Exchange and Consumption: Chapter 4
How do societies exchange and distribute the goods and services that they produce?
The KEY Questions
How do modes of production relate to consumption?
How do modes of production relate to exchange?
How do global economic changes affect nonmarket modes of consumption and exchange?
Exchanges can be in:
Material goods
Symbolic goods
Labour
Money
People
Modes of Exchange
Reciprocity: the social obligation to give, to receive and to repay. Also called gift-giving; usually
personalized, and has direct relations between giver and receiver.
1.Generalized: no specified amount or time of repayment
2. Balanced: specified time and amount of repayment
*Example of balanced reciprocity: the Kula Ring of Melanesia
Redistribution: the storage of surplus in a central location, which is then distributed to the wider
culture.
*Example of redistribution: the Mesopotamian state.
Market exchange: innumerable acts of buying and selling between anonymous buyers and
sellers.
*Example of market exchange: the New York Stock Exchange.
Different Exchange Patterns: The Tiv of Nigeria
Prior to colonial contact: Tiv Economy was based on Reciprocity plus Local Markets.
The sphere of exchange was characterized by three separate spheres, each differentiated by
distinct notions of ‘morality’: multicentric spheres as opposed to unicentric spheres.
The comparison between the Tiv multicentric economy and our own highlights the nature of
general purpose money:
–Medium of exchange
–Mode of payment and storage of wealth
–Standard of value
Exchange and Kinship
The Three Spheres:
–Utilitarian articles: foodstuffs, yams, cereals, condiments, small livestock, household utensils.
–Prestige Sphere 1: brass rods, medicine and magic, tugudu cloth, slaves and cattle.
–Prestige Sphere 2: rights in women through bridewealth.
•Exchange marriage: wards were ‘exchanged’ through marriage in a ward sharing group.
•Kem marriage: rights in a ward could be obtained through paying brass rods, but these did not
include rights to pass descent through the children.
•Tiv adamantly maintained a separation between the logic of the market and that of kinship and
marriage
Modes of Production and Modes of Exchange
 In general, the modes of production are related to modes of exchange in the following ways:
o hunting and gathering, horticulture and pastoralism are *generally* dominated by
reciprocity.
o Intensive agricultural societies, e.g. Mesopotamia, are *generally* dominated by
redistribution, although long-distance trade and markets are also found here.
o Industrial societies are *generally* dominated by market exchange.
Thought Questions:
1. Can you think of areas of our lives that are still governed by gift-exchange?
2. Is a market economy moral, immoral or amoral?