Economic Anthropology

What is Economic Anthropology?

“At the most basic, economic anthropology is the description and analysis of economic life, using an anthropological perspective” (Carrier 2005:1)

Tomato seller on African marketGhanaian Market

Economic

Word economics comes from Greek word

Oikonomikos

Oikos means house

Root nem, means to regulate, administer, and organize

A society’s economy consists of:1. Production

2. Distribution/ Exchange

3. Consumption

Economics is the study of production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of resources.

Economic Life the activities through which people produce, circulate and consume things

Why did the average price for a house in Calgary skyrocket in 2006?

Classic economic theory assumes

1.That the value or price of a commodity increases as demand goes up and decreases as supply goes up.

2.That as prices go up sellers enter the market and bring the price down

3.That as prices go down sellers leave the market to bring prices up

4.That eventually equilibrium is reached

5.that individuals act rationally, by economizing to maximize their utility (i.e. profits or satisfaction)

Economizing and Maximization

Comparative data show that people frequently respond to other motivations than profit

The Trobrianders produce far more yams than they can ever eat. Some they give to their sister’s husband and others they simply allow them to rot. Why?

economic anthropologists tend to situate productive activities and forms of exchange and consumption, in larger social and cultural frames, in order to see how they affect and are affected by other areas of life.

In some societies artistic styles are the property of certain kinship groups.

Only members of the kin group are allowed to produce them.

“The act of giving or taking one thing in return for another”

“The transfer of things between social actors”

Exchange

What kinds of things are exchanged?

the communicative exchange of language (culture)

the exchange of goods

the exchange of spouses.

Exchange is a key to social life

Exchange is important for the establishment and maintenance of social relationships

WHO exchange relationships

WHAT what is the significance and meaning of what

is exchanged

WHERE what is the significance and meaning of where it is exchanged

WHEN on what occasions

WHY social reasons

HOW ceremony, mechanisms

Patterns of exchange and circulation, lead us to the heart of social and cultural organization  

WHAT IS A GIFT?

What kinds of gifts are there?

Who do we give gifts to?

When do we give gifts?

How do we give gifts?

Why do we give gifts?

Botticelli 1486Giovanna degli Albizzi Receiving a Gift of Flowers from Venus

IS THERE ANY SUCH THING AS A FREE

GIFT?

Are there bonds of obligation?

Is there some competitiveness involved in gift giving?

How do we feel when we haven’t received a gift of at least equal value?

What if the gift returned is of higher value?

What are the consequences of not reciprocating?

“If Friends make gifts, Gifts Make Friends”Marcel Mauss

Mauss points to three fields of obligation: to give, to receive and to repay

Gifts, according to Mauss, create relationships not only between individuals but between groups, relationships which take the form of “total prestations”

Marcel Mauss 1925: The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies

1872 - 1950

The principle of Reciprocity

The donor may gain prestige and power by transforming the recipient into a debtor

The creation of unequal relationship until a return gift is made maintains the relationship

The notion of a pure gift is simply ideology, in reality no one does anything for nothing

An equivalent return is expected

Society is created by, and its cohesion results from, an endless sequence of exchanges in which everyone pursues their own advantage, however that advantage is conceived

Obligations are kept because both sides benefit from giving and receiving gifts

the costs of reneging are too great in terms of self-interest, ambition and vanity, and sometimes supernatural sanctions

For Mauss it is not individuals but groups or moral persons who carry out exchanges

The persons who enter into exchanges do so as incumbents of status positions and do not act on their own behalf

The gift also contains some part of the spiritual essence of the donor and this constrains the recipient to make a return

Most commentators on Mauss (e.g. Shalins, Firth, Levi-Strauss) see the idea of reciprocity a form of social contract as correct

And not the Maori notion of the Hau as a general explanation for reciprocity

The Potlatch

A form of ceremonial exchange of gifts employed by indigenous groups on NW coast of BC (Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian and Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw))

Described at length by Franz Boas in 1897 in The Social Organisation and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians

E.S. Curtis, 1915Beginning of summer they dispersed to go hunting, gather roots and berries, fish for salmon in the rivers

At the onset of winter they concentrated in small villages

During this period social life became extremely intense

Aboriginally, The Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl), were very rich and their fishing grounds supplied them with considerable surplus

"Interior of Habitation at Nootka Sound"John Webber (British), April 1778

The Kwakiutl house is constructed of cedar boards on a framework of heavy logs. The ridge extends from front to back, the roof-boards run from ridge to eave, and the wall boards are perpendicular.

held in connection with events in the life cycle, initiations, marriages, house building, funerals, assumption of certain dance privileges.

extravagant and lavish preparations including much food preparation and the creation of masks and art work are made by the host as gifts for the guests

POTLATCH: The word means ‘to give’

Announcing a Potlatch, On a ceremonial dugout canoe, made from a single cedar log, costumed bird and animal dancers announce a potlatch (Lazare and Parker/National Wildlife Federation).

Potlatch Guests Arriving at Sitka, Winter 1803Bill Holm © 1997

“Indian visitors arriving at Potlatch at Kok-woi-too Village Chilkat River, Alaska” 1895

Whole clans and villages were invited to the potlatch

Kwakwaka'wakw Winter DanceThis dance is being performed at a southern Kwakwaka'wakw village on Quatsino Sound. Elaborate theatrical performances were an

important part of Northwest Coast native life (watercolour by Gordon J. Miller)

Potlatches included speeches, singing, dancing, feasting, and gift-giving.

Serving food and distributing gifts allowed the host to demonstrate his generosity and wealth and to assert his ancestral privileges to the guests.

Before contact, gifts might have included canoes, slaves, goat hair blankets, and food

The variety and quantities of gifts increased with European trade.

19th Century Kwakiutl Button Blanket Kwakiutl Potlatch Mask

Masks and headdresses worn during dances depicted the supernatural being who had "given" the dance to the host or one of his ancestors.

Button blankets were worn during dances and given as gifts.

Every article used in ceremony and as well many utilitarian objects such as storage boxes were carved and decorated.

ceremonial objects included masks, headdresses, shawls, rattles, aprons, copper shields and painted boards.

Each of these embodied the crests of the owner and proclaimed clan associations, ownership, family history, rights, and privileges.

Their beauty, the painstaking effort taken in their manufacture, and the high cost of the materials used, determined only a small part of their value

the true value of these objects lies in their symbolism

The most central symbol of wealth, power and prestige was the copper

a shield-shaped plate of beaten copper that usually with a painted or engraved representation of a crest animal of their original owners on its surface.

During Potlatch ceremonies, the host would sometimes break the copper and distribute it to high status guests.

Copper gifting sometimes would involve rivalry. If a chief offered a broken piece of his copper to a rival, the rival had to return the favour with a piece of copper or equal or greater value or suffer humiliation.

Broken copperTsimshian: Gitsan, British ColumbiaCollected by G.T. Emmons, prior to 1914

Chilkat Blanket" 1890-1900, Tlingit

The Kwakiutl chief Tulthidi prepares to give away his valuable copper in honor of his son

It was the Chief's responsibility to ensure that all members of his lineage were adequately provided for.Within the lineage, rank was judged in descending order according to one's relationship to the Chief

Potlatches became very competitive

aspiring leaders used competitive potlatching to move up the system.

The potlatch is a system of gift exchange--- material goods are exchanged for social recognition and power

Tlingit Chiefs, dressed in full regalia, gathered at a Potlatch ceremony in

Sitka in 1904.

A large potlatch held in 1921 was said to take 17 years of preparation

A modern day potlatch may take about a year to prepare and cost $10,000.

Because of all the gifts, a traditional potlatch took years to prepare

C. 1900

Today potlatch gifts include coffee mugs, socks, hand knit blankets and clothes, as well as carved masks and murals

Twined grass basketNootka/Makah, British Columbia/Washington

Potlatches commemorate a significant event in an extended family's or clan's collective life. They are held today for baby showers, namings, weddings, anniversaries, special birthdays, graduations, and as memorials for the dead

Cedar carrying basket with handles

Why would they spend years accumulating wealth only to give it away - or even throw the objects into the sea?

Potlatch at Fort Rupert, British Columbia, 1898

potlatch celebrations are a significant representation of the host's status and the display of rank and title

In return for giving away food and wealth they get recognition of their status and that of their lineage.

Marriages for one’s children and places in the brotherhoods are only won during the potlatch

Social Significance

Potlatches become very competitive

aspiring leaders use competitive potlatching to move up the system.

The potlatch is a system of gift exchange--- material goods are exchanged for social recognition and powerthe aim is to crush the opponent chief with excessive obligations that cannot be repaid

Potlatch RegaliaDance regalia given up by Kwakiutl who attended Dan Cranmer's potlatch in 1921 at the village of Alert Bay, NWT (Royal British Columbia Museum).

The federal government outlawed potlatches in 1884 but the ceremony continued in many communities in 1951 the law was deleted from the revised Indian Act

The obligation to give

The obligation to receive

The obligation to reciprocate

Prestation

Also includes reciprocity and the various obligations

‘total social phenomenon’

It is not individuals but collectives that impose obligations of exchange and contract upon each other

What is exchanged is not solely property and wealth

What rule of legality and self-interest, in societies of a backward or archaic type, compels the gift that has been received to be obligatorily reciprocated? What power resides in the object given that causes its recipient to pay it back?” (Mauss 1925)

To Mauss the gift was animated with the spiritual essence of its original donor (Mauri hau) to whom it strives to return.

This constrains the recipient to make a return

When one gives something away one is also giving part of oneself -- an object imbued with one’s own personality/spirit and which therefore puts one literally in the hands of one’s creditor

Failure to return a gift can result in serious trouble including the death of the recipient

The bonds created by gifts are thus mutually dependent ties between persons

Kwakiutl Potlatch Mask

To receive something is to receive part of the essence of the giver

Because of this the indebted is constrained to make a return

Thomas and Jane Carlyle’s Christmas Presents Renowned 19th century English historian and essayist

Spent Christmas in the 1850s with Lord and Lady Ashburton (wealthy Scottish banker)

Thomas and Jane Carlyle Lord and Lady Ashburton

•In 1851 The Ashburton’s gave Christmas presents to the Carlyles

• Mrs Carlyle got a scarf and a bracelet

• Thomas got a jigsaw puzzle

• both were well received

In 1855 Mrs Carlyle received a black silk dress - A novelty because it was only recently that they were produced by machine

Mrs Carlyle claimed that she was being insulted.

What do we have to know to be able to understand those meanings attributed to these gifts?

class

social mobility

matrimony

patronage

employment

manufacturing processes

issues of style

conventions of gift-givingGift Exchange operates not according to market laws, but the social rules of power, symbol, convention, etiquette, ritual, role and status.

Exchange (at least gift giving) is embedded in social life

The movement of raffia cloth among the Lele is another example of the mediation of status by goods.

Younger men need raffia (as bridewealth) to marry. But raffia is made and controlled by older men. In order to have access to raffia and hence marriage, younger men need the social approval of older men.

Since more raffia is required to marry than any one man can produce, it takes community approval to marry.

In modern economy, men can gain access to raffia through wage labor. This undercuts authority of elders and leads to charges of the selling of brides.

Raffia Cloth among the Lele (Zaire)

Substantivist-economic affairs are embedded in social institutions and cannot be studied separately from other social institutions social structures

•kinship system•political structure•religious ideologies

-people in nonindustrial economies function with different logic than capitalist economies. Exchanges occur for reasons other than economic benefit

• culturally unique values• group benefits• “rational” culturally relative• prestige

Formalists

• maximize personal gain

•supply-demand relationships

• “rational” decision-making

• individual self interest

•economy can be analyzed independent of other social structures and institutions

•research tools of western economics applicable

Economic Anthropology:

Karl Polanyi

Divided economies into three types according to the dominant mode of distribution

reciprocity-- The return of a gift or prestation redistribution

-- collection from members of a group and then redistribution within this group. E.g. tribute, taxes

market --involves money and profit 1886-1964

A material transaction is usually a momentary episode in a continuous social relation.

The social relation governs the nature of the immediate exchange and the flow of goods

Sahlins suggests that there are 3 types of reciprocity that form a continuum that correlates with kinship and social distance.

1930-

Marshal Sahlins Stone Age Economics (1972)

Reciprocity: exchange between social equals

1. Generalized

2. Balanced

3. Negative

Generalized reciprocity

e.g. gifts, or sharing, helping, generosity.

between close kin and friends

highly moral – no expectation of return

In some societies e.g. Ju/’hoansi, it ensures survival, an equitable sharing of food, and maintains social bonds between families

Generalized reciprocity is correlated with Rankrelative wealth and needfoodGeographic distance

Balanced reciprocity return expected delayed exchange maintains ties with

more distant people A precise balance

between the things exchanged

Important in e.g. peace making death payments and marriage alliances.

Kula Ring: vast inter-island system of exchange of certain classes of ritual objects — men’s armbands and bracelets not a system of

“commercial trade” in utilitarian objects (most islands self-sufficient in staple foods & goods)

objects acquired, displayed, and then passed on

Kula Ring – Balanced Reciprocity

soulavamwali

Like the crown jewels, their value is symbolic

There is no practical utility

Each valuable has its own name and history

Owning them provides the owner with prestige and pride

assessed for their value based on size, colour, and how well they are polished or finishedshells increase in value with age and both men and shells gain prestige in their association with one another

Vaygu’a – Kula Valuables

man may gain fame and notoriety for having possessed a particularly fine armband

similarly, a necklace may be highly regarded for having been owned by a great man

Temporary ownership allowed men to draw a great deal of renown, to exhibit the article to tell how it is obtained and to plan on whom he is going to give it

This history and renown was the main source of their value

Main principle underlying regulations of exchange is that of bestowing a ceremonial gift, which has to be repaid by an equivalent counter-gift after a lapse of time, be it a few hours or years

A form of credit. – implies a high degree of trust and commercial honour

One transaction does not finish the kula relationship

Once in the Kula always in the Kula

Lifetime partnerships

Once in the Kula always in the Kula also applies to valuables

Some of the named kula valuables mentioned by Malinowski are still circulating

A B

at each meeting, “visiting” partner bestows gift on home partner

the same object that he received from his other partner a few months or years earlier

over time, value (rarity) of objects exchanged increases, as does renown of the partners

DC

necklaces

armbands

A B DC

Kula Ring had been cited as an example of the economic irrationality of “savages”…

–took great risks for “fanciful” ends –not survival or commerce, but to obtain “baubles” –pursued out of “sheer habit”

the Kula Ring is a vital institution which contributes to the security and continuity of Massim cultures

–needs to be seen within the total context of Massim society –ripped out of context, it appears irrational, “savage”

How does the kula differ from classic economic ideas?Exchange is not done freely – hereditary partners

Only two items

Not based on need since the aim is to exchange articles that serve no utilitarian purpose

No price mechanism

Value not determined by supply and demand

Never ends

Highly ritualized

Based on obligations

Delayed exchange

Surrounded by mythology

what makes the Kula an economic exchange?

Negative Reciprocity less common

impersonal, distrustful

not based on ongoing social relations

exchange without money

taking items by force

Haggling at the market of Riobamba, Ecuador

Reciprocity:

Generalized Balanced Negative

value unspecified return not immediate long term view no gratitude expected

Creating AND satisfying obligations

Self Interest

Equal value Expectation of immediate return Similar to trade or barter

Common in more distant kin relationships

Personal gain is primary motivator something for nothing - haggling - bargaining - theft /seizure - cheating

Prevalence in band societies

family

lineage

village

tribe

intertribal

social distance determines the nature of the exchange

Compare exchanges with children and parents versus aunts and uncles with nieces and nephews

Other relatives versus strangers

These workers in Yunnan Province, China, strive for an equal distribution of meat.

Exchange among social unequalsRedistribution

centralized accumulation and reallocation of wealth (taxes, tributes, tithes, spoils)

–maintain power, superior status (internally)–keep constituents happy, maintain standard of living–use wealth to leverage power (externally)–leveling mechanisms

typical mode of exchange in chiefdoms and some non-industrial states

Food Bank

Taxes

Redistribution in Western Society

Collected taxes redistributed in services and welfare to those in need

Redistribution based on moral norms and cultural values about social justice and equal opportunity

refers to vice-versa movements between hands in a market system

requires a system of price making markets in order for integration

the dominant mode of integration in modern industrial societies

Modern market exchange

Kumasi's Central Market, Kumasi, Ghana

Market exchange value preset by impersonal “market forces” exchange occurs presumably independent of and uninfluenced by social relations

usually involves money, a widely agreed on abstract symbol used to measure value

Kawelka Moka

1. What motivates someone like Ongka to work so hard?

2. What functions does a moka serve?

3. What are the gender roles involved in putting on a moka

4. Is the moka outdated?