ANTHRO 2030 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Agriculture, Hunter-Gatherer, Subsistence Agriculture
12 Oct 2018
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Department
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ANTHRO 2030
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Economics
➢ Economic system: the way in which a group of people produce, distribute and consume goods and
services.
➢ Anthropologists study the ways in which a culture and the economic system interact
○ Culture influences the preferences people have (i.e., what they want)
○ Culture influences the means by which people can achieve their goals (e.g., access to
resources)
○ Culture structures the ways in which people interacts
○ Economic system influences other aspects of culture (e.g., families atomize with capitalism)
➢ The economic system is embedded in the culture
○ The economic system cannot be easily and cleanly separated from other aspects of a culture
○ In many societies, few groups are organized only for the purpose of production; their
economic activities are only one aspect of what they do.
○ Production is often carried out by families, larger kinship groups, or local communities.
○ Production, distribution, consumption and exchange of goods and services are embedded in
relationships that have social and political purposes as well as economic ones.
Economic behavior:
➢ Scarcity is a key part of economics. We don’t live in a work of infinites. Sometimes, it’s assumed we
have limited means and unlimited wants. Even if your wants aren’t unlimited, the time we have on
this earth is limited, and so we face tradeoffs and have to choose how best to allocate our limited
resources.
➢ To understand peoples’ choices, you must understand preferences (i.e., how different choices result
in different degrees of happiness or utility)
➢ Are people inherently selfish?
➢ Social preferences are those that have to do with how people allocated resources with other.
○ A common assumption is that people are self-interested, which is often taken to mean that
people are selfish
○ Economists use simple games to study social preferences.
➢ Example: The ultimatum game is used to study bargaining.
○ Suppose I give one person (the proposer) $10 and ask her how she would like to allocate this
money between herself and another person, in another room, whom she will never meet
○ The other person (the responder) can accept the proposed division, and both go home with
some money; or, he can reject the division, and both go home with nothing.
○ If people were self-interested
■ Responders would accept any non-zero offer since it’s better than nothing
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■ Anticipating this, proposers would offer the minimum
○ 100s of studies in the US, Europe and Asia
■ Modal offer is 50%
■ Mean offer is 40-50%
■ Offers less than 20% are usually rejected
○ Offers are rational given the pattern of rejection s
○ Even with large stakes (e.g., three months salary), many offers are 50%
➢ Behavior is rational the degree to which people's choices lead them to fulfilling their goals
○ Culture, values and institutions provide the framework within which choices are made
■ Western culture is dominated by market exchange and capitalism. We place a high
value on wealth and material prosperity
■ Others place a premium on leisure, for example. The Hadza, a group of foragers in
Tanzania, do not use their leisure time to increase their wealth. They could farm,
but they feel it is too much work. They are comfortable with what they have.
● What does it mean to be affluent?
● In the US, we tend to measure affluences in terms of money and other
material possessions
● To become affluent means to have more
● Marshall Sahlins argued that many foraging societies achieved a different
kind of affluence, by wanting less.
■ Still others may seek social status, instead of wealth
● In our society, social status is tied in with conspicuous consumption
● In other societies, social status is given to those who give away wealth or,
even, conspicuously destroy it.
● We have this, too. Rich people may give away lots of money and let others
know about it.
➢ How anthropologists study the economics of various cultures
○ Analyze the broad institutional and social context within which people make decisions.
○ Determine and evaluate the factors that motivate individual decision making
Allocating resources
➢ Productive resources.
○ Those things that people need in order to participate in the economy
○ In economics, capital or wealth is often used to refer to this concept
■ Embodied wealth: body weight, grip strength, practical skills, reproductive success
(in pre-demographic transition societies.)
■ Material wealth: land, livestock, household goods.
■ Relational wealth: social ties in food-sharing networks, other forms of assistance.
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Economic system: the way in which a group of people produce, distribute and consume goods and. Anthropologists study the ways in which a culture and the economic system interact services. Culture influences the preferences people have (i. e. , what they want) Culture influences the means by which people can achieve their goals (e. g. , access to resources) Culture structures the ways in which people interacts. Economic system influences other aspects of culture (e. g. , families atomize with capitalism) The economic system is embedded in the culture. The economic system cannot be easily and cleanly separated from other aspects of a culture. In many societies, few groups are organized only for the purpose of production; their economic activities are only one aspect of what they do. Production is often carried out by families, larger kinship groups, or local communities. Production, distribution, consumption and exchange of goods and services are embedded in relationships that have social and political purposes as well as economic ones.
