Cultural economic system -Anthropology

1. Reporter:
Ailene Meking

2. Division of Labor:
Gender Specialization
Age Specialization
Labor Specialization
Distribution of Goods and Services
Reciprocity:
1. Generalized Reciprocity
2. Balanced Reciprocity
3. Negative Reciprocity

3.  The rules found in all societies dictating
how the day-to-day tasks are assigned to
the various members of a society.

4. Cultures determine which tasks are
for men and which are for women.

5. 1.Men have greater body mass and
strength, they are better equipped
physically to engage in hunting, warfare,
and land clearing.
2. A second argument is that women do the
things they do because those tasks are
compatible with child care.

6. 3.In terms of reproduction, men tend
to be more expendable than women.
In other words, because women have more
limited (and therefore more valuable)
reproductive capacities, they are less likely
to be required to engage in dangerous
activities.

7. An Ecuadorian man works at a sewing
machine, a job usually associated with
women in the United States.

8. In some parts of
traditional Africa,
for ex.,women
are known to carry
much heavier
loads than men,
work long hours
in the fields,
and even serve as
warriors.

9.  In much the same way that societies divide
labor on the basis of sex, they also
allocate tasks according to age.
 In our own society, where formal education
routinely lasts through the late teens (and
often beyond),young people generally do
not engage in much productive work.

10.  Today an increasing number of children aged
fourteen and under are engaged in wage
employment or commercial activity.
 According to a study by the U.S. Department
of Labor (2007), approximately191 million
children between the ages of five and
fourteen work throughout Asia, Africa, and
Latin America, and of these, nearly half work
full time.

11. This Dalit girl
from India is
working full time
making bricks for
pennies a day
rather than going
to school.

12.  Old men among the Tiwi of north Australia
give up the strenuous work of hunting in
favor of staying at home to make hunting
tools, such as spears and throwing sticks,
for the younger men.

13.  Among the Abkhasians in the nation of
Georgia, who are known for their longevity,
the elderly do not retire, but the nature of
their work becomes less strenuous.
 Men in their eighties and nineties no longer
are expected to plow fields but to continue
doing light work like weeding; women of
similar age stop working in fields and confine
their chores to light housework, knitting, and
feeding chickens (Benet 1976).

14.  another term for division of labor— is an
important descriptive characteristic of any
society.
 Subsistence societies ,
with low population densities and simple
technologies are likely to have a division
of labor based on little more than gender
and age.

15.  Industrialized societies,
where most people are engaged in very
specialized occupations, such as computer
programmer, TV repairperson,
kindergarten teacher, janitor, CPA, or
thoracic surgeon.

16. A type of social integration based on
mutual interdependence—found in
societies with a relatively elaborate
division of labor.

17. A type of social integration based
on mutuality of interests—found in
societies with little division of labor.

18.  Goods and services are allocated in all
societies according to three different
modes of distribution:
reciprocity,
redistribution, and
market exchange

19.  In the United States,
most commodities are distributed according
to a free-market exchange system based
on the principle of “capacity to pay.”
 People receive money for their labor, and
then use that money to purchase the
goods and services they need or want.

20. A mode of distribution characterized by the
exchange of goods and services of
approximately equal value between
parties.

21. Generalized Reciprocity
-which is usually played out among family
members or close friends, carries with it
the highest level of moral obligation.
 -Those who give goods or services do
NOT expect the recipient to make a return
at any definite time in the future.

23. After having lived in Kandoka village in Papua New
Guinea on several different occasions, anthropologist
David Counts learned important lessons about life in a
society that practices reciprocity:
First, in a society where food is shared or gifted as
part of social life, you may not buy it with money. . . .
[Second,] never refuse a gift, and never fail to return
a gift. If you cannot use it, you can always give it to
someone else. . . .
[Third,] where reciprocity is the
rule and gifts are the idiom, you cannot demand a
gift, just as you cannot refuse a request.

24.  Balanced Reciprocity
- The practice of giving with the expectation
that a similar gift will be given in the opposite
direction after a limited period of time.
-Involves more formal relationships, greater
social distance, and a strong obligation to repay
the original gift.

25. Example: Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico
A man is expected to sponsor at least one
fiesta celebrating a major saint’s day. Such
events, involving elaborate food, beverages,
and entertainment, almost always are beyond
the capacity of a man to provide by himself.
Consequently the man solicits the help of his
relatives, friends, and neighbors, thereby
mortgaging his future surpluses. Those who
help out expect to be repaid in equivalent
amounts when they sponsor a similar fiesta.

26. In some cases of balanced reciprocity,
people go to considerable lengths to
maintain the relationship.
For example, the Semang of the Malay
Peninsula engage in a form of silent trade,
whereby they studiously avoid any face-to-
face contact with their trading partners.

27. A form of reciprocal trading found among the
Trobriand Islanders involving the use of
white shell necklaces and red shell
bracelets.

28.  the kula involves an elaborate and highly ritualized
exchange of shell bracelets and shell necklaces
that pass (in opposite directions) among a ring of
islands.
 main significance is as symbols of the reciprocal
relationships among trading partners.
 When trading partners meet, they exchange shell
necklaces for shell bracelets according to a set of
ceremonial rituals. Then, for the next several days,
they also exchange many of their everyday
commodities, such as yams, boats, pigs, fish, and
craft items.

29. These shell
necklaces and
bracelets have been
used for
generations
to facilitate trade
among the
Trobriand Islands.

30. -form of economic exchange between
individuals who try to take advantage of
each other.
-It is based on the principle of trying to
get something for nothing or to get the
better end of the deal.

31. Selling prepared food in an urban
center at an inflated price when
there is very little competition
and high demand (North America)

32. Thank you