p424 Economic Anthropology The economic organization of a society is how that society, in a routinized manner, goes about providing the material goods and services it needs to reproduce itself. The economic organization is a cultural construction which operates according to sets of cultural rules and arrangements that bring together human and animal labor, man-made technology, and natural resources in order to provide for the provisioning of society. As with other domains of life in small-scale societies, the economic organization operates mainly within the contexts of kin relations. Rules governing who owns the resources, how the work is organized, who uses or eats the product, etc are aspects of kinship, gender and generational relations money of some sort), consumption(using up goods or expending funds), and exchange Or Economic anthropology comprises three major subject areas: production(making goods (transferring goods or money between people or institutions). The term economic system refers to a particular way of organizing production, distribution, and consumption Forms of production: Production is the process whereby a society uses available tools and energy sources, including labor and animals, to create necessary goods-such as a harvest-- for society. There are three broad forms of production Foraging or Hunting and Gathering From 300,000 until 10,000 years ago, people everywhere were foragers, or hunter-gatherers. For about 3 to 5 million years, man existed by a combination of hunting wild animals, gathering roots, seeds and plants, and fishing and collecting sea life along shores. Hunter-gatherers survived in certain environments, including a few islands and forests, along with deserts and very cold areas-places where food production was not practicable with simple technology Foraging required a substantial and sophisticated knowledge of the natural environment: how to find particular roots buried deep in the ground, how to follow animal tracks and how to judge the weather and water supply. Hunter-gatherers did not grow food in gardens or keep domesticated animals. Their tools included digging sticks for removing roots from the ground and for penetrating holds dug by animals in order to uncover them By the 19th century, most hunter-gatherers were also involved in other economic pursuits. The Inuit of the Arctic, the Ute and Washo Indians of the great Basin and the Pintupi Aborigines of the Western Desert in Australia are three examples of hunter-gatherers. In Australia, aridity is the principal factor limiting the density and diversity of organisms, including foraging humans throughout the entire continent. In the desert center, scarcity of water limits both plant and animal foods, and it determines human population movements and density. However, conditions are most extreme in the Western Desert, where there is no real seasonality or predictability in rainfall Cultivation: There are two main kinds of farming: horticulture and agriculture. Both differ from
the farming systems of industrial nations in some ways Horticulture: Horticulture is cultivation that makes intensive use of none of the factors of production: land, labor, capital, and machinery. Horticulturalists use simple tools such as hoes and digging sticks to grow their crops. Their fields are not permanently cultivated and lie fallow for varying lengths of time. Horticulture often involves slash-and burn techniques. This is also known as swidden farming, when horticulturalists clear land by cutting down and burning forest or bush or grasslands. The vegetation is broken down, pests are killed, and the ashes remain to fertilize the soil. Crops are then harvested on a very small scale. Often it is cultivated for only one seasons. Some societies draw much of their diet from these gardens; but this food is al ways subsidized with hunting and with wild plants Agriculture: Agriculture is cultivation that requires more labor than does horticulture because it uses land intensively and continuously. The greater labor demands also required common use of domesticated animals, irrigation, and terracing. The domestication of plants began about 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. This development transformed human society. Human groups became tied to land and territory in new ways. Seasonal migrations became smaller, and populations became more dense- including a new concentration into hamlets and villages Horticulture: "Low-labor, shifting-plot Agriculture: " High-labor, permanent-plot Pastoralism Pastoralism is a mode of production based on the domestication of animal herds and the use of their products such as meat and milk for 50% or more of the pastoral society's diet. Pastoralists live in North Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. These herders are people whose activities focus on domesticated animals. In most parts of the world, the domestication of plants was accompanied by a domestication of animals. In Asia and Africa, the kinds and numbers of animals domesticated was large. They were used for numerous by products, but mostly their meat and milk. Other animals, including the horse, donkey, buffalo camel and bulls were used for transport, labor and for their hides. Whereas, H-Gs follow the migration patterns of wild animals, domesticated animals follow the migratory routes of nomadic pastoralists. Consumption Generally, the concept of consumption has not had significant attention from anthropologists Some anthropologists have written of markets the place of markets within global economies his short introduction to consumption looks at markets in Morocco When Clifford Geertz wrote about markets and markeplaces in Morocco in 1979, he noted that
the market was a public place, held in a public square and was predominantly within the male domain.The same has been noted by Margaret Kenna for Nisos( Greece); and in Milocca (Sicily)some of the shopkeepers were men of local importance and pretige, holding office in local politics. Other studies have noted that shopkeepers and merchants in small communities are both store owners and farmers A recent exception to male domination is the account of women in the marketplace in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Deborah Kapchan notes how the itinerant marketplace(two times each week) has been moved twice away from the center of town in Beni Mellal. The move is symbolic since it separates"the emergent middle and upper classes, who prefer boutiques and can afford to pay the higher prices of the neighborhood greengrocer, from the lower echelon of society who buy used clothing and rely on price negotiation to economize every penny. " This marginal status of the suq is symbolic in other ways, including gender. " The suq is the most prominent social metaphor for a sit that embodies dirt, confusion, and shameful enactments. It is a place of dirt and words. "Thus, not only is the marketplace marginal in this part of morocco So are its vendors. Kapchan analogizes the merchant to the trickster, with its ability to take on different physical forms within varying social circumstances, Part of this marginal status also includes the increasing numbers of women merchants. Kapchan notes that"involvement in trade relations lends them a new status and power. No longer are women's negotiations with pow and authority relegated to behind the scenes These market women are dispensers of both commercial goods and of medicine. They thus acquire status and power by selling herbs and healing remedies; however, the women remain socially marginal in an economic sense due to their relatively low economic status. "By stepping into the public sector because of economic necessity, they exemplify self-sufficient women who are nonetheless marginalized because poverty has forced them into the public eye. Nevertheless, these women remake tradition in two ways:first,by being market-keepers they extend female identity into a previously exclusive step of establishing themselves as healers, which is firmly in the domain of men because of its oX domain of men; and second, by selling medicines and herbal forms of healing, they make the first affiliations with islam Anthropologists have also looked at the utilitarian and symbolic nature of consumption in American culture. On the utilitarian side, Marvin Harris argues that American preference for beef is due to the forced removal of bison and of Native Americans from the great Plains in the 1870s and the replacement by cattle. Beef simply became more available. Its availability increased after WWII when fast-food dining on hamburgers suddenly opened a vast new market be blended with the fat of trimmed from feedlot -fattened beef, thus meeting governmen eat may for beef. The practical success of the hamburger is that lesser quality and tougher steer m requirements that hamburgers must be all beef. The utilitarian point here is that beef has become the most usable and most easily produced livestock food in American culture Exchange Anthropologists have paid attention to the practical and symbolic/cultural dimensions of exchange ever since Malinowski published his Trobriand/Kula materials in 1922. Soon after this
date, in America Franz Boas studied the potlatch of the Pacific Northwest. Both systems have elaborate exchanges of goods; and both provide a cultural understanding of the value of goods and of their place in society in general. These transactions have been differentiated with market Is a system o to make a profit The gift: Anthropologists have noted that the circulation or exchange of things takes on a cultural dimension in which the culture supplies the meaning of the thing and the context in which the thing is exchanged. In our own society, for example, we have the impression that the sale of commodities between bargaining partners is profoundly different than the giving of gifts betweer individuals who maintain at least a casual social relationship In both cases, exchange of things has occurred. However, "gifts"are categorized and thought of differently than commodities Gifts, we say, and the spirit of reciprocity, sociability, and spontaneity in which they are typically exchanged, usually are starkly opposed to the profit-oriented, self-centered, and calculated spirit that fires the market and its circulation of commodities Thus, market exchange is said to lack the moral and ethical environment surrounding the gift The problem seems to be that in Western culture, money signifies a sphere of purely"economic relationships; and this sphere and these relationships are inherently impersonal, transitory, amoral and calculating. This sphere is deemed to be in opposition to the personal, enduring, moral, and altruistic atmosphere which seemingly dominates other transactions, such as the gift. But clearly this awkwardness derives from the fact that here money's "natural "environment-the conomy"is said to constitute an autonomous domain to which general moral precepts do not apply. Writers such as Karl Marx and Bernard Mandeville noted that this distinction is the result of the separation of economy from other domains in society-such as the family-which occurred during the rise of capitalism during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He argues the historic division of economy from the realm of morality, thus making the realm of money separate from morals and norms which apply in other domains of society. Because of this division, Louis Dumont claims that today we have one set of morals and ethics for one domain of society and another set for the domain of"economy. Another way of looking at it, say Dumont, is that people operate according to one set of moral precepts in their business relations and according to an entirely different set of precepts in all other areas of the social and personal lives There is actually an emancipation from the general or common run of morality, but it is accompanied by the recognition that economic action is by itself oriented to the good, that it has a special moral character of its own. It is by virtue of this special characteristic that it is allowed to escape the general form of moral judgment. Economics escapes the fetters of general morality only at the price of assuming a normative chaacter of its own. In opposition to the general sphere of moral sentiments based on sympathy onomic activity is the one activity of man in which there is no need for anything but self-love: by pursuing only their particular interests, men unwittingly work for the common good, and this is where the famous "Invisible Hand"comes into play .. It is as if
God told us, "Don' t be afraid, my child, of apparently trespassing against my commands I have so arranged everything that you are justified in neglecting morality in this particular case. "(Dumont: 1977, p 61-62) In other words, the morality of the marketplace is differentiated from that of religion and family and indeed, the former displaces or casts out the latter. Thus, actions and behaviors of individuals when pursuing modern rational economic gains take on a separate morality which does not resemble that found in other areas of society. This phenomenon even takes place by a gle individual, who lives a portion of his life by one set of standards and another portion of his life by another set of standards. The standards do not appear in conflict because they are both legitimized within their own domain of acitivity Reciprocity: As Marcel Mauss noted, the gift imposes an identity on both the donor and the recipient; and it reveals the idea which the recipient evokes in the imagination of the giver Moreover, he said, the public giving of a gift establishes social superiority, or power, of the giver over the receiver of the gift. In that sense, in some societies, gifts must be repaid in order to equal things out or to for one side to restate his social standing and power Thus, anthropologists speak of balanced exchange and market exchange. In the former, the goal is either immediate or eventual balance in value. The dominant form of transfer is the gift or its equivalent. This form contains two sub-categories based on the social relationship of the two parties involved in the exchange and the degree to which a"return"is expected Generalized reciprocity is where those who give do not expect the recipient to make a return at any definite time in the future. The transaction is between people who are(or who are expected to be)emotionally related to one another, such as friendship or kinship. Balanced reciprocity involves items transferred between persons, and the donor expects a return in products of roughly lual value. The return may be immediate or some specified time in the future Kul Trobriand Islands are found in the stretch of the Massim archipelago off the east coast of Papua New Guinea. Trobrianders, who practice swidden agriculture, are mainly cultivators. They spend much of their time tilling their lush gardens. They produce fare more than is needed to sustain their diet. Some of the produce is given to local leaders and chiefs, and part in fulfillment of kinship ties to a grower's sister's or mother's husband and his family. In this matrilineal society, the mB has direct interst in all things regarding his sister's household. Anything left over is left to rot. Much like a 4H show, competitive displays of yams are noticeable to the public; and the largest growing yams provide status and prestige for their grower. But the Trobrianders also take to the sea in the outrigger canoes. They will trade with peoples of other islands, especially when exchange is done through the kula. The kula is the best documented example of a non-Western pre-industrial, non-monetized, trans-local exchange system anywhere in the world. Even today, it is an extremely complex regional system for the circulation of particular kinds of valuables, usually between men of substance. The main objects exchanged are of two types: decorated necklaces(which circulate in one direction) and armshells(which
circulate in the other direction. These valuable acquire very specific biographical identity as they move from place to place and hand to hand, just as the men who exchange them gain and lose reputation as they acquire, hold, and part with these valuables. Simply put, the kula is an elaborate system of gift-exchange, linking the Trobrianders with communities of most of the surround island The received argument regarding the circulation of kula materials is that it is balanced reciprocity in an elaborate constantly self-renewing treaty-like system which sustains peace between trade valued resources which are differentially distributed throughout quite varied island rity to otherwise hostile local groups that lack centralized authorities. This allows them the sect ecologies. The islands are quite varied in their resources, some with stone and some without, many lacking clay for pots or proper shells and feathers for ornamentation, others having argument, however, does not explain the distribution of seemingly worthless items such as9 inappropriate trees or lashing-vines for canoes and a few being deficient in certain foods. This necklaces and arm-shells, which are the primary circulating objects in kula trade. The argument for prestige, advanced by Annette Weiner, Nancy Munn and a small handful of others anthropologists, is that the kula is a process through which the members of small local descent groups, who would find openly aggressive face-to-face competition intolerably disruptive, are able to compete against one another as individuals by seeking prestige in an external field of action, the theater of kula exchange The kula has long been used in anthropology as an example of exchange as a source of prestige But how does it work exactly? Those who sail together on a Kula expedition to a neighboring island are all rivals as both exchange partners and as rivals for prestige. Each individual is out for the best bargains both in trade and in the Kula, and to return home laden with prizes which outshine those who accompanied him. Chiefs and other leading"big men"have more Kula partners than commoners, and Kula networks of prestige underwrite and reinforce rank and power. Malinowski noted, "Gifts are brought to the man of superior status by the man of inferior rank, and the later has also to initiate the exchange. An object will stay in a hamlet or village for a time; and then at the next Kula exchange, it will accompany the carrier and be sent along the cycle round the Kula ring. Kula objects can and must be exchanged for one another; but they cannot be converted into other forms of currency or exchange. Thus, arm shells initiated into the kula ring become prestige items, and are not withdrawn by any recipient. They exist only display and then for dispatch to another kula partner. Kula objects thus owe their value as things to their symbolic significance as exchange counters, or tokens. In other words, they represent the highest form of legitimate self-interest. As Nancy Munn has noted for kula exchange in Gawa, "Although men appear to be the agents in defining shell value, in fact, without shells, men cannot define their own value; in this respect, shells and men are reciprocally agents of each others value definition In this regard, kula exchange is a perfect example of the assertion that things, especially exchanged objects or exchanged things, assume human biographies--they become intimately
associated with the persons who own or possess them and who then exchange them and pass them along. Because objects become intimately associated with certain persons of prestige, these kinds of exchanges exploit and expand the biographies and histories of people as the peopl exchange the objects. This differs from the purely rational and calculating forms of money and commodity transactions in modern economies. Indeed, because of their uniqueness and distinction as economic transactions, Arjun Appadurai has labeled such forms of excha tournaments of value Tournaments of value are complex periodic events that are removed in some culturally well-defined way from the routines of economic life. Participation in them is likely to be both a privilege of those in power and an instrument of status contests between them The currency of such tournaments is also likely to be set apart through well understood cultural [mediums. What is at issue in such tournaments is not just status, rank, fame,or reputation of actors, but the disposition of the central tokens of value in the society in question. Finally, though such tournaments of value occur in special times and places, heir forms and outcomes are always consequential for the more mundane realities of power and value in ordinary life. (Appadurai: 1986, p. 21) Examples of such a tournament of exchange value in our own society would be an exclusive art auction, the sale and possession of an exclusive and distinct building- such as one designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, bidder ind valuable piece of historic or sports memorabilia such as an authentic copy of the U.S. Constitution or even the Mark McGuire home run ball#62 the sale of an exclusive piece of western history - such as parts of the guttenberg Bible which are sold only to libraries or museums. Moka: Both Moka and Potlatch, and to some extent, Kula, involve redistribtuion which one persons collects goods or money from many members of a group; then, at a public event at a later time, he"returns "the pooled goods to everyone who contributed. Redistribution in these three forms of exchange involve the potential for establishing inequalities in social status and wealth based on status and the accumulations of goods. They contain the distinct possibility of institutionalized inequality since what is returned may not always equal what was contributed. It may be less, or it may be much more. It both potlatch and moka, where"more!"is returned there is always the assertion of the status and social position of the giver over all of those who receive the goods. In classical economic theory is correct that the profit motive is universal, with the goal of maximizing material benefits, then how does one explain the potlatch and moka, in which wealth is given away? Many economist have cited the potlatch as a classic case of economically wasteful behavior Highland New Guinea political leadership involves redistribution in a system of contributions and ritual feasts called moka that may take several years to organize. Moka involves the redistribution of prestige items such as the cassowary and the pig, but lately also involves cash and automobiles
Potlatch: Potlatch was found in the native N. w. coastal peoples of America, including the Salish, the Kwakiutl, the Tlingit, and others. Some peoples still practice a revival form of potlatch, although it was once outlawed during the early years of this century. At each event potlatch sponsors gave away food, blankets, pieces of copper, jewelry, and other items. Serge Kahn writes of one potlatch in the 1920s where there were over 20,000 items past out. In return for these, they received prestige and political status. To give a potlatch enhanced one's eputation. Prestige increased with the lavishness of the potlatch, the value of the goods given away, and the number items and to who they were given