Unit 2B: Economics What is reciprocity? How do various cultures use it?

Economics concepts ► Every culture has a limited amount of vital resources ► Must develop systems of production, distribution, and consumption

Economic Anthropology ► Economics = focus on production, distribution, and consumption as observed in industrialized world ► Economic Anthropology = studies of the three areas comparatively in all societies in the world, industrialized and non-indus.

Western Economic View ► Western economists assume that individuals and corporations are motivated by desire to maximize material well-being ► Other societies’ economic principles may be based on reciprocity or re-distribution practices emphasizing cooperation and generosity ► Even in USA there can be increases in instances where people fail to maximize economic well-being

Allocation of Natural Resources ► Every society has a set of rules governing allocation and use of resources ► The degree to which humans are territorial varies widely throughout the world ► Idea of personal property is absent in most food collecting, pastoral, and horticultural societies

Resources: Food Collectors ► Land is not owned ► Follow migratory patterns of animals ► Claiming/defending territory takes time, energy, and technology that foragers choose not to expend ► Territoriality can lead to conflict ► Amount of communal control of land varies ► Will have flexible boundaries if animals are mobile and supplies unpredictable ► Likely to live in permanent settlements and maintain greater land control if supplies are plentiful and predictable

Resources: Pastoralists ► Require extensive territory and access to water and pasturage for livestock ► Must work out arrangements among themselves and with nonpastoralists to gain access to pasturage ► Corporate (non-individual) control of pastures is general rule ► Allocation of land and resources depends on ecological variables, types of animals, size of population relative to land, relationship of pastoralists to larger society

Resources: Horticulturalists ► Tend to live on communally controlled land, usually by extended kinship group ► Small family units retain rights as long as they work the land and are in good standing with larger family ► No advantage to owning land that can’t be used permanently

Resources: Intensive Agriculturalists ► Resources are allocated using principle of private individual ownership ► Western concept of individual property rights has affected research with non- Western peoples ► Most westerners believe communal property will be destroyed or degraded because people lack an individual incentive to maintain it

Production ► Definition: process of obtaining goods from the natural environment and transforming them into usable objects ► Vast range of systems of production ► Why any society produces certain items is determined by economic factors and cultural values ► Most societies fail to exploit all the resources at their disposal

Units of Production ► All societies have some sort of productive unit comprising people with specific tasks to perform ► In most nonindustrialized societies, basic unit of production is the household ► Most, if not all, goods and services consumed are produced by members of the household (nuclear or extended)

Division of Labor ► Every society distinguishes to some degree between appropriate work for men and women (gender) and adults and children (age)

Division of Labor: Gender Specialization ► Men and women often assigned roles because of social, political, and historical forces operating in individual societies ► Theories explaining common, if not universal, division of labor by gender  Men’s greater body mass and strength makes them better equipped for hunting, warfare, land clearing  Women’s tasks compatible with childcare  Mend tend to be more expendable so they engage in dangerous activities

Division of Labor: Age Specialization ► Elderly, because of waning strength, often prohibited from certain tasks or expected to engage in different activities from earlier years ► Because of lack of knowledge and physical strength, children are often excluded from certain tasks  In growing numbers, children under 14 are working full time in the global economy  Negative effects of child labor include working long hours under deplorable conditions for low wages

Distribution of Goods and Services ► Systems of exchange are essential for every economy ► Allow people to dispose of surpluses ► Maximize diversity of goods and services consumed ► Goods and services are allocated in all societies according to 3 modes of distribution  Reciprocity  Redistribution  Market exchange ► Although more than one mode can operate in a society, usually only one predominates

Reciprocity ► Definition: exchange of goods and services of roughly equal value between two parties without the use of money  3 basic types ► Generalized reciprocity ► Balanced reciprocity ► Negative reciprocity

Generalized Reciprocity ► An exchange system common among food collectors and contributes to their very survival ► Generosity is the highest ideal ► Hoarding and stinginess are seen as antisocial ► Usually between family members or close friends ► Involves highest level of moral obligation ► No expectation of immediate return ► In USA, seen in giving between parents & kids

Balanced Reciprocity ► An exchange system involving expectation that goods and services of equivalent value will be returned within a specific period of time ► Involves more formal relationships, greater social distance, and strong obligation to repay original gift ► Major economic motivation is to exchange surplus good and services for those in short supply ► Creates a system of affiliation (Kula Ring)

Negative Reciprocity ► Form of exchange between equals in which the parties attempt to take advantage of each other ► Based on principle of trying to get something for nothing ► Involving the most impersonal (possibly hostile) social relations ► Sense of altruism and social obligation is at its lowest ► Incompatible with close, harmonious relations ► Most often practiced against strangers and enemies

Redistribution ► Goods are given to a central authority and then given back to people in a new pattern ► Involves 2 stages: inward flow of goods and services to social center, followed by outward dispersal of goods and services back to society ► Most common in societies that have political hierarchies

Redistribution: Tribute ► Serves social function by dispensing goods within a society and affirming political power of the chief and value of solidarity among the people ► Equitable distribution is rarely found in most situations where tribute is given

Redistribution: Big Men/Feast Givers ► Self made leaders who are able to convince their relatives/neighbors to contribute surplus goods for the sake of community wide feasting ► Economic entrepreneurs ► Found widely throughout Melanesia and New Guinea  Work hard to produce surpluses and encourage followers to do the same, all for the sake of giving it away  Growing evidence that there are also big women in Melanesia

Redistribution: Bridewealth ► Involves transfer of valuable commodities from groom’s lineage to the bride’s lineage as a precondition for marriage ► Mechanism for maintaining roughly equitable distribution of goods within a society

Redistribution: Potlatch ► Chiefs or prominent men announce rights, privileges, and high social status within their communities ► Claims accompanied by elaborate feasting and gift giving ► Host would either give away or destroy all of his personal possessions ► Serves as a mechanism for dispersal of material goods ► Also serves man socio-political functions

Redistribution: Prestige Economies ► Institutions of the Kula, potlatch, and Big men/Women are not only mechanisms of distribution, but also ways of allocating prestige and social status through affiliation

Redistribution: Market Exchange ► Goods and services are bought and sold, often through the use of a standardized currency ► Less personal than exchanges based on reciprocity or other forms of redistribution ► Exchanges predominantly economic in nature ► People more interested in maximizing profits than in maintaining a long-term relationship ► Likely found in sedentary societies that produce appreciable surpluses and have complex division of labor