Anthropology 150

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The Economy

An economy is a system of production, distribution and consumption of resources. It

includes subsistence practices, labor practices, notions of property, and systems of exchange.

Economics is the study of such systems. Modern economists tend to focus on modern

nations and capitalist systems, while anthropologists has broadened understanding of economic

systems by gathering data on nonindustrial systems. Economic anthropology studies economic

systems in a comparative perspective and it questions many of the notions that academic

economists take for granted, such as the universality of the profit motive and the universality of

private property.

Societies within each of the adaptive strategies that we discussed last time tend to have

similar modes of production, so some anthropologists talk about a foraging mode of production,

a horticultural mode of production, etc. The modes of subsistence that we discussed in the last

lecture are the ways in which people adapt to their environments in a very direct way. Feeding

yourself and your family is a big concern. Subsistence production, however, is only part of the

overall system by which people obtain the things they need.

Economizing and Maximization

Economic anthropologists have been concerned with two main principles:

1. How are production, distribution and consumption organized in different societies? This

question focuses on systems of human behavior and their organization.

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

Here the focus is not on systems of behavior but on the motives of the individuals who

participate in those systems.

Let’s consider question number one first. Production, distribution, and consumption.

Modes of Production

The societies representing each of the adaptive strategies we discussed tend to have

similar ways of producing the things they need.

A mode of production is a way of organizing production – “a set of social relations

through which labor is deployed to wrest energy from nature by means of tools, skills,

organization, and knowledge (Eric Wolf)

In the capitalist mode of production money buys labor and there is a social gap between

those who buy labor and those who sell it. By contrast in nonindustrial societies labor is not

usually bought, but is given as a social obligation. In such societies, economics and social

relationships are the same. As Karl Polanyi said, in nonindustrial societies, the economy is

“embedded” in social relationships.

Means of Production

In nonindustrial society there is a more intimate relationship between the worker and the

means of production that there is in industrial nations. Means of production include land, labor,

and technology.

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Land

Among foragers, ties between people and the land are less permanent than they are among

food producers. Although many bands have territories, the boundaries are not usually marked,

and there is no way they can be enforced. Foragers may or may not recognize the right of certain

individuals or kinship groups to control certain resources.

For instance, among the Pomo of Northern California, women held rights to harvest

acorns from certain groves. Those rights passed from mother to daughter. The women didn’t

own the land, they didn’t even own the trees. But they had rights to the acorns from certain trees.

In practice what that meant was that if you wanted to harvest acorns from a tree that wasn’t yours

Among horticulturalists, land ownership is generally recognized, but it is the kinship

group that owns the land, not the individual. An example is the calpulli, which was a kin-based

unit of land ownership among the Aztec. Similar units exist as lineages and clans, kinship

groups among whose functions are to maintain property rights and transmit them to the next

generation.

The calpulli was the principal land-holding organization for Aztec commoners. It was the

calpulli, rather than individuals or nuclear families, that owned agricultural land. An individual

might be given rights to work a piece of land, but the individual only had rights of usufruct, not

ownership. When an Aztec male (the calpulli traced relationships through the male line) reached

adulthood he would petition his calpulli in order to receive land to work. As his family grew he

would receive more land, but when his children left his household the size of his plot would be

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reduced. Upon his death the land would revert back to the calpulli and then given to another

person to work.

This form of communal ownership of the means of production is extremely common in

horticultural societies. Private (individual) ownership is rare. It is really only with intensive

agriculture and industrialism that you see the emergence of individual ownership of the means of

production.

Labor, tools, and specialization

Like land, labor is a means of production. In non-industrial societies access to both land

and labor comes through social links such as kinship, marriage, and descent. Mutual aid is

merely one aspect of ongoing social relations that are expressed in many other occasions.

Nonindustrial societies contrast with industrial ones in regard to another means of

production: technology. In foraging societies manufacturing is often linked to age and gender.

Women may weave and men may make pottery, or vice versa. Most people of a particular age

and gender share the technical knowledge associated with that age and gender. If married women

customarily make baskets, then all married women know how to make baskets. Neither

technology nor technical knowledge is as specialized as it is in more complex social formations,

such as states.

With the emergence of horticulture and agriculture you also see the emergence of various

types of specialization. One reason for this is something that we’ve talked about at various

points: the production of surplus. Surplus is simply that which is more than needed to keep

people alive.

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With the intensification of production which is characteristic of horticulture and

agriculture, you have individuals producing more than they need to support themselves. That is,

one person laboring in the fields full time can produce enough food to support several people.

Exactly how many depends upon the crops, the technology, environmental circumstances, etc.

What gets done with that surplus? Who controls it? Part of that answer goes back to land

ownership, but it also depends upon the social system, particularly the organization of kinship

relations and political organization. Those are topics we’ll take up over the next few days. For

present purposes, however, just accept that surplus is often controlled ultimately by the head of

the kinship group.

One of the ways that the group head often uses surplus is to support specialists. These

specialists have knowledge that other people don’t have. For instance, how to weave special

clothes, how to produce special jewelry.

This type of specialization is called attached specialization, meaning that the individual

doing the specialized production is a member of the household of the kin group head.

Later, in intensive agriculture societies and industrial societies you have what is called

detached specialization, where an individual works as free labor and sells the specialized

products on an open market.

Distribution and consumption

Distribution is the means by which goods and services are spread among individuals and

groups within a society. The three most common forms of distribution are called reciprocity,

redistribution, and markets.

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Reciprocity

Reciprocity is usually associated with the foraging mode of subsistence production. It is

very simple in its nature, and consists mostly of giving and receiving. That is, it is a form in

which most goods and services are transferred from one person to another in the form of social

obligations. For example, in the Trobriand Islands person who wants to build a house will call

upon his/her kinspeople to help. Those kinspeople will help build the house because in the

Trobriand Islands you cannot refuse such a request from a kinsperson. The expectation,

however, is that the person whom you help must reciprocate at some point in the future. That’s

why the system is called reciprocation.

Redistribution - Goods flow to a center, and then back out. Redistribution is usually

associated with horticulturalist subsistence, especially ones in which kinship is the principal

means of social organization. The pattern is that goods and services flow to a central location,

where they are pool, and then given back to the contributors. The mechanisms for pooling and

distribution may be complex. One common form is that all members of a kinship group (such as

a lineage or a clan) are obliged to make contributions to the lineage or clan head. That person

may then sponsor feasts or festivals at which the goods are given out (redistributed) to all those

who contributed (and sometimes to those who did not).

These sorts of rituals are often found in Big Man societies and in chiefdoms. Big Man

societies are well documented in places such as Polynesia and the Trobriand Islands, but

analogous social forms are known all over the world. In those societies individuals competing

for prestige may accumulate large amounts of foods and prestige goods (cloth, tools, jewelry) by

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calling upon kinspeople. The individual will then sponsor a feast and give away all of the food

and goods. The sponsor gains nothing materially, but hopes to attain greater prestige and

influence.

In chiefdoms, the lineage head or clan head may be powerful enough that she or he

doesn’t have to give away everything that is accumulated. The individual may skim off a

substantial part of the production and thereby accumulate person wealth and power.

Markets

With market exchange, items are bought and sold, using money with an eye toward

maximizing profit. Value is determined by supply and demand, although often the central

institutions of government may set prices.

Examples: capitalism

Non-capitalist societies may also have markets. For example, the Aztecs had markets

with cacao beans as a medium of exchange. Like redistribution, markets require a central

administrative institution. The difference is that in a market economy the central institution acts

as an aegis for exchange, rather than controlling it directly. That is, the central institution

provides laws, regulation, and protection under which exchanges take place.

Market economies may be found in societies with intensive agriculture and those with

industrialism. Large surpluses are a pre-requisite for the existence of markets, and a high degree

of specialization is also presumed.

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II. The Motivation for Production, Distribution, and Consumption

In capitalism we often assume that everyone works to maximize profit. But with an

embedded economy, the exchange of goods and services is done without the exchange of money

or other products. In those societies, the motive of economic activity may be prestige or the

fulfillment of social contracts (the cultural expectations of certain social roles, such as those that

exist within a kinship system).