ANTH 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Smallpox, The Roots, Measles
The Global Economy:
● Introduction to the Global Economy:
○ The economy is a complex network
○ There are hundreds of thousands of exchanges that are made every day in
today’s economy. Money changes hands hundreds of thousands of times and
moves all over the world geographically, faster than people move around the
world
■ There’s a website called wheresgeorge.com. People can enter the serial
number of a bill that they have. The next time that bill is entered onto the
website, it calculates how far that bill has moved so that you can see how
quickly physical money moves and changes hands
○ Today’s economy is a modern capitalist economy. It affects everyone and
connects us all around the world
○ Anthropologists are interested in the way that the economy affects how we
fulfill our fundamental, basic needs and they look at the different forms of
exchange and markets throughout the world
○ Chocolate example:
■ Chocolate is made with cocoa powder which comes from the seeds of the
Cacao plant, which originates in in Central America. It was originally
cultivated by the Ancient Mayans. When the Spanish Conquistadors
encountered the Cacao plant, they saw that it could result in a great
economic profit, so they took it back to Europe and it spread
■ Today, most Cacao is grown in Africa, particularly the Ivory Coast. There’s
a great demand, however most Cacao farmers in this area make very
little profits because prices are determined by the international market
and favor Western countries. There have also been high taxes placed on
the Cacao by the local government, so there’s a steady economic profit to
the government. Very little of the profit goes to the Cacao farmers of this
region. Some of this money that went to the government was used to
fund a civil war. So, some of the money you have spent on chocolate has
probably gone to fund a civil war in the Ivory Coast of Africa
● The Purpose of an Economy:
○ Most people think of economy as being currency. If there’s a strong economy,
people have a lot of money. If there’s a weak economy, people don’t have very
much money
○ Actually, an economy is not defined by money. An economy is a system that
adapts to the environment and is defined by the culture
○ We buy things like food, clothes, houses etc. These things are necessary to
survive in today’s world
○ Anthropologists simplify the types of economies and generalize them. They do
not look at them through a monetary perspective. They discuss the environment,
and what/how we seek and attain first in our lives, such as food, shelter and
clothing
○ Today, we have a much less personal relationship with money
○ There are 3 stages that every economy has:
■ Production: how goods are produced.
● Anthropologists typically focus on food production, the ways food
is produced and how the production of food has evolved as a
response to the environment
■ Distribution: how goods are distributed
● In the United States, distribution involves money- we have a
monetary-based distribution system
● Other forms of distribution include: market exchange, reciprocity
and redistribution
■ Consumption: how you eat food, wear clothes, etc.
● Consumption is very important because if you aren’t consuming
the goods, you can’t survive
○ The ways that goods are produced and distributed have a huge effect on how
people live. For example, some people grow all of their own food and spend
their days farming so that they can eat. Some people travel to a market to buy
their food. Some people receive goods that have been distributed by a person in
power
● Food Production:
○ Yehudi Cohen stated that there are 5 ways that people produce food:
■ Foraging
■ Pastoralism: when people raise animals for food
■ Horticulture: when people raise plants for food
■ Agriculture: a more intense version of horticulture
■ Industrialized Agriculture: the mass production of food
○ Foraging: foraging is the same as hunter-gathering. Most people used to live the
hunter-gatherer lifestyle. They hunted wild animals, fished, and gathered plants
that they found such as nuts, fruits and roots. It is no longer common (less than
250,000 people in the world practice this)
■ Some people believe that this is a very difficult lifestyle, and that people
who live this way are near starvation, spending all of their time searching
39
ANTH 1000 Full Course Notes
Verified Note
39 documents
Document Summary
There are hundreds of thousands of exchanges that are made every day in today"s economy. Money changes hands hundreds of thousands of times and moves all over the world geographically, faster than people move around the world. People can enter the serial number of a bill that they have. The next time that bill is entered onto the website, it calculates how far that bill has moved so that you can see how quickly physical money moves and changes hands. Today"s economy is a modern capitalist economy. It affects everyone and connects us all around the world. Anthropologists are interested in the way that the economy affects how we fulfill our fundamental, basic needs and they look at the different forms of exchange and markets throughout the world. Chocolate is made with cocoa powder which comes from the seeds of the. Cacao plant, which originates in in central america. It was originally cultivated by the ancient mayans.
