Economics and Anthropology

Ms. Carin Alejandria

Enderun Colleges, Inc
Key terms
Key terms
 Economic anthropology
• The study of economic anthropology involves
a theoretical debate between those who
believe the concepts of Western economics
are appropriate for the study of all economic
systems and those who do not.
 Economic anthropology
• involves examining how resources are
allocated, converted into usable commodities,
and distributed
 Property rights
• Whereas property rights to land are strongly
held in the U.S., in most food-collecting
societies land is not owned either individually
or collectively. The extent to which people
have free access to land in pastoral societies
depends on local environments where water
and pasturage are scarce. Land rights are
more rigidly controlled among horticulturalists
and agriculturalists than among foragers and
pastoralists.
 Property ownership
• People in some parts of the world do not
share most North American’s notion of
property ownership. Instead of owning
something in our sense of the word, people
have limited rights and obligations to a
particular object.
• Ex. The Pala’wan Case
A Pala’wan girl
 Gender specialization
• Every society, to one degree or another,
allocates tasks according to gender. Because
the same type of activity (such as weaving)
may be associated with the opposite gender in
different cultures, the division of labor by
gender is sometimes seen as arbitrary
 Task specialization
• The amount of specialization (division of
labor) varies from society to society. Based on
the extent of division of labor, French
sociologist Durkheim distinguished between
two different types of societies: those based
on mechanical solidarity and those based on
organic solidarity.
 Task specialization
• According to Durkheim, societies with a
minimum of labor socialization are held
together by mechanical solidarity, which is
based on a commonality of interests, whereas
highly specialized societies are held together
by organic solidarity, which is based on
mutual interdependence.
 Types of distribution
• Goods and services are distributed according
to three different modes: reciprocity,
redistribution, and market exchange.
 Types of distribution
• Reciprocity is the exchange of goods and
services of roughly equal value between two
trading partners
 Types of distribution
• Redistribution, found most commonly in
societies with political bureaucracies, is a form
of exchange whereby goods and services are
given to central authority and then
reallocated to the people according to a new
pattern
 Types of distribution
• market exchange systems involve the use of
standardized currencies to buy and sell goods
and services.
 Types of reciprocity
• Economic anthropologists generally recognize
three types of reciprocity depending upon the
degree of closeness of the parties:
generalized, balanced, and negative.
 Types of reciprocity
• generalized reciprocity involves giving a gift
without any expectation of immediate return
 Types of reciprocity
• balanced reciprocity involves he exchange of
goods and services with the expectation that
equivalent value will be returned within a
specific period of time
 Types of reciprocity
• and negative reciprocity involves the
exchange of goods and services between
equals in which the parties try to gain an
advantage.
 redistribution
• Whereas reciprocity is essentially the
exchange of goods and services between two
partners, redistribution involves a social
center from which goods are redistributed.
The institutions of tribute paid through an
African chief, bride wealth, and the potlatch
found among the Native Americans of the
North West coast are all examples of
redistribution.
 Market exchange
• Market exchange, based on standardized
currencies, tends to be less personal than
either reciprocity or redistribution because
people in such an exchange are interested
primarily in maximizing their profits. As a
general rule, the more labor specialization in a
society, the more complex the system of
market exchange.
 Government and free market
• Societies with self-developed market
economies have to decide to what extent they
would allow free markets or the government
to control the economy.