Economic Anthropology
What is Economic Anthropology?
“At the most basic,
economic anthropology
is the description and
analysis of economic life,
using an anthropological
perspective” (Carrier
2005:1)
Tomato seller on African market
Ghanaian Market
Economic
Word economics comes
from Greek word
Oikonomikos
Oikos means household
Root nem, means to
regulate, administer,
and organize
A society’s economy consists of:
Production
Distribution/
Exchange
Consumption
Economics is the study of production, distribution,
exchange, and consumption of resources.
Economic Life the activities through which
people produce, circulate and consume things
Economizing and
Maximization
Classical economic theory
assumes that individuals
universally act rationally, by
economizing to maximize
profits, but comparative
data shows that people
frequently respond to other
motivations than profit
economic anthropologists tend
to situate productive activities
and forms of exchange and
consumption, in larger social
and cultural frames, in order to
see how they affect and are
affected by other areas of life.
In some societies artistic styles
are the property of certain
kinship groups. Only member
of the kin group are allowed to
produce them.
The Trobrianders
produce far more yams
than they can ever eat and
often simply allow them
to rot. Why?
Exchange
“The act of giving or taking one thing in
return for another”
“The transfer of things between social
actors”
What kinds of things are
exchanged?
 the communicative exchange of language
(culture)
 the exchange of goods
 the exchange of spouses.
Exchange is a key to social life
Exchange is important for the establishment
and maintenance of social relationships
Patterns of exchange and circulation, lead us to the
heart of social and cultural organization
WHO
exchange relationships
WHAT
what is the significance and meaning of what
is exchanged
WHERE
what is the significance and meaning of
where it is exchanged
WHEN
on what occasions
WHY
social reasons
HOW
ceremony, mechanisms
WHAT IS A GIFT?
What kinds of gifts are
there?
Who do we give gifts to?
 When do we give gifts?
How do we give gifts?
Why do we give gifts?
Botticelli 1486
Giovanna degli Albizzi Receiving
a Gift of Flowers from Venus
IS THERE ANY SUCH
THING AS A FREE GIFT?
What are the consequences of not reciprocating?
 Are there bonds of obligation?
 Is there some competitiveness
involved in gift giving?
 How do we feel when we haven’t
received a gift of at least equal value?
 What if the gift returned is of
higher value?
“If Friends make gifts, Gifts Make Friends”
Marcel Mauss
Marcel Mauss 1925: The Gift: The Form and Reason for
Exchange in Archaic Societies
Mauss points to three fields
of obligation: to give, to
receive and to repay
Gifts, according to Mauss,
create relationships not only
between individuals but
between groups,
relationships which take the
form of total prestations
1872 - 1950
The Potlatch
A form of ceremonial
exchange of gifts employed by
indigenous groups on NW
coast of BC (Tlingit, Haida,
Tsimshian and Kwakiutl
(Kwakwaka'wakw))
Described at length by Franz Boas in 1897
in The Social Organisation and the Secret
Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians
Aboriginally, The Kwakiutl,
were very rich and their
fishing grounds supplied
them with considerable
surplus
E.S. Curtis, 1915
Beginning of summer they
dispersed to go hunting,
gather roots and berries,
fish for salmon in the rivers
At the onset of winter they
concentrated in small
villages
During this period social life
became extremely intense
"Interior of Habitation at Nootka Sound"
John Webber (British), April 1778
The Kwakiutl house is constructed of cedar boards on a framework
of heavy logs. The ridge extends from front to back, the roof-boards
run from ridge to eave, and the wall boards are perpendicular.
POTLATCH: The word means ‘to feed’ or ‘to consume’
held in connection with
events in the life cycle,
initiations, marriages,
house building,
funerals, assumption of
certain dance
privileges.
extravagant and lavish
preparations including
much food preparation
and the creation of
masks and art work
are made by the host as
gifts for the guests
The most central symbol of wealth, power and prestige is the
copper, a shield-shaped plate of beaten copper that usually has a
painted or engraved representation of a crest animal on its
surface. Contemporary coppers as well as older ones frequently
bear animal names - Sea Lion, Beaver face - probably referring
to the crest of their original owners.
The Kwakiutl
chief Tulthidi
prepares to give
away his valuable
copper in honor of
his son
Broken copper
Tsimshian: Gitsan,
British Columbia
Collected by G.T.
Emmons, prior to 1914
Chilkat Blanket" 1890-1900, Tlingit
•Because of all the gifts, a traditional potlatch took years
to prepare
•A large potlatch
held in 1921 was
said to take 17
years of
preparation
• A modern day
potlatch may
take about a
year to prepare
and cost
$10,000.
C. 1900
Today potlatch gifts include
coffee mugs, socks, hand knit
blankets and clothes, as well as
carved masks and murals
Parties, as they are now
sometimes called, commemorate
a significant event in an extended
family's or clan's collective life.
They are held today for baby
showers, namings, weddings,
anniversaries, special birthdays,
graduations, and as memorials
for the dead
Twined grass basket
Nootka/Makah, British
Columbia/Washington
Cedar carrying basket
with handles
Why would they spend years
accumulating wealth only to
give it away - or even throw
the objects into the sea?
Potlatch at Fort Rupert, British Columbia, 1898
Social Significance
 potlatch celebrations are a
significant representation of the
host's status and the display of
rank and title
In return for giving away
food and wealth they get
recognition of their status and
that of their lineage.
Marriages for one’s
children and places in the
brotherhoods are only won
during the potlatch
Potlatches become very
competitive
 aspiring leaders use
competitive potlatching to
move up the system.
 The potlatch is a system
of gift exchange--- material
goods are exchanged for
social recognition and
power
The obligation to give
The obligation to receive
The obligation to reciprocate
What rule of legality and self-interest,
in societies of a backward or archaic
type, compels the gift that has been
received to be obligatorily
reciprocated? What power resides in
the object given that causes its
recipient to pay it back?” (Mauss 1925)
Prestation
 Also includes reciprocity and the various
obligations
 ‘total social phenomenon’
 It is not individuals but collectives that impose
obligations of exchange and contract upon each
other
 What is exchanged is not solely property and
wealth
Thomas and Jane Carlyle’s Christmas Presents
• Renowned 19th century English historian and essayist
• Spent Christmas in the 1850s with Lord and Lady Ashburton
(wealthy Scottish banker)
Thomas and Jane Carlyle
Lord and Lady Ashburton
•In 1851 The Ashburton’s gave Christmas presents to the
Carlyles
• Mrs Carlyle got a scarf and a bracelet
• Thomas got a jigsaw puzzle
• both were well received
•In 1855 Mrs Carlyle
received a black silk
dress - A novelty
because it was only
recently that they were
produced by machine
• Mrs Carlyle claimed
that she was being
insulted.
What do we have to know to be able to understand those meanings
attributed to these gifts?
 class,
 social mobility,
 matrimony,
 patronage,
 employment,
 manufacturing processes,
 issues of style,
 conventions of gift-giving.
Gift Exchange operates not according to market laws, but the
social rules of power, symbol, convention, etiquette, ritual, role and
status.
Exchange (at least gift giving) is embedded in social life
Raffia Cloth among the Lele (Zaire)
The movement of raffia cloth among the
Lele is another example of the mediation of
status by goods.
Younger men need raffia to marry. But
raffia is made and controlled by older
men. In order to have access to raffia and
hence marriage, younger men need the
social approval of older men.
Since more raffia is required to marry
than any one man can produce, it takes
community approval to marry.
In modern economy, men can gain access
to raffia through wage labor. This
undercuts authority of elders and leads to
charges of the selling of brides.
Economic Anthropology:
Substantivist
Formalists
-economic affairs are embedded in social
institutions and cannot be studied
separately from other social institutions
social structures
•kinship system
•political structure
•religious ideologies
-people in nonindustrial economies
function with different logic than
capitalist economies. Exchanges occur
for reasons other than economic benefit
•culturally unique values
•group benefits
•“rational” culturally relative
•maximization of personal gain
•supply-demand relationships
•“rational” decision-making
•individual self interest
•economy can be analyzed
independent of other social
structures and institutions
•research tools of western
economics applicable
Karl Polanyi
Divided economies into three types
according to the dominant mode
of distribution
reciprocity-- The return of a
gift or prestation
redistribution
-- collection from members
of a group and then
redistribution within this
group. E.g. tribute, taxes
market --involves money
and profit
1886-1964
Marshal Sahlins Stone Age Economics (1972)
•A material transaction is usually
a momentary episode in a
continuous social relation.
• The social relation governs the
nature of the immediate exchange
and the flow of goods
• Sahlins suggests that there are 3
types of reciprocity that form a
continuum that correlates with
kinship and social distance.
1930-
Reciprocity: exchange between
social equals
• Generalized
• Balanced
• Negative
Generalized reciprocity
•
e.g. gifts, or sharing, helping, generosity.
• between close kin and friends
• highly moral – no expectation of return
• Generalized reciprocity is correlated with
Rank
relative wealth and need
food
Geographic distance
Balanced reciprocity
• return expected
• delayed exchange
• maintains ties with
more distant people
• A precise balance
between the things
exchanged
• Important in e.g..
peace making death
payments and
marriage alliances.
Kula Ring – Balanced Reciprocity
Kula Ring: vast inter-island
system of exchange of certain
classes of ritual objects —
men’s armbands and
bracelets
– exchange within Massim
linguistic group
– not a system of
“commercial trade” in
utilitarian objects (most
islands self-sufficient in
staple foods & goods)
– objects acquired,
displayed, and then passed
on
mwali
soulava
Like the crown
jewels, their value
is symbolic
There is no
practical utility
Each valuable has
its own name and
history
Owning them
provides the
owner prestige
and pride
Vaygu’a – Kula Valuables
assessed for their value based on size, colour, and how well they
are polished or finished
shells increase in value with age and both men and shells gain
prestige in their association with one another
man may gain fame
and notoriety for
having possessed a
particularly fine
armband
similarly, a necklace
may be highly regarded
for having been owned
by a great man
Temporary ownership allowed men
to draw a great deal of renown, to
exhibit the article to tell how it is
obtained and to plan on whom he is
going to give it
This history and renown was the
main source of their value
Main principle underlying
regulations of exchange is that the of
bestowing a ceremonial gift, which
has to be repaid by an equivalent
counter-gift after a lapse of time, be it
a few hours or years
A form of credit. – implies a high
degree of trust and commercial
honour
 at each meeting, “visiting” partner bestows
gift on home partner
 the same object that he received from his other
partner a few months or years earlier
 over time, value (rarity) of objects exchanged
increases, as does renown of the partners
necklaces
A
B
C
D
A
B
C
D
armbands
Kula Ring had been cited as an example of the economic
irrationality of “savages”…
–took great risks for “fanciful” ends
–not survival or commerce, but to obtain “baubles”
–pursued out of “sheer habit”
the Kula Ring is a vital institution which contributes to the
security and continuity of Massim cultures
–needs to be seen within the total context of Massim society
–ripped out of context, it appears irrational, “savage”
How does the kula differ from classic economic ideas?
Exchange is not done freely
Not based on need since the aim is to exchange articles that
serve no utilitarian purpose
No prices mechanism
Value not determined by supply and demand
what makes the kula an economic exchange?
Negative Reciprocity
• less common
• impersonal, distrustful
• not based on ongoing
social relations
• exchange without money
• taking items by force
Haggling at the market of
Riobamba, Ecuador
Reciprocity:
Generalized
Balanced
 value unspecified
 return not immediate
 long term view
 no gratitude expected
Creating AND satisfying
obligations
 Equal value
 Expectation of
immediate return
 Similar to trade or
barter
 Common in more
distant kin
relationships
Negative
 Personal gain
is primary
motivator
 something for
nothing
- haggling
- bargaining
- theft/seizure
- cheating
Self Interest
Prevalence in band societies
intertribal
tribe
village
lineage
family
social distance determines the nature of the exchange
Redistribution
Exchange among social unequals
•centralized accumulation and
reallocation of wealth (taxes,
tributes, tithes, spoils)
–maintain power, superior
status (internally)
–keep constituents happy,
maintain standard of living
–use wealth to leverage
power (externally)
–leveling mechanisms
•typical mode of exchange in
chiefdoms and some nonindustrial states
These workers in Yunnan
Province, China, strive for an
equal distribution of meat.
Redistribution in Western Society
Taxes
Food Bank
Market exchange
–value preset by
impersonal
“market forces”
–exchange
occurs
presumably
independent of
and
uninfluenced by
social relations
–usually involves money, a widely agreed on
abstract symbol used to measure value