
What are the two kinds of market exchange?
1) tied to place (marketplace)
2) untied to place (ME); global market economy, global financial market
What are the two types of consumption?
- of food and beverages
- of goods and services (including art and entertainment)
What is an important level with consumption?
The level of consumption and “manufacturing of needs”
What are the three rituals of consumption?
1) culture specific
2) can be highly elaborate
3) speak about status, identity, power, hierarchy
Why are households relevant to call-scale economies?
Because not much takes place outside the household.
What is cultigen
Women more responsible for cultivate food. Men more free
What is rigid segregation?
Men partake in production of most important resources and women elevated into child care, less prestigious resource gathering.
- ex. pastoralists
What is flexible/integrated pattern of work by gender?
- boys and girls are not segregated into socialization
- no dominance of one gender over another
- common in pre-contact times
What is dual sex configuration?
- hierarchical yet complimentary
- stratified, yet relationship is not equal
What type of reciprocity is the Kula ring an example of?
balanced reciprocity
Is there an economic value with balanced reciprocity?
no
