Anthropology Unit 2 Chapter 3 Equality and Inequality Underlying Principles Wealth items which can be owned and have money value or an exchange value States societies that have been organized to provide an elite with the power to exploit people in their own societies States use force in the territory Stratification a system which enables one group to maintain control of the means of production and use the labor of those who don t a stratification system shifts surplus into the hands of those who control the means of production Egalitarian societies don t produce a surplus that can be accumulated as wealth don t have a system for exploiting people and were not good at all in furthering the extraction of wealth Stratified societies don t represent progress for majority of people in them in terms of human well being but they are good at creating wealth for the few Surplus production beyond the subsistence needs of the producers Principles Underlying Equality and the Communal Mode of Production Egalitarian societies are designed to convey rights to all members rather than to reserve special rights for a privileged few A surplus produced by the work of lot of people but handed over to just a few is the basis of inequality Maintaining equality is based on the following underlying principles o everyone has equal rights to the means of production the resources belong to everyone o nobody has power over other people so someone cant force you to do something and all have a right to use them against your will o no surplus is produced people produce only as much as is actually needed or if there is a small surplus it is in some way shared by everyone o there is no system for benefitting yourself by using other people s labor or taking away their surplus you cant increase your own prestige or wealth by getting other people to work for you or hand over to you things they made or grew Prestige higher standing importance deference and respect given to someone than is given to the rest of the people in the group A Communal Mode of Production Communal mode of production food and other necessities are produced by all members of the group Mode of Production the social and physical organization that is associated with producing food and other necessities in a particular society kin ordered mode of production one form of the communal mode of production where production work is organized by kinship band a small kin ordered egalitarian group that follows a foraging subsistence strategy lineage a group of matrilineal or patrilineal relatives all descended from a single known common ancestor who act as a unit clan a descent group formed by all those who believe they are descended from a common ancestors even if the exact connections can t be explained subsistence strategy the methods used by a group of people to get food and other resources such as foraging or horticulture foraging a subsistence strategy that is built around primary dependence on wild plants and animals fictive kinship building kinship rights and obligations by claiming an actually nonexistent kinship relationship bilateral tracing descent from both parents patrilocal residence of a married couple with the husband s kin carrying capacity the sustainable number of people that can be supported on a particular area of land tribe a pastoral or horticultural group organized through kinship and led by people who gain their position by ability rather than by birth chiefdom a society with hereditary ranking but minimal stratification involving a much larger number of people than does a band or tribe horticulture a subsistence strategy that involves primary dependence on farming that involves cultivating plants without the use of non human energy you can be part of a band because you were born into it or you can be married into one or you might be kin to someone who is already a member pastoralism a subsistence strategy based on primary dependence on raising large herds of animals descent group a kin group whose membership is based on a rule of descent either matrilineal or patrilineal corporate group a group of people who form a single legal entity in relation to outsiders and jointly control resources matrilineage a lineage based on descent through the mother a matrilineal lineage Americas and Sub Saharan Africa patrilineage a lineage based on descent through the father a patrilineal lineage Europe and Asia exogamy a pattern preference or requirement to marry a person who is not a member of one s own social group or category matrilocal residence of a married couple with the wife s kin Household a group of people who live together in one house and are economically interdependent Kinship a way of defining a group of people with whom you have mutual rights and obligations due to shared ancestry they are people defined as being related to ou by blood or marriage you do not change lineage when you marry never lose rights of own lineage B The Economic System Who Works Who Gets in egalitarian societies all adults work and all get those who work harder don t get more to keep for themselves but they may get more prestige egalitarian foragers and horticulturalists generally only work three to five hours a day band societies have very little gender inequality in farming societies the sexual division of labor is less equal and so there is inequality sexual division of labor the assignment of a society s tasks according to sex In some societies the division between the work that men do and the work that women do is very clear in others there is considerate overlap economic system a society s organization for the production and distribution of goods and services production taking raw materials from nature and making them into goods that are useful to humans distribution the assignment of goods and services to members of a society exchange the process of distributing goods and services by transferring them from one individual to another reciprocity the exchange of gifts and or services between individuals in which the goods and services given and received are expected to be approximately equal generalized reciprocity the exchange of gifts or services between people who are not keeping track of the exact amounts given or received ownership the rights to use and benefit from a particular item or resource and to prevent other people from using or benefiting from it without you permission social control those processes both formal and informal in a society which