ANT207H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Moneylender, Extortion, Noble Savage
Professor Tanya Li Nov. 10, 2016
ANT207 LECTURE 9
APPROACHING ECONOMY
WHAT IS “THE ECONOMY”?
• Production/making a living
• Exchange/distribution
• Consumption
PRODUCTION KEY QUESTIONS (MARX)
- Who owns what land? (land, tools, capital)
- Who does what? (work—paid and unpaid)
- Who gets what? (pay, profit, food)
- What do they do with the surplus? (invest, save, distribute)
MAKING A LIVING
• Hunt/gather
• Product to eat/sell (herding, agriculture)
• Produce non-food crops (rubber, timber)
• Manufacture goods
• Provide services
• Wage work (local/distant; seasonal/permanent)
• Live from Capital/profit/inheritance
• Several sources combined
Ex. Lauje
• Can shift
Ex. Lauje in 1990vs. Lauje in 2009
EXCHANGE TYPES
- Altruism
- Barter
- Bribery
- Corruption
- Donation
- Employment
- Extortion
- Insurance
- Interning
- Money-lending
- Pawning
- Profiteering
- Renting
- Retailing
- Shoplifting
- Swapping
- Theft
- Tipping
- Trading
- Wholesaling
MONEY CONVENIENT BUT DANGEROUS (Lauje)
• Barter direct exchange
• Money makes all things anonymous, commensurable, standardized value
• Limit markets by creating barriers, distinct spheres of exchange
• Cannot buy babies, body parts, “love” (however, cash gifts can show love)
• Danger is that money makes things measurable that shouldn’t be (such as buying babies);
then it de-legitimizes these things
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
What is the economy : production/making a living, exchange/distribution, consumption. Who owns what land? (land, tools, capital) What do they do with the surplus? (invest, save, distribute) Making a living: hunt/gather, product to eat/sell (herding, agriculture, produce non-food crops (rubber, timber, manufacture goods, provide services, wage work (local/distant; seasonal/permanent, live from capital/profit/inheritance, several sources combined. What were the debates among lauje highlanders about using. Generalized reciprocity goods, labour, gift circulate, no calculation or expectation of equivalent return. Create obligation put someone in your debt. Patrons" gifts to clients both help and domination. All gifts interested altruistic, selfish, competitive, creative: redistribution power holder or central authority collects and redistributes. Market as most efficient means to allocate resources, express choice. Critique poor cannot express demand in market terms; market failures; faced with the dull compulsion of capitalist relations (poor have little or no choice)
