Lecture 10: Economic Anthropology

Question 1

Adaptive strategy

Answer 1

means of making a living, productive system

Question 1

Cohen: five typologies of society

Answer 1

1. foraging
2. horticulture
3. agriculture
4. pastoralism
5. industrialism

Question 2

foraging economies rely on

Answer 2

nature

Question 3

foraging is declining because

Answer 3

the spread of the modern world system

Question 4

in which environment does foraging survive

Answer 4

in environments that posed major obstacles to food production

Question 5

correlation

Answer 5

association or covariation between two or more variables.

Question 6

band

Answer 6

basic social unit among foragers: fewer than 100 people who may split seasonally

Question 7

which people do mostly live in band-organized societies?

Answer 7

People who subsist by hunting, gathering, and fishing

Question 8

typicality foraging groups

Answer 8

mobile and flexible

Question 9

fictive kinship

Answer 9

personal relationships are modelled on kinship

All human societies have some kind of division of labour based on gender. All foragers make social distinctions based on age.

Question 10

Three adaptive strategies based on food production are seen in nonindustrial societies

Answer 10

1. Horticulture
2. Agriculture
3. Pastoralism

Question 11

horticulture

Answer 11

cultivation that makes intensive use of none of the factors of production: land, labour, capital, and machinery

Question 12

tools horticulture

Answer 12

horticulturists use simple tools

Question 13

fields horticulture

Answer 13

fields are not permanently cultivated: slash-and-burn cultivation and shifting cultivation

Question 14

agriculture

Answer 14

cultivation that requires more labour than horticulture does; uses land intensively and continuously

Question 15

typicalities agriculture

Answer 15

• domesticated animals
• irrigation
• terracing
• costs and benefits

Question 16

domesticated animals

Answer 16

many agriculturalists use animals as a means of production

Question 17

irrigation

Answer 17

cultivate the same plot year after year, capital investment that increases in value.

Question 18

terracing

Answer 18

the labour necessary to build and maintain a system of terraces is great

Question 19

costs and benefits agriculture

Answer 19

long-term yield per area is far greater and more dependable than horticulture and agricultural societies tend to be more densely populated than horticultural ones

Question 20

cultivation continuum

Answer 20

intermediate economies that combine horticultural and agricultural features. Horticulture always uses a fallow period; agriculture does not.

Question 21

intensification

Answer 21

intensive cultivators are sedentary. Agricultural economies grow increasingly specialised.

Question 22

what do agricultural economies pose

Answer 22

Agricultural economies pose a series of regulatory issues that central governments often have arisen to solve

Question 23

pastoralism

Answer 23

herders whose activities focus on such domesticated animals as cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and yaks

Question 24

pastoral nomadism

Answer 24

members of pastoral society follow herd throughout the year

Question 25

transhumance

Answer 25

part of group moves with herd; most stay in home village

Question 26

modes of production

Answer 26

1. mode of subsistence
2. mode of production
3. economy

Question 27

mode of subsistence

Answer 27

food production irrespective of property relations

Question 28

mode of production

Answer 28

way of organising production, set of social relations through which labour is deployed to wrest energy from nature using tools, skills, organization, and knowledge

Question 29

economy

Answer 29

system for the production, distribution and consumption of resources

Question 30

Production in nonindustrial societies

Answer 30

Division of economic labour related to age and gender is a cultural universal, but specific tasks assigned to each sex and age vary

Question 31

Means of production

Answer 31

Means, or factors, of production include land, labour, technology, and capital

Question 32

Means of production: land

Answer 32

Less permanent among foragers than for food producers. Among food producers, the rights to means of production also come through kinship and marriage

Question 33

Means of production: labor, tools and specialization

Answer 33

In nonindustrial societies, access to land and labour comes through social links.

Question 34

alienation in industrial economies

Answer 34

When factory workers produce for sale and for their employer’s profit, rather than for their own use, they may become alienated from the items they make.

Question 35

economizing

Answer 35

rational allocation of scarce means (or resources) to alternative ends. Classical economic theory assumes desires are infinite and means are limited

Question 36

alternative ends

Answer 36

People in various societies put their scarce resources toward building: subsistence fund, replacement fund, social fund, ceremonial fund

Question 37

What motivates people in different cultures to produce, distribute or exchange, and consume

Answer 37

• economizing
• alternative ends

Question 38

the market principle

Answer 38

buying, selling, and valuation are based on supply and demand. Bargaining is characteristic

Question 39

redistribution

Answer 39

flow of goods into a center, then back out, characteristic of chiefdoms.

Question 40

reciprocity

Answer 40

exchange between social equals, normally related by kinship, marriage, or close personal ties.

Question 41

three principles orienting exchanges

Answer 41

market principle, redistribution, reciprocity

Question 42

Different kinds of reciprocity

Answer 42

1. reciprocity continuum
2. generalized reciprocity
3. balanced reciprocity
4. negative reciprocity

Question 43

reciprocity continuum

Answer 43

running from generalized reciprocity (closely related/deferred return) to negative reciprocity (strangers/immediate return)

Question 44

generalized reciprocity

Answer 44

exchanges among closely related individuals

Question 45

balanced reciprocity

Answer 45

midpoint on reciprocity continuum, between generalized and negative reciprocity

Question 46

negative reciprocity

Answer 46

potentially hostile exchanges among strangers

Question 47

Coexistence of exchange principles

Answer 47

In western societies, the market principle governs most exchanges.

Also redistribution and generalized reciprocity.

Balanced reciprocity would be out of place in a foraging band.

Question 48

potlatch

Answer 48

festive event within regional exchange system among tribes of North Pacific Coast of North America.