Anthropology 202

reciprocity

giving and taking without the use of money: it mainly takes the form of gift giving or generalized reciprocity. There may also be exchanges of equal value (barter or non-monetary trade) or balanced reciprocity, without the use of money.

potlatches

grand feasts in rank societies at which the tribal chiefs give gifts to every guest.

class societies

have unequal access to all three advantages--economic resources, power, and prestige.

commercialization

increasing dependence on buying and selling, usually with money as the medium of exchange.

balanced reciprocity

is explicit and short term in its expectations of return.

redistribution

is the accumulation of goods or labor by a particular person, or in a particular place, for the purpose of subsequent distribution. An important mechanism in societies with hierarchies.

migratory labor

one way commercialization can occur is for some members of a community to move to a place that offers the possibility of working for wages.

foragers

people who support themselves by hunting wild animals and gathering wild edible plants and insects

peasants

produce food as well, largely for their own consumption, they regularly sell part of their surplus (food, other goods, or labor) to others, and land is one of the commodities they buy, rent, and sell.

rank societies

so no have very unequal access to economic resources or to power, but they do contain social groups with unequal access to prestige.

general purpose money

some anthropologists define money according to functions and characteristics of the general purpose money used in our own and other complex societies, for which nearly all goods, resources, and services can be exchanged.

prestige

someone or some group is accorded particular respect or honor.

food production

the cultivation and domestication of plants and animals.

horticulture

the growing of crops of all kinds with relatively simple tools and methods, in the absence of permanently cultivated fields.

economic resources

things that have value in a culture; they include land, tools, and other technology, goods, and money.

intensive agriculture

use techniques that enable them to cultivate fields permanently. More complex than horticulture.

tools used for foraging

usually hand tools such as the digging stick or hoe, as well as plows or other equipment pulled along by animals.

generalized reciprocity

when goods or services are given to another, without any apparent expectation of a return gift. Generalized reciprocity sustains the family in all societies. Parents give food, clothing, and labor to children because they want to, or perhaps feel obligated to but they do not usually calculate exactly how their children will reciprocate years later.

pastoralism

when societies depend mostly on domesticated herds of animals that feed on a small pasture. example: the Saami in northwestern Scandinavia raise reindeer.

market or commercial exchange

when we think of markets we usually think of bustling, colorful places where goods are bought and sold. The exchanges usually involve money.

features of intensive agricultural societies

-more likely to have towns or cities. -complex political organization. -large differences in wealth and power. -work longer hours than horticulturalist. -more likely to face famines and food shortages although they are more productive. -they don't have enough crop diversity.

general features of foragers

-not a numerous group. -most live in what is called the marginal areas of the earth: deserts, the Arctic, and dense tropical forests. -commonly referred to as hunter-gatherers. example: Australian aborigines made use of the desert environment of the Ngatatjara.

general features of pastoralism

-recently it has been practiced mainly in grassland and other semiarid habitats that are not especially suitable for cultivation without some significant technological input such as irrigation. -mostly nomadic people, moving often to find new sources of water and pastures for their herds. -Usually small and usually mostly related. -There is a great deal of interdependence.

class

a category of people who all have about the same opportunity to obtain economic resources, power, and prestige.

power

a second and usually related advantage, is the ability to make others do what they do not want to do; power is influence based on the threat of force.

corvee

a system of required labor, existed in the Inca Empire in the central Andes before the Spanish conquest. This was how they payed their taxes in other ways--by performing a certain number of hours of labor or by giving up a certain percentage of what they produce.

supplementary cash crops

a third way commercialization occurs is when people cultivating the soil produce a surplus above their subsistence requirements, which is then sold for cash.

non-agricultural commercial production

commercialization can also occur when a self sufficient society comes to depend more and more on trading for it's livelihood.

egalitarian societies

contain no social groups with greater or lesser access to economic resources, power, or prestige.

cash crops

crops grown deliberately for sale.