Essentials of Cultural Anthropology: Ch. 10 The Global Economy

economy

a cultural adaptation to the environment that enables a group of humans to use the available land, resources, and labor to satisfy their needs and to thrive

food foragers

humans who subsist by hunting, fishing, and gathering plants to eat

egalitarian society

a group based on the sharing of resources to ensure success with a relative absence of hierarchy and violence

Pastoralism

a strategy for food production involving the domestication of animals

Horticulture

the cultivation of plants for subsistence through non-intensive use of land and labor

agriculture

an intensive farming strategy for food production involving permanently cultivated land to create a surplus

carrying capacity

the number of people who can be supported by the resources of the surrounding region

Reciprocity

the exchange of resources, goods, and services among people of relatively equal status; meant to create and reinforce social ties

Redistribution

a form of exchange in which accumulated wealth is collected from the members of the group and reallocated in a different pattern

barter

the direct exchange of goods and services, one for the other, without currency or money

Colonialism

the practice by which states extend political, economic, and military power beyond their own borders over an extended period of time to secure access to raw materials, cheap labor, and markets in other countries or regions

modernization theories

Post-World War II economic theories that predicted that with the end of colonialism, less-developed countries would follow the same trajectory toward modernization as the industrialized countries.

development

Post-World War II strategy of wealthy nations to spur global economic growth, alleviate poverty, and raise living standards through strategic investment in national economies of former colonies

Dependency Theory

a critique of modernization theory arguing that despite the end of colonialism, the underlying economic relations of the modern world economic system had not changed

underdevelopment

the term used to suggest that poor countries are poor as a result of their relationship to an unbalanced global economic system

core countries

industrialized former colonial states that dominate the world economic system

periphery countries

the least developed and least powerful nations; often exploited by the core countries as sources of raw materials, cheap labor, and markets

Fordism

the dominant model of industrial production for much of the twentieth century, based on a social compact between labor, corporations, and government

flexible accumulation

the increasingly flexible strategies that corporations use to accumulate profits in an era of globalization, enabled by innovative communication and transportation technologies

Neoliberalism

an economic and political worldview that sees the free market as the main mechanism for ensuring economic growth, with a severely restricted role for government

class

a system of power based on wealth, income, and status that creates an unequal distribution of a society's resources

Bourgeoisie

Marxian term for the capitalist class that own he means of production

means of production

the factories, machines, tools, raw materials, land, and financial capital needed to make things

Capital

any asset employed or capable of being deployed to produce wealth

Proletariat

Marxian term for the class of laborers who own only their labor

prestige

the reputation, influence, and deference bestowed on certain people because of their membership in certain groups

life chances

an individual's opportunities to improve quality of life and achieve life goals

social mobility

the movement of one's class position, upward or downward, in stratified societies

social reproduction

the phenomenon whereby social and class relations of prestige or lack of prestige are passed from one generation to the next

Habitus

Bourdieu's term to describe the self-perceptions, sensibilities, and tastes developed in response to external influences over a lifetime that shape one's conceptions of the world and where one fits in it

cultural capital

the knowledge, habits, and tastes learned from parents and family that individuals can use to gain access to scarce and valuable resources in society

income

what people earn from work, plus dividends and interest on investments, along with rents and royalties

wealth

the total value of what someone owns, minus any debt

pushes and pulls

the forces that spur migration from the country of origin and draw immigrants to a particular new destination country

bridges and barriers

the factors that enable or inhibit migration

labor immigrants

persons who move in search of a low-skill and low-wage job, often filling an economic niche that native-born workers will not fill

professional immigrants

highly trained individuals who move to fill economic niches in a middle-class profession often marked by shortages in the receiving country

entrepreneurial immigrants

persons who move to a new location to conduct trade and establish a business

refugees

persons who have been forced to move beyond their national borders because of political or religious persecution, armed conflict, or disasters

Industrial Agriculture

Intensive farming practices involving mechanization and mass production of foodstuffs.

Triangle trade

The extensive exchage of enslaed people, sugar, cotton and furs between Europe, Africa, and the Americas that transformed ecocomic, political, and social life on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Industrial Revolution

The eighteenth- and nineteenth-century shift from agriculture and artisanal skill craft to machine-based manufacturing

Neocolonialism

A continued pattern of unequal economic relations between former colonial states and former colonies desipe the formal end of colonial political and military control. 

Semiperiphery countries

Nations ranking in between core and priphery countries, with some attributes of the core countries but less of a central role in the global economy.

Commodity

A good that can be bought, sold, or exchanged in a market

Commodity Chains

The hands an item passes through between producer and consumer.

Stratification

The uneven distribution of resources and privileges among members of a group or culture