Formalism and Substantivism Flashcards
What is the ethnographic example from gudeman and what year was it in?
1986 the Iban in Malaysia and Indonesia continue to use hand knives rather than sickles to harvest rice as they believe that using sickles means that the spirit leaves the plant
When does Firth write?
1965
What does Firth argue 1961
Firth is a formalist. He applies economic logical to the Tikopia island, where he says that they are conscious of scarce resource and of their expanding population. Despite the fact that there is no monetary system, their gift exchange is still fulfilling a social want so it is rational
What is the problem with the formalist firth’s argument?
He overlooks the core of gift exchange. Under formalism, people would always try to get more and more. The bonito hooks are rare and highly prized, yet people do not make them
What paradox does the Kula offer?
Whilst people in western societies have to exchange to subsist , in the trobriand islanders they have to exchange to be social and so it presents the inverse of what neoclassical economics is designed for
Is Dalton a formalist or a substantivist?
substantivist
Where did Dalton do his work?
Rossel Islands
What is the core of Dalton’s work?
In the Rossel islands they have a system of coins which can be used for payment for pigs and crops. Armstrong concluded that this was capitalist money, but less efficient. In reality, Dalton rightly acknowledges that they serve the capacity of non-cermonial exchange.
What does Dalton’s work highlight?
The problems of assuming certain approaches before an ethnography.
How can you label this debate?
Polemic
Who started it?
Polanyi 1957
Where was this debate played out?
The journal Research in Economic Anthropology
Basically what do formalists believe?
That you can apply neoclassical rationale to every society
What model, importantly, do formalists put a lot of emphasis on?
Rational choice model
What do the formalists believe that every society has?
Rational behaviour
What assumptions does formalism rest on?
Scarcity and a separate economic sphere
Give three examples of formalists
Burling, firth and schneider
Give three examples of substantivists
Dalton, Bohannon and Sahlins
Rather than seeing a separate economy, what do those such as Dalton, Bohannon and Sahlins see?
Economy as embedded within social institutions
Subsatnivists belive what?
That one cannot pre-suppose rationality/scarcity
What is the substantives unit of analysis?
The whole society, rather than merely individuals within it
What does formalism appeal to?
Post-enlightenment Global north understandings of what is universal
Who is useful for thinking the debate?
Gudeman 1986
Gudeman 1986 is described as what?
either an extreme substantivist or a culturalist
What is Gudeman’s argument?
That in order to understand an economy we need to understand how people themselves see the economy
What mistakes, according to Gudeman, have both the formalists and the substantivists made?
They have exported a western understanding of economic model
How else can you think beyond the debate, other than Gudeman?
Ecological anthropology
What does Ecological anthropology stress?
connections between humans and their environment
How does ecological anthropology work to integrate the two positions?
Stresses the formalist idea of limits with the substantivist idea of a broad, non-market idea of economic activities.
What is the debate really about?
The lens through which society is viewed
What does Mayhew argue and when do they argue it?
1980 argues The debate to be a product of confusion of a mutual misunderstanding of positions.
What does ELardo 2015 argue?
That they were talking past each other, going for an exclusive domain
Can time be considered scarce for the Wola?
No
What is the most important thing that Wilks highlights 2007?
Because those people traditionally studied are now increasingly integrated into global market economics, it does not matter if the substantivist position is right or not, it is no longer relevant.
What is the flip side of the globalisation counter argument to the substantivist position?
Formal economics does not even fit the global north
What concept supports the idea that Formal economics does not even fit the global north?
david grabber everyday communism
Apart from the previously discussed criticism, what other 2 criticisms does Will 2007 bring out?
1) Formalists wrongly think substantivists equate maximisation and markets. Even love and lesuire can be maximised
2) Formalists also wrongly think that substantivists ignored the fact that everywhere there are rational people working for goals.
What is the work of Dalton called and when in the Rossel Islands?
Primitive Money 1965
