week 3: economics and exchange

Question 1

emic perspective

Answer 1

• Perspective of people in the “studied” culture
• What insiders think about their culture; their view
  The subjective perspective (?)

Question 1

etic frameworks

Answer 1

• Perspective of the observer, the anthropologist, anthropology
• Analytical framework and tools used by outsiders to learn about a particular culture or to make comparisons
• The objective perspective (?)
• About the anthropologist, the outsider
• Outsider point of view; tied to interpretation, comparison, universal

Question 2

what is unfree labour

Answer 2

an all- encompassing term for the formalized coercion of men, women, and children (through need or violence) to provide their labour. Such labour can range from migrant work to sex slavery to the use of children as soldiers

Question 3

what are the 3 economic models based on different assumptions of human nature?

Self-interested, social, and moral

Answer 3

self-interested: □ Individuals are interested in their own well-being
How individuals maximize their utility under conditions of scarcity: when resources are not enough to obtain all necessary goods
Social mode
How people form groups and exercise power
Focus should be on institutions, which are stable and enduring cultural practices that organize social life
Moral model
Human motivation is shaped by culturally specific belief systems and values

Question 4

what are subsistence strategies

Answer 4

the patterns of production, distribution, and consumption that members of a society use to meet their basic material and survival needs

Question 5

3 types of agriculture (extensive, intensive, mechanized industrial)

Answer 5

Extensive agriculture: depends on slash and burn techniques, rainwater, human muscle power, hoes
Intensive agriculture: employs plows, draft animals, irrigation, ro bring more land under cultivation at once
Mechanized industrial agriculture: large-scale farming

Question 6

3 phases of economic activity (production, distribution, consumption)

Answer 6

Production:
§ the transformation of nature’s raw materials into a form suitable for human use
Distribution:
§ allocation of goods and services
Consumption:
using up material goods necessary for human survival

Question 7

wolf’s 3 modes of production

Answer 7

1. The kin-ordered mode in which social labour is deployed on the basis of kinship relations
2. The tributary mode in which the primary producer, whether cultivator or herdsman, is allowed access to the means of production while tribute is exacted from him by political or military means
3. The capitalist mode
   Private property owned by a capitalist class
   Workers sell their labour to others, are separate from the means of production
   Keep wages low in order to sell products for more than it costs to produce
   Generates a surplus