Subsistence & Economic Systems

Front 1

economics

Back 1

Study of how societies use resources to produce and distribute goods and services

Front 2

economy

Back 2

production, distribution and consumption of resources

Front 3

economic system

Back 3

relationships between production, consumption and exchange production

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production

Back 4

how goods or money are made in any given society

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mode of production

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how the economy is organized in terms of social relations and labour

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means of production

Back 6

the resources from which the economy is producing labour

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labour

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organization of work in production and consumption; household is basic unit

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division of labour

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the roles different individuals play in economic production (ex: sexual division)

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labour specialization

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different people in society are responsible for different types of work

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consumption

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how subsistence items are eaten and how goods are used

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mode of consumption

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predominant pattern of resource use and expenditure in a given society

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usufructory rights vs. ownership

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usurfructory: share in common rights to the use of land or other resources but not to sell or alter them
ownership" means vary across cultures; modern Western emphases on individual, private ownership of land, property, capital

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adaptive strategies

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how a society procures, produces or gains its subsistence

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modes of subsistence

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foragers
horticulturalists
pastoralists
agriculturalists

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Foragers

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environments too marginal to farm; live in bands
-hunter gatherers
Ex) The Basarwa San of southern Africa

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Horticulturalists

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often forested environments; live in tribes and chiefdoms
-slash and burn technique
-simple hand tools
Ex) Yanomami of southern Venezuala

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Pastoralists

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environments too mountainous, cold, or dry for agriculture; live in tribes and chiefdoms
Ex) Nuer of sub-saharian east Africa

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Agriculturalists

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Originally plains with good water supplies, but industrial methods allow production in desert, forest and hill areas today, displacing other adaptive strategies; state societies
Ex: Jat Sikhs of Punjab

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peasants

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small-scale agriculturalist living in a state, with rent fund obligations

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Environmental impacts of agriculturalism

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environmentally manipulated to meet needs of production
-deforestation
-reduce ecological diversity by concentrating on staple foods
-water management
-habitat destruction

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industrialism

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mechanized systems of mass production developed with Industrial Revolution and in keeping with max eff.
separation of mental and physical labour

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alienation

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no close connection between people's labour and the products of their labour
ex: malaysian factory women

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capitalism

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market exchange of commodities, property and capital
aimed at earning profit
critiqued by Marx/Socialists

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Wolf's Economic System

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1. Subsistence fund (food)
2. replacement fund(tool replacement)
3. social fund (resources shared with kin and other community)
4. ceremonial fund (resources which pay for rituals or celeb.)
5. rent fund (used to pay agencies or individuals to whom we are obligated)

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Polyani's 3 principles of economy

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1. market exchange: buy goods cheaply and sell them expens.
2. redistribution: central pooling and redistribution of resources (taxes, potlatch)
3. reciprocity: informal giving and receiving of items of roughly approximate value.

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Sahlin's 3 forms of reciprocity

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1. generalized: pure gift with no expectation of return (parents)
2. balanced: specific values are assigned to giving, receiving and time of repayment
3. negative/ unbalanced exchange: one party tries to get the better of the exchange

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A gift? Marcel Mauss

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the demonstration of wealth and status by redistribution, creating and obligation of reciprocity.

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Conspicuous consumption Thorstein Veblen

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showing off one's accumulated wealth.

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levelling mechanism

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the social obligation to share rather than accumulate wealth. Ex Potlatching