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ANTH_220_Ch._07_part_1_.pptxCultural Anthropology
Economic Systems
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Cultural Anthropology
All societies have economic systems, whether involving money or not
Characteristics of economic systems:
1) customs about gaining access to natural resources (Resource allocation)
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Cultural Anthropology
Characteristics of economic systems:
2) ways to transform or convert
resources through labor into goods and
services (Conversion of resources, also called production)
3) customs for distributing and exchanging
goods and services (Distribution)
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Cultural Anthropology
Even though all cultures have different rules for their economic systems, even the most remote society is now part of the world market system
Each responds to the world market system in a different way, however
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Cultural Anthropology
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Resource allocation
Land – in the U.S., we have the private property system
Other, less complex societies do not have private ownership of land (e.g. foragers, pastoralists, and to a degree even horticulturalists)
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Cultural Anthropology
Why is there no private property (land) in less complex societies?
For foragers, the land by itself has no value; it is the presence of plants and game that are of value, and depending on the weather or season, these resources are not plentiful in one place for very long
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Cultural Anthropology
For pastoralists, land is only good if there is sufficient grazing opportunity and water for their herds, so like foragers, it does not make sense for them to have individual ownership of parcels of land
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Cultural Anthropology
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For horticulturalists, land is only used for a few years, then abandoned, so there is no reason for an individual or family to own the land, since it will eventually be discarded
However, while the land is not owned privately, the produce grown on a part of it is considered the property of the grower
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Cultural Anthropology
For intensive agriculturalists, private ownership of land is the norm
Land is basically permanently usable with fertilizers, so individual ownership can be sustained
There have been some societies – e.g. socialist nations - where there is collective ownership of land, and this does not seem to make people less productive
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Cultural Anthropology
Virtually everywhere in the world, colonial conquerors took away the land of indigenous people
This is the main reason why there are so relatively few foragers, horticulturalists, and pastoralists today
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Cultural Anthropology
Resource Allocation
2) Technology – how resources are
converted into useful things
The technology of a society is considered to
be its:
- tools
- skills for converting resources into
food and other goods
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Cultural Anthropology
Pastoralists and foragers are limited in their means for converting resources into useful food and goods – they have very few tools
Societies with intensive agriculture have specialized tools and skills for converting resources into food – sometimes the tools are so expensive they are not individually owned but collectively. Some resources are owned by the government or corporations as well.
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Production is the conversion of resources through labor into food, tools, or other goods
There are several types of production:
1) Domestic – the most basic kind. Families exploit resources and control the products of their labor.
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2) Tributary – people still produce their own food but give some portion of it to an aristocrat or other elite person. Serfs in the Middle Ages gave part of their food production to aristocrats.
Cultural Anthropology
French serfs in the Middle Ages
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Industrial Production – In industrial production most people labor for others (capitalists) in a wage economy
Cultural Anthropology
Post-Industrial Production – wage economy where individuals can have more access to the tools of production than in industrial economy – service economy and knowledge sectors are examples of this
More people can own at least some of the tools of production – knowledge and computers, e.g. - in a post-industrial economy than in an industrial economy
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Cultural Anthropology
Labor – Incentives – People seem to work just as hard as they have to in subsistence societies, but the profit motive becomes important for the accumulation of surplus in more complex societies
Cultural Anthropology
Forced and required labor
- In simple societies being the target of gossip is about the only social pressure to perform more labor than you already do – people do not tend to be banished from the group
- In our society, taxation is a form of forced labor
- Some societies have corvee labor, where rulers require peasants to plow some of their fields for them, or even require participation in the army
Cultural Anthropology
Division of labor – All societies have division of labor along lines of gender and age
Children contribute their labor in many societies – Correlates with the amount of labor the mother has – which further correlates with the number of children a couple tends to have
Cultural Anthropology
Labor specialization beyond age and gender
- horticultural societies may have special craftspeople – this is possible because there is a surplus to support those who are not always directly involved in production
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Cultural Anthropology
Organization of Labor
In foraging and horticultural societies, work groups are informal, getting together when work needs to be done, and then dissolving
Little instruction is needed, and almost everyone has the same work to do
In industrial and postindustrial society, much more training is needed, and work tends to be organized around a contract
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Cultural Anthropology
Distribution of Goods and Services – all societies distribute goods and services, but how they do it depends on their level of economic complexity and the motive rationale for the activity (e.g., subsistence or profit?)
Cultural Anthropology
1) Reciprocity
- Generalized Reciprocity – when goods or services are given away without expectation of a return gift
- Generalized reciprocity is how families treat their children
- Balanced Reciprocity – goods are given with an immediate expectation of return, or an expectation of return in a short time period
Cultural Anthropology
The exchange is often labor in return for a feast and music – it doesn’t have to be a one-to-one type of exchange
Christmas is a type of (usually) balanced reciprocity – called a gift exchange
Cultural Anthropology
2) Redistribution – the accumulation of goods or labor by a person or in a place for the purpose of distribution
- Families redistribute the products of their
labor at home
- In societies with chiefdoms or kingdoms tribute
may be given to the chief or king who may
redistribute it back to the people -- or he may
redistribute it unevenly – mainly to his relatives
and those with high rank
Cultural Anthropology
3) Market or Commercial Exchange
- With increasing economic productivity, goods acquire prices in markets, generally exchanged for money.
- Most all societies are part of this system today as the world becomes one large global market
