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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).
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