Handout for section on economics and anthropology

Consumption, Exchange, Social Organization

/ Foraging / Industrial

Mode of Consumption

/ Minimal Consumption,
Finite needs / Consumerism/Infinite Needs

Social Organization of Consumption

/ Equality, Sharing / Class-based Inequality

Mode of Exchange

/ Balanced Exchange / Market Exchange
Social Organization of
Exchange / Smaller Groups
Face-to-Face / Anonymous
Primary Category
Of Exchange / The Gift / The Sale

Generalized reciprocity

·  Distribution of goods and no overt account is kept of what is given

·  No specific return is expected

·  Ideally altruistic (without thought of economic or other self interest)

·  Assistance is given and if possible and if necessary it is returned

·  In Western society this occurs mostly between parents and children

·  In foraging societies it is an important social mechanism – especially involving food

·  The good opinion of others is necessary for survival in these societies

·  The desire not to be stingy is a strong motivation to share and do one’s share

Balanced Reciprocity

·  Clear obligation to return within a specified time limit goods of nearly equal value

·  It is most often called gift giving but it is economically important

·  We give gifts at weddings and birthdays but we know that if we don’t return a gift or reciprocate there will be negative feelings.

·  A refusal to receive or a failure to reciprocate is taken as a withdrawal from a social relationship

·  More often the payoff is not immediate.

·  Receiving means an indication of willingness to be obligated and shows a trusting social relationship

·  Often characteristic of trading relations among non-Western peoples without market economies

·  Trade may be over long distances and between different tribes or villages

·  Trading partners with long-standing and personalized relationships

Negative reciprocity

(Includes capitalism)

·  Unsociable extreme in exchange

·  Trade conducted for the purpose of material advantage

·  Based on the desire to get something for nothing (gambling, theft, cheating)

·  Or to get a better bargain (haggling)

·  Characteristic of impersonal or unfriendly transaction esp. between outsiders to one another

·  Industrial society and tribal and peasant society’s outsiders are considered fair game

·  Abstract principles of morality develop that are supposed to apply to everyone in complex societies where most economic dealings are between strangers

·  Some areas of commerce ideals are not met. (shady practices)

·  Insider – morally wrong to cheat part of the in-groupOutsider - from whom every advantage can be gained