ANTH 310 - Module 6 - Economic Organization

Potlatches

Lecture Notes Redistribution feast. A large party centered on consumption and performance. Invitees were encouraged to eat and drink fish oil until they got sick. Dances and performances were carried out and legends were told of past successful potlatches. The chief would give a long speech about how great he is and his ancestors were. He would boast about the size of potlatch and what a bountiful and productive year they had. He would call the neighboring chiefs up one by one to give them gifts from his village.

Destructive Potlatches

Lecture Notes: Fur traders came to the Northwest Coast bringing prosperity through trade, but devastation through disease. This caused intense competition for followers between chiefs. A small number of chiefs were able to accumulate large amounts of wealth, so they destroyed all the extra in an effort to show just how wealthy they were.

Money

is a medium of exchange that has standard value. It is used as a means of payment for goods and services in a wide range of transactions where trade is well developed and economizing is a guiding principle.

Planned Obsolescence

is a purposefully implemented strategy that ensures the current version of a given product will become out-of-date or useless within a known time period.

Kula Ring

is a system of exchange in the Trobriand Islands, where trading partners from different islands take risky voyages to exchange shell ornaments around the ring of islands; white cowrie shell armbands are traded in a counterclockwise direction, and red shell necklaces re traded clockwise. The ceremonial trading of necklaces and armbands in the kula ring encourages trade throughout Melanesia.

Surplus

is an amount greater than what is needed for immediate consumption by the producers.

Capitalism

is associated with a change from production for use value to production for profit value.

Economics

is embedded in the social process, production is carried out in families and communities, and distribution exchange, and consumption have social and political functions. the branch of knowledge concerned with the production, consumption, and transfer of wealth. the condition of a region or group as regards material prosperity.

Exchange

is the practice of giving and and receiving valued objects and services.

Generalized Reciprocity

A type of exchange PPT/Lecture Notes: -No need for immediate return -No systematic calculation -Freeloader not tolerated for long Textbook definition: involves mutual giving and receiving among people of equal status in which there is (1) no need for immediate return, (2) no systematic calculation of the value of the services and products exchanged, and (3) an overt denial that a balance is being calculated or that the balance must come out even.

Balanced Reciprocity

A type of exchange PPT/Lecture Notes: -Trade -Balanced over the long run -Common between groups from different environments -Provide different specialized products -Used to maintain alliances involves the expectation that goods or services of equivalent value will be returned within a specified period of time.

Negative Reciprocity

A type of exchange PPT/Lecture Notes: -Unequal return for valued goods -Theft -Marks end of reciprocal relationship -Creates tension between groups

Market Exchange

Buying and selling in a price market is a distinctive mode of exchange, the exchange involves specification of a precise time, quantity, and type of payment, and the participants' main concern is maximizing financial gain.

Egalitarian Redistribution

PPT/Lecture Notes: Textbook: Page 103, Table 7.1 Members enjoy equal access to basic resources and no individual or group has appreciably more wealth, power or prestige. There are as many positions of prestige as there are persons capable of filling them.

Stratified Redistribution

PPT/Lecture Notes: -Coercive collection and redistribution by leaders -Goods are not always distributed equally Textbook: the workers must contribute to the central pool or suffer penalties, and they may not get back anything.

Redistribution

PPT/Lecture Notes: The accumulation of goods or labor for the purpose of subsequent allocation Textbook: involves the accumulation of large amounts of labor products produced by different individuals in a central place where they are sorted and counted and then given away to producers and nonproducers alike. Typically, redistributors consciously attempt to increase and intensify production, for which they gain presitge in the eyes of their peers.

Trobrianders

Pertaining to Trobriand Islands, South Pacific

Kwakiutl

Textbook: Pg. 104-106 Complex hunter gatherers based in british canada. From the 1800s. Their mode of production is highly intensifiable and requires a coordinated effort in gathering and storing food for the winter months. Infrastructure: Dense forest, abundant in seasonal game and berry patches. Large population concentrated in villages along coast that disperses during late spring and summer months to collect wild foods. Annual variation in resource availability, with alternating years of abundance and scarcity. Food requirements of large population make famine threat during winter months. Structure: Leadership is necessary to make sure food is collected and store. They need a leader, the "big man" known as a chief. Potlatch redistributes food and other valuables to neighboring villages to ensure against local food shortages. Repayment by hosting future potlatch erases debt and reinstates prestige to the subordinate group. Superstructure: People aspire to give away large amounts of surplus to increase prestige of the group and wealth is accumulated not for consumption but for redistribution.

Freeloader

a person who takes advantage of others' generosity without giving anything in return.