Chapter 8
Economic Systems
1
What Will You Learn?
• Explain why the anthropological variable of
culture is important in understanding
noncapitalist economies.
• Distinguish various economic arrangements for
producing, distributing, and consuming goods.
• Compare forms of gift exchange, redistribution,
and trade.
• Analyze how leveling mechanism actually work in
different cultures.
• Describe the role of money in market exchange.
2
The Yam Complex in Trobriand Culture
• Trobriand Island men devote a great deal of
time and energy to raising yams, not for
themselves but to give to others (sisters and
married daughters).
• The yams which switch hands from the
women to their respective husbands are to
show one’s respect for her husband.
• The more yams a man has in his yam house
the higher his status because it shows he is
well respected and liked.
3
The Yam Complex in Trobriand Culture
• Trobriand Yam Storage
House.
• These islanders spend
much time and energy
raising yams, not for
themselves but to give
to others.
4
Economic Systems
• Despite the complexity of the culture, all
cultures have some form of an economic
system because they all have some form of
subsistence.
• All cultures have a means of producing,
distributing, and consuming goods.
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Land and Water Resources
• All societies regulate allocation of valuable
natural resources- especially land and water.
• The access to land and fresh water is a
resource all living people must obtain.
• Some societies have private ownership of
these resources where as others divide them
up among who has occupied that land the
longest.
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Land and Water Resources
• Land is usually controlled by kinship groups
rather than an individual.
• All bands will have their own “territory”, an
area they occupy that is considered theirs.
• Food foragers determine who will hunt game
and gather plants in their home range and
where these activities take place.
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Land and Water Resources
• Pastoralists require a system that determines
rights to watering places and grazing land for
their animals. Often land will be divided up
based on watering holes.
• Farmers (agricultural) must have some means
of determining title to land and access to
water for irrigation.
• Small scale farmers generally “own” land on
lease and must pay tribute to the chief of the
tribe who is said to own the land.
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Land and Water Resources
• In Western capitalist societies, private
ownership of land and rights to natural
resources generally prevails.
• This is also based on the individual not the
group as it might be for foraging and some
producing societies.
9
Technology Resources
• Technology is the number and types of tools
employed, combined with knowledge about
how to make and use them.
• Technology is directly related to the lifestyle of
its members.
• Food foragers and pastoral nomads are often
on the move so their tools would be fewer in
number and portable.
10
Critical Thought
• The average weight among a food forager
such as the Ju/’hoansi members personal
belongings is just under 25lbs.
• How does this compare to our belongings?
• Apart from the necessities we need to be
successful in our environment, what
additional items do we often have that we
could be successful without?
– (surplus clothes, jewelry, cars, appliances, etc.)
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Division of Labor
• Despite variations of labor patterns cross
culturally it can be said that every society has
a division of labor by gender and age at the
very minimum.
• There are three documented patterns of labor
by gender:
– Flexible/integrated pattern
– Segregated pattern
– Dual Sex Configuration
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Flexible/Integrated Pattern
• Seen most frequently among food foragers.
• 35% of tasks are performed equally by men
and women.
• Tasks considered appropriate for one gender
may be performed by the other without the
loss of face.
• Boys and girls grow up in much the same way
and learn to value cooperation over
competition.
13
Segregated Pattern
• Common to pastoral, intensive agricultural,
and industrial societies.
• Almost all work is defined as masculine or
feminine.
• Men and women rarely engage in joint efforts
and do not help one another.
• Both boys and girls are raised primarily by
women. After puberty boys will spend most
time with adult men and girls with adult
women.
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Dual Sex Configuration
• Seen among some Native American tribes.
• Men and women carry out their work
separately.
• The relationship is one of balanced
complimentarily rather than inequality.
• Each gender manages its own affairs, and the
interests of both men and women are
represented at all levels.
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Division of Labor by Age
• Typical to have a division by age in all societies
although it varies greatly.
• Food foraging societies such as the Ju/’hoansi
do not expect children to contribute to
subsistence until their late teens. Elders will
also “retire” around the age of 60.
• The elders are considered to be repositories of
accumulated wisdom and are able to suggest
solutions to problems younger adults might
face.
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Division of Labor by Age
• In some food-foraging societies women do
continue to make significant contributions to
provisioning in their later years.
• In many food producing societies both
children and elders are expected to contribute
to the group or household. Girls among the
Mayan peasant groups may begin to do
housework and watch younger children
around the age of 7 or 8 years old.
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Division of Labor by Age
• Industrial societies may
also encourage younger
children and elders
working in factories to
help support their
families.
• Child labor in India is
quite common. Often
children can be forced to
work in brutal conditions
such as shown here
stitching soccer balls
together.
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Technology Resources
• Similar to economic systems all societies will
have some form of technology which is best
described as tools and other material
equipment, together with the knowledge of
how to make and use them.
• Technology complexity can vary among groups
but one thing is important technological
advances are relative to the society in which
they are found.
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Critical Thought
• Cooperative work groups can be found
everywhere-in foraging as well as food
producing and in nonindustrial as well as
industrial societies.
• This might include work where the whole
community is involved.
• Can you think of any examples of this in our
society?
20
Task Specialization
• In larger societies such as industrial and
postindustrial there is often great diversity of
specialized tasks to be performed.
• While specialization continues to increase,
modern technologies are making labor
divisions based on gender less relevant.
21
Reciprocity
• Reciprocity- the exchange of goods and services,
of approximately equal value, between two
parties.
– Generalized –A mode of exchange in which the value
of the gift is not calculated, nor is the time of
repayment specified.
– Balanced –A mode of exchange in which the giving
and the receiving are specific as to the value of the
goods or services and the time of their delivery.
– Negative –A mode of exchange in which the aim is to
get something for as little as possible. Neither fair nor
balanced, it may involve hard bargaining,
manipulation, outright cheating or theft.
22
Trade
• Trade refers to a transaction in which two or
more people are involved in an exchange of
something- food, clothing, jewelry, animals,
money, etc.
• Silent trade is an exchange of goods between
mutually distrusting ethnic groups so as to
avoid direct personal contact.
23
Barter
• Bartering occurs when two or more partners
from different groups negotiate a direct
exchange of one trade good for another.
• Often this transaction can turn hostile if both
parties are not in agreement- thus similar to
negative reciprocity.
• As each party seeks to get the best possible
deal, both may negotiate until a balance has
been reached where each feels satisfied at
having achieved the better of the deal.
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The Kula Ring
• Form of Balanced
Reciprocity
• The ceremonial trading
of shell necklaces and
armbands in the Kula
ring encourages trade
throughout Melanesia.
25
Redistribution
• Redistribution is the form of exchange in which
goods flow into a central place where they are
sorted, counted, and reallocated.
• Redistribution involves a certain amount of
power and control.
• In societies with a surplus to support some sort
of government, goods in the form of gifts, tribute,
taxes, and the spoils of war are gathered into
storehouses controlled by a chief or some other
type of leader.
• From there, they are handed out again.
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Motives in Redistributing Wealth
• The leadership by the chief or person in
charge of redistribution has three motives in
redistribution:
1. Gain or maintain a position of superiority
through a display of wealth and generosity.
2. Assure those who support the leadership an
adequate standard of living by providing them
with desired goods.
3. Establish alliances with leaders of other groups
by hosting them at lavish parties and giving
them valuable goods.
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Spending Wealth to Gain Prestige
• Conspicuous consumption- a term coined by
Thorstein Veblen to describe the display of
wealth for social prestige. This is a way to gain
social status without actually distributing
anything.
• Potlatches are a form of conspicuous
consumption where a village chief will give
away his goods (food) to his people in a showy
displace of his wealth.
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Gaining Status & Prestige
• Potlatches often compel others in the society
to also give away goods by hosting a public
feast so that no one person accumulates more
wealth than another. These are called leveling
mechanisms.
• One last method of gaining status and prestige
is prestige economy. The difference between
this and conspicuous consumption is that
mass wealth is obtained for the purpose of
giving it away to others.
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Critical Thought
• Can you identify an example of each of the
following in your society?
– Conspicuous consumption
– Leveling mechanism
– Prestige Economy
– Redistribution
30
Market Exchange
• Buying and selling of goods and services, with prices
set by rules of supply and demand is known as Market
Exchange.
• Prices are set on the basis of supply and demand.
Often money may be used although it is not necessary
as in some non-industrial societies. Other goods may
be used for barter/ trade.
– Money is defined as something used to make payments for
goods and services as well as to measure their value.
• The wide range of things that have been used as
money in one or another society includes salt, shells,
stones, beads, feathers, fur, bones, and teeth.
31
Marketplace
• Until well into the 20th century the term
market truly referred to an actual market
place.
• This still exists in nonindustrial societies and in
numerous centuries-old European and Asian
cities.
• Faceless market exchange defines industrial
and post industrial societies today.
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Informal Economy
• The production of marketable commodities
that for various reasons escape enumeration,
regulation, or any other sort of public
monitoring or auditing.
• Examples of goods or services that may be
obtained on this type of market:
– Child care, house cleaning, gardening, alcohol,
drugs, prostitution, illegal labor, gambling,
construction, repair work, etc.
• Is often more commonly referred to as the
“black market.”
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Critical Thought
• What other activities or commodities can you
add to the list on the previous page?
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