Economic Systems
Chapter 8
Economic System
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•Non-industrial societies economic system must be studied as part of their culture.
Resources needed to Produce Goods and Services
•Raw materials: Land
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•foragers more flexible than food producers
•Labor Patterns
•Every society has a division of labor by gender and age.
•Get labor through kinship ties.
•Three Patterns of Work by Gender
–Flexible/integrated pattern:
–Rigid segregation pattern: Almost all work is defined as masculine or feminine.
–Dual Sex Configuration:
Modes of Distributing Goods
•Reciprocity:the exchange of goods and services, of approximately equal value,
between two parties.
•Functions:
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–to keep community cooperation
3 Types of Reciprocity
•Generalized : The value of what is given is not calculated and repayment is not
specified.
•found in all societies
•Balanced :A direct obligation to reciprocate in equal value for the relationship to
continue.
•No bargaining
•Example: Crow in Montana
•promotes an egalitarian distribution of wealth
•Negative : The giver tries to get the better of the deal.
•Bargaining, barter
•Impersonal relationship
Redistribution
•Form of exchange in which goods flow into a central place where they are sorted,
counted, and reallocated.
•goods in the form of gifts, tribute, taxes, and the spoils of war gathered by some leader.
•Why?
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•Give support to those who support the leadership.
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Potlatch
•Pacific NW Coast Native Americans
•sponsor hosts an event where they give away food, blankets, pieces of copper.
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•linked many communities together
•cultural ecology explanation:
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Market Exchange
•Buying and selling of goods and services, with prices set by rules of supply and
demand.
•Based on standardized currency
•In a market place
•impersonal relationships.