Chapter 8 notes - economics PDF

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economic anthropology
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Chapter 8 – Economics -

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Value. The relative worth of an object or service that makes it desirable. Economic anthropology. The subfield of cultural anthropology concerned with how people make, share, and buy things and services. Economic system. The structured patterns and relationships through which people exchange goods and services. Division of labor. The cooperative organization of work into specialized tasks and roles. Exchange. The transfer of objects and services between social actors. Market. A social institution in which people come together to exchange goods and services. Neoclassical economics. An approach to economics that studies how people make decisions to allocate resources like time, labor, and money in order to maximize their personal benefit. Capitalism. An economic system based on private ownership of the means of production, in which prices are set and goods distributed through a market. Formal economics. The branch of economics that studies the underlying logic of economic thought and action Substantive economics. A branch of economics, inspired by the work of Karl Polanyi, that studies the daily transactions people engage in to get what they need or desire. Redistribution. The collection of goods in a community and then the further dispersal of those goods among members. Surplus value. The difference between what people produce and what they need to survive. Means of production. The machines and infrastructure required to produce goods. Cultural economics. An anthropological approach to economics that focuses on how symbols and morals help shape a community's economy. Prestige economies. Economies in which people seek high social rank, prestige, and power instead of money and material wealth. Money. An object or substance that serves as a medium of exchange, a store of value, or a unit of account. Commodity money. Money with another value beyond itself, such as gold or other precious metals, which can be used as jewelry or ornament. Fiat Money. Money created and guaranteed by a government. General purpose money. Money that is used to buy nearly any good or service. Limited purpose money. Objects that can be exchanged only for certain things. Spheres of exchange. Bounded orders of value in which certain goods can be exchanged only for others. Transactional orders. Realms of transactions a community uses each with its own set of symbolic meanings and moral assumptions. Reciprocity. The give-and-take that builds and confirms relationships. Delayed reciprocity. A form of reciprocity that features a long lag time between receiving a gift and paying it back Generalized reciprocity. A form of reciprocity in which gifts are given freely without the expectation of return. Balanced reciprocity. A form of reciprocity in which the giver expects a fair return at some later time. Negative reciprocity. A form of reciprocity in which the giver attempts to get something for nothing, to haggle his or her way into a favorable personal outcome. Commodities. Mass-produced and impersonal goods with no meaning or history apart from themselves Consumption. The act of using and assigning meaning to a good, service, or relationship. Appropriation. The process of taking possession of an object, idea, or relationship and making it one's own. Consumers. People who rely on goods and services not produced by their own labor.

Chapter 8 Economics -

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The reason business mend tends to operate the way they do is because of guanxi, which are informal webs of social relationships individuals create and use to pursue their own ends, it helps get things done in the slow-moving bureaucracy, or help businessmen get new government contracts. Reciprocity is the key element of guanxi. o These ties are closely related to rending, which are affective interpersonal relationships, such as those between kin and close friends. Spending many hours together I sone way businessmen turn guanxi into long term bonds of rending Anthropologists who study economies/activities are interested not only in how people satisfy their needs, but in why they want certain things in the first place.

Is money really the measure of all things? -

Many north Americans/Europeans are accustomed to the idea that money is the measure of all things o Some objects carry such scared/special qualities they can never be reduced to a monetary equivalent. o Culture – the collective processes through which people construct and naturalize certain meanings and actions as normal/necessary – not only shapes what is acceptable to transact, but how and why the transaction will take lace, and how the objects/services exchanged are valued.

Culture, economic and value -

Anthropologists recognize that cultural particularities shape the character of any transaction. Anthropologists rely on 4 major theoretical approaches to understanding how economies create value: neoclassical economics, substantivism and Marxism – are traditional approaches, cultural economics has been developed by anthropologists.

The neoclassical perspective -

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The value of the “pin” was established by an exchange in a market. Market exchange reflects a natural human propensity to truck barter and exchange. Within the market individuals pursue their own self-interest, using their capacity for reason and calculations to maximize their individual satisfaction. The world has finite resources but everyone has unlimited desires, the result is competition among individuals. Every person struggle to get the most value theoretically keeps price, cost of production, profits and interest rates low while generating great wealth. This theory studies how people make decisions to allocate resources, time, labor and money to maximize personal satisfaction.

The substantivism-formalist debate -

Polanyi developed the argument that the rise of the market in Europe was not inevitable, in developing this he studied economies that involves making a distinction between formal and substantive economics. o By formal economics he meant the underlying formal logic that shapes people action o By substantivism he referred t the daily transactions people actually engage in to get what they desire, or the substance of the economy

The substantivism position

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Polanyi's own approach to economics was "substantivism." His primary goal was to describe how the production and redistribution of goods were embedded in and shaped by non-market social institutions, such as the state, religious beliefs, and kinship relations. Substantivism was relativistic, holding that societies have unique social institutions and processes that influence economics; they may not even have a separate category for a domain called "the economy". From this perspective, the value of goods in an economic system is culturally relative, rooted in particular cultures and social institutions. Substantivism's main unit of analysis was thus not the economy or individual behaviors and actions, but a whole society and its institutions.

The formalist reaction -

Some anthropologists began to criticize substantivism’s lack of attention to individual action and behaviour, shifting their focus to formal economics. o Individual in societies is as ration as neoclassic economics says they are. o They understood satisfaction could be culturally defined and viable, nut, they asserted, the decision-making processes people used were the same everywhere.

The Marxist perspective -

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The political and economic theories as associated with German political economist Karl Marx characterized the English system as pitting the interest of a wealthy class who owned factories against those of a poorer working class. At the heart of the system was a division of labor that produced inequality and conflict. He emphasizes that societies re divided into unequal classes, with a few individuals at the top accumulating wealth and power by appropriating the labor and property of the many below.

The cultural economics perspective -

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The idea that symbols and morals help shape a community's economy lies at the heart of cultural economics. It views the economy as a category of culture, not a special arena governed by universal utilitarian or practical reasons A close relationship exists between the words "value" and "values" Both refer to the symbolic expression of intrinsically desirable principles or qualities. This relationship also implies that moral norms and economic activity influence each other studies in cultural economics focus on the dynamism of local economies, recognizing that one society may encompass several local economic models simultaneously, perhaps at different levels or among different institutions o None of these theoretical approaches-neoclassical economics, formal-ism, substantivism, Marxism, or cultural economics-accepts that money is the measure of all things. While the specifics of these theories differ, each nevertheless accepts, at least partially, that cultural processes and social relationships play a central role in establishing value, and that culture and economics are intertwined in complex ways.

How does culture shape the value and meaning of money? -

If values/meanings are creating through culture, then the value and meaning of money itself are also created through cultural processes. o It provides a standard measure of value that allows people to compare and trade goods/services o Money interest anthropologists because it is a means of economics exchange, and if has functions and implications beyond our economic lives, affecting important matters like the stability of a society and how people think about personal relationships

The cultural dimensions of money

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Several cultural dimension of money, such as diverse types, powerful moral meaning people project onto money, its uses, reveal important differences and subtleties in how people establish money value. o General purpose money: people want it because it can buy any one good o Limited purpose money refers to objects that are exchanged only for certain things Even general-purpose money as cultural/moral dimension beyond its function as a medium of exchange

Money and the distribution of power -

Different kinds of money reflect and shape the distribution of power in distinctive ways. Indebtedness tends to grow with the rise of commodity money, because of scarcity. Its use also coincides with periods of widespread violence because it can be stolen and not easily tradable. o Different types of money are related to distinctive kinds of social dynamics and power relations, some of them quite violent and negative o It is explained that being in debt to others is not universally viewed as a moral problem or characterized by conflict. In many societies with what he calls human economies, in which people’s goal is jot to acquire money but to create and maintain social relationships, the flow of credit and indebtedness between individuals is a sign of trust and solidarity

Why is gift exchange so important in all societies -

Exchange is the transfer of things and gifts between social actors, a universal feature of human existence and relates to all aspects of life

Gift exchange and economy: two classical approaches -

We tend to think of gifts as personal expression of reciprocity, the give and take that builds and confirms relationships. Two classical approaches to the question: how gifts are related to economy

Malinowski and the kula -

The kula, an extensive inter island system of exchange in which high ranking men gave ornamental shell Arman’s and necklaces to lifelong exchange partners on other island. o When men went to visit their partners on other island, in additions to armbands/necklaces they always brought along many utilitarian goods, to exchange for things they couldn’t get on their own islands.  This functioned to enhance the status of individual men and distribute goods people could not otherwise have

Mass and the spirit of the gift -

“the gift” by marcel Maus compares gift exchange and it sanction in a wide range of non-western societies He viewed gift exchange in terms of how it builds group solidarity. o He insisted it was steeped in morality and based on obligation, which has three dimensions  The obligation to gives; establishes giver as generous and worthy of respect  The obligation to receive, which shows respect to the giver  The obligation to return the gift in appropriate ways’ which demonstrates honor  It creates and maintains bonds of solidarity between people who would otherwise pursue their own personal interest o Marshall sahlins argued that gift exchanges helped manage group boundaries. He identified three types of reciprocity  Generalized reciprocity: giving something without the expectation of return, generous giving, such as that which takes place between parents and children

balanced reciprocity: when a person gives something and expects the receiver to return an equivalent gift or favour at some point  negative reciprocity: attempt to get something for nothing, to haggle one’s way into a favorable personal outcome  each of which defines the social relationship between a given and received o Stalin’s typologies suggest that social relationships shape the kinds of reciprocity people practice. 

Gift exchange in market-based economies -

Gift exchange in America/Europe establishes social status, reaffirms relationships, fives people access to good and influences wants/needs. o Gift exchanges are deeply embedded in the social relations of everyday society o By personalization we can transform impersonal commodities into personal gifts o Like everyone else, invest tremendous symbolic meaning in the thing we give, receive, consume, and own.

What is the point of owning things -

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Cross cultural perspectives on poverty o Owning something is not simply a matter if individual possessions or occupation of an object/land, but a matter of interactions between people o Reason for viewing property as a social relationship rather than static legal category has to do with many cross-cultural variations in terms of how people actually think about and manage property relationships o Two major issues  They are about the assertion and negation of rights in something, many of these involved right being held not by individuals but a group  They involved declaration and claims that are rooted in culturally specific forms of symbolic communication  inalienable possessions are transferred to others, but they will never be anything other than temporary loans. In an economy where the moral code is based on gift-giving, transferring such objects means chat the giver, who is still viewed as the owner, has rights over the receiver. Holding onto an object-that is, keeping it from being exchangedcontributes to the creation of status differences between people and is the basis of maintaining social hierarchy appropriation and consumption o why do people want things in the first place? Has to do with securing access to a critical resource, and then using whatever socially acceptable tools are available to exclude other from gaining access. Also has to do a lot with what a community considers impressive/trendy. o Being cool is an important way people in a mass society identify who is and who is not a member of their social class, rank, lifestyle, ethnic identity, or particular grouping.  Objects are not naturally cool; their symbolic distinctions are culturally constructed. Their meanings result from social and cultural processes that create demand for them. o Every culture distinguishes between what is appropriate and what is inappropriate to consume, providing social avenues to con-summing culturally accepted goods and limiting consumption of things considered inappropriate.  Consumption begins with an act of appropriation, which is a process of taking possession of an object, idea, or relationship and making it one's own o Changes in consumption patterns are often visible manifestation of broader cultural changes. Consumption is a key feature of capitalism, but if consumption varies around the glove, does the capitalist system also vary

Does capitalism have distinct cultures? -

Capitalism and socialism/communism existed as opposed forms of economic organization, an opposition that dominated global politics. Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of the means of production, in which prices are set and goods distributed through a market. Theoretical approaches to capitalism vary depending on the philosophical and political questions at hand. o Anthropologist view capitalism as a cultural phenomenon, its deepest assumptions are cultural: capitalism assumers’ certain values and ideals to be natural in the sente that this is the way that things really are.  Anthropologists recognize that cultural contexts and meanings of capitalist activities take diverse forms

Cultural and Social Relations on Wall street -

Ho's point is that without the personal relationships and knowledge of local conditions and markets, these banks have almost no reach whatsoever, demonstrating that modern financial markets are every bit as dependent on social relationships and local knowledge as any daily transaction anthropologists might study in a rural village setting

Entrepreneurial Capitalism Among Malays -

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Their idea of capitalism is one in which wealth, social balance, and even salvation are the rewards for those who abide by the moral dictates of social responsibility and obligation. At the heart of these values lie Islamic economic principles-such as the prohibition on charging interest, prohibitions on exploitive or risky activities, and the obligation to share wealth after meeting one's family's needs7 Entrepreneurship is thus not simply about economic action and profit accumulation; it allows people to show how they are both fully engaged in the modern world of global capitalism and respectful of traditional Islamic and Malay obligations and values. The challenge for Malays has been to pursue a capitalist economy that both improves their material quality of life and conforms to their local cultural values, social practices, and on-the-ground realities.

Conclusion -

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Most North Americans take for granted that the best way to get the things we need and want is to get a job and begin getting a paycheck. But this is not how people do it everywhere in the world. Whether they are Chinese businessmen gaining access to business opportunities and government contracts through the cultivation of guanxi and renqing, Trobriand Islanders trading for goods on other islands, or Malaysian entrepreneurs pursuing business practices informed by Islamic values, people differ in their cultural strategies and ideas about appropriate ways to conduct their economic lives. And, when we step back and look at our own economic lives in a consumer capitalist society, we can see that we too have developed distinctive strategies for exchanging goods and money, such as when we symbolically transform commodities into personalized gifts or possessions. Economic ideas and behaviors never exist independently of culture, morality, and social relationships. Culture shapes what is acceptable to transact, how and why a transaction occurs, and how the goods and services being exchanged are valued. This point is especially important for understanding the complexities of contemporary global economic changes. In an economically interconnected world, the creation of new markets and economic relationships has an impact on whether and how people in a particular place will be able to acquire certain goods and services. But these processes never occur in...