ANTH1220 Week 6 + The Anthropologist

What issues were the Sakha people of Siberia dealing with?

The most urgent issue of the Sakha people is the water on the land, preventing them from growing hay for their animals. Permafrost is melting because of climate change leading to water.

What issues were the people of Kiribati dealing with?

Sea level rise due to climate change causes flooding. In Abaiang island, the tides wash away houses, and coconut plantations. Seawalls break, then tides come in crashing, flooding homes and being forced to move

What issues were the american coastal community dealing with?

Due to climate change, the marsh is gonna retreat, people also lose homes, it impacts crabbing and oysters

What issues were the people of Peru/Andes mountains dealing with?

A tropical glacier was found in the tropical ecosystem. Being high in altitude makes for cold temps, canals are directing glacier water into fields. There will be a water crisis in 2030. Glacial retreat occurs, as they disappear they uncover metal-rich rocks, leading to heavy pollution ruining crops and threatening the water supply

Production

Turning raw materials into something that can be consumed

Distribution

Getting the resulting goods to people

Consumption

Using the goods

Feudalism

An economic system that has status, the population split into nobles and peasants, and no negotiation

Capitalism

An economic system that has free distribution, a marketplace, and supply and demand

Neoclassical economic theory

Assumes that market forces are the central forces determining production and consumption in a society

What are the three modes of exchange proposed by Marshall Sahlins?

Reciprocity, redistribution, and market exchange

Reciprocity

A mode of exchange that is split into three different types: Generalized, balanced, and negative reciprocity. The swapping of goods

Generalized reciprocity

Reciprocity that neither the value nor the timing of the return are specified

Balanced reciprocity

Reciprocity where there are expectations of a return of equal value within a certain time limit, like getting a gift after giving a gift

Negative reciprocity

Reciprocity where exchange partners try to get the better deal. Happens when people don’t know each other very well

Redistribution

A mode of exchange that can only happen in a centralized authority/social organization. People in power receive goods from people anmd redistributes it to everyone back equally. For example, income tax and potlatch. Redistribution is associated with chiefdoms

Potlatch

A vital gift-giving feast and ceremony practiced by the indigenous peoples of the pacific northwest coast in canada and the united states like the kwakiutl. It involves giving away or destroying wealth or valuable items in order to demonstrate a leader's wealth and power

Market exchange

A mode of exchange that is the exchange of goods according to a multipurpose standardized medium of exchange, like money. It is carried out according to supply and demand price fixing mechanisms. Markets are associated most with capitalist societies

Mode of production

The social relations through which human labour is used to transform energy from nature using tools, skills, organization, and knowledge

What are the three mode of production types that Eric Wolf identified?

Domestic (kin-ordered), tributary, and capitalist

Domestic (kin-ordered) mode

A mode of production that is organised around labour from family, kinship.

Tributary mode

A mode of production where a primary producer controls the mean of production and controls tribute of others

Capitalist mode

A mode of production that has two groups capitalists and workers. Capitalists own the means of production while workers sell their labour to capitalists

What did Karl Marx say regarding the role of conflict in production?

Says that conflict is inherent in human societies, the potential for conflict is always there. Conflict tends to follow certain patterns according to mode of production

Ideology (production)

Karl Marx used the term ideology to describe the beliefs that explain and justify the relations of production

The internal explanation

One of the explanations for the differences in patterns of consumption. The functionalist one developed by Malinowski. It demonstrated the rationality of non-western consumption practices. It couldn’t explain why consumption patterns were so dissimilar

The external explanation

One of the explanations for the differences in patterns of consumption. Cultural ecologists believed patterns of consumption were related to ecotones and econiches. Julia Steward showed how shoshone consumption practices were tied to their arid environment. Though they couldn’t explain why patterns of consumption weren’t entirely linked to the environment

The cultural explanation

One of the explanations for the differences in patterns of consumption. It allows for human agency, the other explanations assume that non-western societies must be living in hardship.

Affluence

Having more than enough to survive. The ju/’hoansi have it

What is the relationship with food storage and sharing?

Where storage does not exist, sharing is necessary. The more people have to store, the more they have to invest in storage, and the more sedentary they become.

What is coke to Trinidad?

Coke is considered an essential everyday item rather than a luxury, representing a black sweet drink

What are red and black sweet drinks associated with?

Red associated with Indian population, and black for african population