Chapter 18
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Chapter 18 Economic Systems
Chapter Outline • How Do anthropologists study economic systems? • How do the economies of nonindustrial peoples work? • How and why are goods exchanged?
Resources • Resources used to produce goods and services include: • Raw materials • Labor • Technology
Patterns of Labor • Every society has a division of labor by gender and age. • This is an elaboration of patterns found among monkeys and apes. • Division by gender makes learning more efficient. • Division by age provides sufficient time to developing skills.
Three Patterns of Work by Gender • Flexible/integrated pattern • Rigid segregation pattern • Dual sex pattern
Flexible/Integrated Pattern • 35% of tasks are performed equally by men and women. • Tasks deemed appropriate for one gender may be performed by the other. • Boys and girls grow up in much the same way and learn to value cooperation over competition.
Rigid Segregation Pattern • Almost all work is defined as masculine or feminine. • Men and women rarely engage in joint efforts. • Common in pastoral nomadic, intensive agricultural, and industrial societies. • Both boys and girls are raised primarily by women.
Dual Sex Configuration • Men and women carry out their work separately. • The relationship is one of balanced complementarity rather than inequality. • Each gender manages its own affairs, and the interests of both men and women are represented at all levels.
Modes of Distributing Goods • Reciprocity • Redistribution • Market exchange
Reciprocity • Generalized - The value of what is given is not calculated and repayment is not specified. • Balanced -A direct obligation to reciprocate in equal value for the relationship to continue. • Negative - The giver tries to get the better of the deal.
Redistribution • Form of exchange in which goods flow into a central place where they are sorted, counted, and reallocated. • In societies with a sufficient 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.
Motives in Redistributing Income • The leadership has three motives in redistributing this income: • Gain or maintain a position of superiority through a display of wealth and generosity. • Assure those who support the leadership an adequate standard of living by providing them with desired goods. • Establish alliances with leaders of other groups by hosting them at lavish parties and giving them valuable goods.
Market Exchange • Buying and selling of goods and services, with prices set by rules of supply and demand. • Money may be defined as something used to make payments for other goods and services. • Its critical attributes are durability, portability, divisibility, recognizability, and fungibility. • 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.
