Lecture Topics Adaptive Strategies Kinship Economic Behavior Adaptive Strategies Foraging Horticulture move on Agriculture o Intensive farming o Use the soil they have and when that is used up they More complex tools Domesticated animals Mechanized Irrigating Terracing Elimination pests Costs and benefits Intensified environments o increase production of the soil they have Hort Vs Agr o The Cultivation continuum Horticulturalists Industrial agriculturalists One end of the spectrum to another o Cultivating domestic plants Pastoralism o Subsistence herders Breeding and managing herds of domesticated grazing animals Mobile animals move Grazing animals cannot stay on one piece of land because they will eat all of the food Pastoral nomadism When the entire group of people follow herds around EX people groups in places of Iran Transhumance Only select members of the group follows the herd usually young males They have a permanent village and community They follow the herd to seasonal pastures EX European nomads and African nomads plants o Pastoral groups do other things as well ex foraging for Because we need more than just meat to survive Industrial Production o Factory production o Capitalism o Socialism o People who aren t directly involved in the production of their food Modes of Production Economies goods o Systems of producing distributing and consuming Balancing demands supply and needs o Each society defines demands and needs as culturally specific o Mode of Production Organizing productions Organizing labor who manages who Industrial vs Nonindustrial Industrial Buying and selling labor Production in Nonindustrial Populations Division of economic labor o Age and gender Children are not allowed to work Old people can retire There is still some discrimination with gender o Betsileo of Madagascar There are 2 stages of rice cultivation Prepare the field Young men run cattle around the field to break out the dirt Then older men break up the dirt even further Young and middle age women takes transplanted rice plants and plant them into the field Harvesting of the rice Cultivation Young men cut the rice Young women carry the rice stocks back to the home Middle age women start the process of getting the rice off of the plant Middle age men finish this process Older men and older women gather up all of the rice Means of production o Major productive resources necessary for production Land labor technology o In Industrial societies We do not own are own labor We sell our labor We are less connected and more specialized We only have one job and that s pretty much all we know how to do o Nonindustrial societies More closely connected Linked through kin organization Less specialized Everyone works together to accomplish the main goal usually food production Two economic anthropology questions o What motivates people in different cultures What do people spend their money on Classic Western Economic Theory Economizing Rational allocation of scarce resources to particular uses Idea that we can only produce so much o We have limited resources but unlimited wants Trying to gain the largest margin of individual profit o Maximizing our individual profit Maximize the amount of resources Maximizing Alternative Ends that we can get People of nonindustrial societies don t just think of themselves and their individual resources Funds Subsistence funds Replacement funds Social funds Ceremonial funds o Things have to be replaced o Things produced for the community as a whole o EX Ceremonial feasts Rent funds o When someone doesn t own the land they cultivate o Paying someone else for what you are using o How are economies organized in different societies Industrial vs nonindustrial societies have extremely different economic organization Distribution and exchange Organization of economies Three Exchange Systems Market principle Exchange of goods and services with a standardized value with money o Dominate in North America Redistribution Centrally redistributed goods throughout a community Reciprocity EX Community feast collects food and redistributes it throughout the land EX this occurs in chiefdoms The exchange of goods and services Three types o Generalized unequal values good Ex gift giving Parents spend a lot more money on their kids gifts than the kids spend on their parents gifts o Balanced equal Bartering and exchange Trading Both sides are looking for an equal outcome Both sides feel like they have gotten what they wanted Ex flea markets garage sales o Negative unequal bad One of the parties do not get what they want out of the exchange Ex Cattle Rushing Sudan Steeling someone s cattle One sided one of the parties believes that they got the better deal EX Used car salesmen they are trying to get you to pay more for the car than it is worth Coexistence of exchange principles Taxes redistribution system We pay for government services police and fire department military protection construction ect Potlatching Festive event o Among tribes of the Northwest Coast of North America o Big community celebration Feasts life events birth death marriage holidays They would invite some other communities to the celebration and give away everything they had o Conspicuous consumption What they couldn t give away they destroyed They did this to gain prestige Why were these people potlatching o What motivated exchange Profit Individual versus group o Why would you destroy all of your wealth Adaptive mechanism o Redistributed wealth within the communities Invited communities that did not have enough to support themselves for that year The communities that through the parties had a surplus of goods for that year o Created alliances