Adaptive Strategies and Economic Systems

ANTH 11 (1st Sem SY 2010-2011) MATW Tabada

Outline
Environment and Ecology Adaptive Strategies Foraging

Cultivation: Horticulture, Agriculture

Pastoralism

Economizing and Maximization

Distribution, Exchange

Potlatching

Influence of the Environment & Ecology (Harris & Johnson 2000)

Human population integral part of ecosystem and focuses on human adaptation, including physiological, cultural, and behavioral relationships
Carrying capacity is the upper limit on production and population in a given environment under a given technology, without degrading the resource base Point of diminishing returns: point at which the amount of food produced per unit of effort beings to fall

gap between carrying capacity and actual level of food production and population occurs
Intensification refers to an increase in labor output to produce greater yields without expanding the amount of land used

it is inevitable that intensification will lead to the depletion of nonrenewable resources

Maximum sustainable yield as the level of production immediately prior to the point of diminishing return

Food Production

Formation of regional social systems then nation states

Consists of plant cultivation and animal domestication Led to major changes in human life and transformation of culture

Adaptive strategies

Group's system of economic production (Cohen 1974) Important reason for similarities between unrelated culture is their possession of a similar adaptive strategy Typology of culture based on correlations between economy and social life (as shown in ethnographies)

Each adaptive strategy =particular cultural features All human societies have some kind of division of economic labor by age and gender: cultural universal

ECONOMY
FORAGING: hunting, gathering & fishing People relied on nature for food & other necessities Survived in very marginal areas

SOCIAL FEATURES
BAND < 100 related by kinship or marriage Mobility of bands Gender division of labor Social distinction based on age Mostly egalitarian

CULTIVATION: Horticulture

Intensive use of the factors of production Slash-and-burn cultivation; shifting cultivation Use fallow period

Non-industrial societies

ECONOMY
CULTIVATION Agriculture Requires more labor Intensive & continuous use of land Use of domesticated animals, irrigation or terracing Higher productivity

SOCIAL FEATURES
Permanent fields = sedentary cultivators Larger & more permanent communities Growth in population size & density More need to regulate interpersonal relationships More coordination in use of resources Substantial contrasts in occupation, wealth, prestige & power Complex regulatory

ECONOMY
PASTORALISM Domestication of animals Direct use of herds for food

SOCIAL FEATURES
(2) Patterns of movement: pastoral nomadism: entire group move with animas thru year Transhumance: only part of group follow animals; rest in villages; grow own crops

INDUSTRIALISM

(2) classes: capitalist ownership of means of (owner) proletariat production (worker) Exploitation & inequality

Economic system
Economy: system of production, distribution, and consumption of resources
Economic anthropology: study economies in comparative perspective Mode of production: way of organizing production

set of relations through which labor is deployed to wrest from nature by means of tools, skills, organization & knowledge (Wolf 1982, p. 75)

Nonindustrial societies
Kin-based mode of production Production is personal Labor given as social obligation Mutual aid in production reflects larger social relations

Industrial societies
Capitalist mode of production Money buys labor power Social gap between owners & workers

Differences in the mode of production within a given strategy may reflect differences in environment, target resources, or cultural traditions

Means of Production
Land/labor/ technology
Land Rights to means of production Labor, technology, technical knowledge & specialization

Non-industrial societies
less permanent relationship Born in the band Joining band through kinship, marriage or fictive kinship Labor: social links Technology: shared by those in particular age or gender Specialization: usually none Sense of accomplishment in products; start to finish One aspect of more general social relations Relations of production, distribution & consumption are social relations with economic aspects; embedded in society

Industrial societies
Largely dependent on land Kinship & marriage

Alienation Highly specialized division of labor

Economic relationship between workers

Impersonal relationships; alienation Sell labor for cash Economy stands apart form ordinary social life

Economizing and Maximization

1. How are production, distribution, and consumption organized in different societies= system
2. What motivates people in different cultures to produce, distribute, exchange and consume? = individuals

Profit motive not universal but assumption is individuals try to maximize profits
Economizing or rational allocation of scarce means (resources) to alternative ends (uses)

Classical economic theory assumes are wants are infinite and resources are limited, therefore, people will always have to make choices Scarce resource; time, labor, money, capital
Western economists: when given alternatives, people tend to choose one that maximizes profit Realization that other societies may want to maximize prestige, pleasure, comfort, social harmony People often lack free choice in allocating resources

Alternative Ends
Non-industrials societies, people invest in their scarce resources Subsistence fund: work to eat

Replacement fund: maintain technology & other items essential to production

Social fund: help to friends, kin, unrelated neighbors Ceremonial fund: expenses during rituals/ceremonies Rent fund: resources people must render to an individual that is superior politically or economically, i.e. peasants

Principles of Exchange
Polanyis (1968) principles orienting exchanges:
Market principle Redistribution Reciprocity Can all be present in same society but govern different kinds of transactions Principle of exchange that dominates in a given society is the one that allocates the means of production

Market Principle
Organizational process of purchase and sale at market price (Dalton 1967);
value determined by law of supply and demand Bargaining characteristic strive to maximize get moneys worth

Modern world; governs most exchanges such as consumer goods

Redistribution
Operates when goods, services, or equivalent move from local level to a center
Products move through a hierarchy of officials for storage at the center Along the way, officials consume some but eventually flow reverses direction center down the hierarchy and back to the common people Modern world: payment of taxes

Reciprocity
Exchange between social equals, who are normally related by kinship, marriage, or another close personal tie Dominant in more egalitarian societies
Three degrees: generalized, balanced and negative (Sahlins 1968, 1972; Service 1966) How closely related are the parties to the exchange? How quickly are the gifts reciprocated?

Generalized: closely related people; no immediate return expected

expressions of personal relationships; parent-child Balanced: social distance increases, as does need to reciprocate

establish friendly relationship with outsiders

Negative: social distance is greatest and reciprocation is most urgent

Potlatching
Potlach practiced by tribes in the North Pacific Coast of North America
Patterns of feasting and exchanges of wealth between villages in region of nonindustrial food producers Adaptive value: help even out availability of resources over time Destruction of wealth impedes emergence of socioeconocmic stratification

References
Harris, Marvin and Orna Johnson. 2000. Cultural Anthropology (5th ed). Needhan Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon Kottak, Conrad Phillip. 2000. Mirror for Humanity: A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (2nd ed). Boston: The McGraw Hill Companies