134PAR T T H R E E • Ecology and Subsistence

Review Questions1. Anthropologists claim that subsistence strategies arecht a fsociety'ssocialorganization and ideology. Evaluate rhis assertIOn In 19 to reading aboutthe way the Guarani live in their ram forest errvir-ortrnerrt.

2. Why is horticulture more environmentally sensible than intensive agn.cultural and pastoral exploitation of the Amazonian rain forest?

3. Guarani Indians are largely subsistence farmers and foragers. Howdothey use their forest environment without destroying it?

4. How have colonos disrupted the lives of Guarani villagers? What doesthistell us about the relationship between subsistence and social structure?

S. How can the Guarani use their rain forest habitat to make money,andwhat does their experience suggest as a way to integrate forest exploitationinto a market economy without environmental destruction?

FOUR

ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

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READINGS IN THlS SECTION

Reciprocityand the Power of GivingLee Cronk

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146GlobalWomen in the New EconomyBarbaraEhrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild

156Cocaineand the Economic Deterioration of BoliviaJack Weatherford

Malawiversus the World BankSonia Patten

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136PAR T F 0 UR II Economic Systems

R . e wants that can be satisfied only by the acqui-re ex erienceople everywhe PI ds and the services of others. To meet such wants,sition and lise of 1l1atena ~~~ their cultural inventory, the economic system,humans rely °dnafinaspet~e provision of goods and services to meet biologicalwhich we will e ne asand social wants. fusi I f h. f th term want can be con USIng. t can re er to w atThe mearung 0 e . _.

d [. thei survival We must eat, drink, maintam a constant bodyhumans nee or en .. . . d '11 h .:d f d ourselves and deal with injury an I ness. T e economictemperature, e en } c . h

system meets these needs by providing food, water, clothing, shelter, weapons,medicines, and the cooperative services of ~thers. .

BUL material goods serve more than Just our survival needs: they meetour culturally defined wants as weU. We need clothes to stay warm, but wewant garments of a particular style, cut, and fabnc to SIgnal our status, rank,or anything else we wish to communicate socially. We need food to sustainlife, but we want particular foods prepared in special ways to fill our aestheticand social desires. Services and goods may also be exchanged to strengthen tiesbetween people or groups. Birthday presents may not always meet physicalneeds, but they clearly function to strengthen the ties between the parties tothe exchange.

Part of the economic system is concerned with production, which meansrendering material items useful and available for human consumption. Pro-duction systems must designate ways to allocate resources. The allocation ofresources refers to the cultural rules people use to assign rights to the owner,ship and use of resources. Production systems must also include technologies,Americans usually associate technology with the tools and machines used formanufacturing, rather than with the knowledge for doing it. But many anthro-pologists link the concept directly to culture, Here we will define technologyas the cultural knowledge for making and using tools and extracting and refin-ing raw materials.

Production systems also include a division of labor, which refers to therules that govern the assignment of jobs to people. In hun tina and zarherinsSOCieties labor is most ofte dj id d I h I' "" . C, n IVl e a ong t e Jiles of gender and sometimesage, In these societies almost k h ' cI ,everyone nows ow to produce use and collectt re necessary material good I'd . I . ' ,. I' d s. n In ustria society however jobs are highly spe-cia ize and labor is divided t I id II ' , 0

R 'I d ,a east I ea y, on the basis of skill and experience.al e y a we know how to do I ,. .Th . someone e ses Job In our complex societye umt of production m . h ..'d . • eanmg t e persons or groups responSible forPiO ucmg goods follows a It' . .

ous societies Am'o I ,pa eln SImIlar to the way labor is divided in vari,. ng mnter-gatherers th . j" I . I' , . "d Ifamilies, groups of friends 0 ..} ere IS Itt e specw lzatlOn; mdl\'l uas,

But in our Own com I ,r sometImes bands form the units of production., p ex socIety we are ' d db'nJzed to n1anufacture t ' sunoun e y groups speCIallyorga-

A 'h ' ransport, and sell goodsnot er p ~ fl'. at l o' t 1e econoll1ic syst . eli . . .modes oledistribution' m k h em IS stnbutlOn. There are three baSIC. ar et exc ange r' I' eClproca exchange, and redistribution,

PART FOUR E '• conormc Systems 137

Weare most conscious of market exchange b . I'. I' k ecause It res at the heart orourcapita ist system. Mar et exchange is the transfer f d d '. I d d I a goo s an servicesbasedon pnce, supp y, an emand. Ever" time we enter a sror I r. . ~J c Ole anc payor

somethmg,we engage In market exchange. The price of an it h. - I em may c ange

withthe supply. For example, a discount store may lower the price of a televi-sionsetbecause It has too many of the appliances all hand PI". Ices may go liphowever,if everyone wants the sets when there are few to sell. Money is oftel;usedin mark~t systems; It enables people to exchange a large variety of itemseasily.Barter involves the trading of goods, not money, but it, too, is a Iorm ofmarkete,,;changebecause the number of items exchanged may also Val)' withsupplyand demand. Market exchange appears in human history when soci-etiesbecome larger and more complex. It is well suited for exchange betweenthestrangerswho make up these larger groups.

Althoughwe are not so aware of it, we also engage in reciprocal exchange.Reciprocalexchange involves the transfer of goods and services between twopeopleor groups based on role obligations, Birthday and holiday gift giving isa fineexampleof reciprocity. On these occasions we exchange goods not becausewenecessarilyneed or want them, but because we are expected to do so as partofourstatus and role. Parents should give gifts to their children, for example;childrenshould reciprocate. If we fail in our reciprocal obligations, we signalanunwillingness to continue the relationship, Small, simply organized soci-eties,such as the !Kung described earlier, base their exchange systems on rec-iprocity.Complex ones like ours, although largely organized around the marketorredistribution, still manifest reciprocity between kin and close fr-iends.

Finally,there is redistribution, the transfer of goods and services betweenacentralcollecting source and a group of individuals, Like reciprocity, redis-tributionis based on role obligation. Taxes typify this sort of exchange In theUnitedStates. We must pay our taxes because we are citizens, not b~caLisewearebuyingsomething. We receive goods and services ba~k-educatJon, trans-portation,roads, defense-but not necessarily in propor-uon to the amount wecontribute.Redistribution may be the predominant mode of exchange In SOCial-ist societies. .

Anthropologists also frequently talk about two kinds of economies. In the. . h db' t ce economies organIzedpast many of the world's SOCIetIes a su SIS en " ", .., d social obligatIOns. Su bsis-aroundthe need to meet matenal neceSSItleS an. _

. d itl ller aroups They OCCUIat atenceeconomies are typically aSSOCIate WI.1 srna b' Ih 11larket-exchange mec la-loeallevelSuch economies depend most on t e non- . I '. '.. ... Th' - bers are occupatlOna genel-msms:recIprocIty and redlstnbutlOn. ell mem b d' t' ctl'ons on the. . b Ith gh there may e IS 1DalIsts.Mostpeople can do most JO s, a au Richard Lee in Parts One andbaSISofgender and age, The !Kung descnbed by, do most horticulturalists.Threeofthis book had subSistence economIeS as 'es I'n their size and

• . x fr bsistence economl .MarketeconomIes dIEter on: s_u .. and redistribution exist in market

motiveforproduction. Although reClpl OClty. d consumption. Market. h d " s productlOn aneconomIes,market exc ange lIve . ld market economy that. d h . growmg wareconomiesare larger (Indee ,t ere IS a

138 PAR T F 0 U R • Economic Systems

. I d al st evel~one) and are characterized by high economic specializationmc u es rna J . k dri 'as well as impersonality. The Amelican economy IS mar et- nven as are mostnational systems. If they have not been already, most subsIstence economieswill,in the near future. be absorbed into national market systems.

The selections in Part Four illustrate several of the concepts discussedabove. In the first article, Lee Cronk looks at gift giving, a classic example ofrec_iprocity. He finds that gifts can cement relationships, confer prestige, and oblig,ate subordinates as well as being used to attack enemies. In the second articleBarbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild discuss a growing labor trend'the movement of women from poor societies to take low-paying jobs in richones. Often aided by their countries of origin, women immigrants are expectedto send money home and leave their children in the hands of others. In thenextarticle, Jack Weatherford deals with the negative impact of the world marketonthe social organization and economy of the indigenous peoples of Peru, Bolivia,and Colombia who grow coca and prepare the drug for market. The finalselec-tion by Sonia Patten details the effect of free-market World Bank and IMFpohcies on the agncultural subsistence economy of Malawi. With its people starvingbecause they could not afford the market pnce of fertilizer the African c" oun-try s government decided to subsidize the chemical. The result was a bumpercrop and the end of malnutrition.

Key Terms

allocation of resources p. J 36distribution p. 136division of labor p. 136economic system p. 136market economies p. 137market exchange p. 137

production p. 136reciprocal exchange p_137redistribution p. 137subsistence economies p. 137tech nology p. 136unit of production p. 136

14Reciprocityandthe PowerofGivingLee Cronk

Aswesaw in the introduction to Part Four, reciprocity constitutes an impor-tantexchangesystem in every society. At the heart of reciprocal exchange istheideaofgiving. In this article, Lee Cronk explores the functions of givingusinga variety of examples from societies around the world. Giving may bebenevolent.It may be used to strengthen existing relationships or to form.lIewones.Gifts may also be used aggressively to "fight" people, to "[Iatten"themwith generosity. Givers often gain position and prestige in this way.Giftsmay also be used to place others in debt so that one can control them

Reprintedwith the permission of the New York Academy of Sciences, 7 World Trade Center,250Greenwich St., 40th Floor, New York, NY 10007. www.nyas.org

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