Week 9- Economic Anthropology

Question 1

What are the three phases of economic activity?

Answer 1

Production

Distribution

Consumption

Question 2

Describe production

Answer 2

Transforming raw materials into products we can use

Ex:hunter gathers GATHER to “produce” food
-miners extract raw materials from nature->coins, weapons, etc

Question 3

What is distribution?

Answer 3

Moving products to people

Question 4

What is consumption?

Answer 4

Using the products

Question 5

What are the four types of economic exchanges?

Answer 5

Gift economy

Reciprocity

Redistribution

Market

Question 6

What is a gift economy?

Answer 6

Non-capitalist societies (no money)

Exchange of goods as part of a social relationship between different people on islands

Question 7

What is reciprocity

Answer 7

Egalitarian society (no hierarchy)

Give/do something and expect you will receive something of equal value in return

Question 8

What is redistribution?

Answer 8

Social hierarchy

Things are produced in different places and sent to one place in order to distribute them out to others

Question 9

What is a market economy?

Answer 9

Capitalist society (this is disputed)

Goods in exchange for money; money in exchange for goods

Don’t need to have a social relationship with people you’re buying from

Question 10

What is the Kula ring?

Answer 10

Economic exchange of non-functional goods between trobiand islanders

Men exchange necklaces and shell arm bands

Only travel in one direction
Necklaces=clockwise
shell arm bands=counter clockwise

Question 11

Exchange of women’s wealth? (Trobiand society)

Answer 11

Matrilineal society
-trace lineage through mother
(In our society we take fathers name)

• most important man in woman’s life=brother
• brothers give yams to their sister to give to their husband
  - it is expected if someone dies in the woman’s family the husband will buy back all of the yams by giving his wife gifts of garments made of banana leaves (woman’s wealth)
  - the woman’s social standing depends on this

Question 12

Difference of exchange of woman’s wealth and the kula ring?

Answer 12

Woman’s wealth=reciprocal

Kula ring=gift economy

Question 13

Mode of production

Answer 13

A set of social relationships through which labor extracts materials (energy) from nature through their knowledge, skills, and tools.

Emphasis on social relationships when people work

Example:

• in a factory you wouldn’t be close to the people you work with
• On a small farm you would be close with the people you work with

Question 14

Who were the pochteca?

Answer 14

Long distance traveling merchants in the Aztec empire

Traded for prestige goods that aristocrats would them buy as a display of wealth

Question 15

What are some of the reasons people consume goods?

Answer 15

Survival
Food, drink, shelter, clothing, etc.

Prestige
-expensive items signifying wealth

Affluence
-having more than enough of what you need (wealth)

Keeping up with trends and styles

Question 16

What is a potlach?

Answer 16

Reciprocal feasting mechanism used by any Pacific Northwest Native American tribes

A party thrown by an aristocrat to give out wealth to others

• the aristocrat gathers a lot of wealth, invites other aristocrats over, throw a party and show off how rich they are by giving away wealth or destroying it
  
  • the aristocrats reviving these gifts are then expected to throw a potlatch of their own (if they don’t it’s considered not paying your debt)

Question 17

What type of economic exchange is a potlatch?

Answer 17

Reciprocity

You are expected to repay your “debt”

Question 18

What people throw potlatches?

Answer 18

Aristocratic Pacific Northwest Native American tribes