Economic Anthropology and Production Systems: Sectors, Exchange, and Power

Economic anthropology

The study of how people produce, exchange, and consume goods and services across different cultures.

Economic sectors

Divisions of economic activity: primary (raw materials), secondary (manufacturing), and tertiary (services).

Primary sector

Extraction of natural resources (farming, fishing, mining).

Subsistence agriculture

Farming mainly for household consumption rather than for sale.

Commercial agriculture

Large-scale farming aimed at producing crops and livestock for profit and trade.

Food supply chains

The systems linking production, processing, distribution, and consumption of food.

Bennett's Law

As income rises, people consume fewer starchy staples and more diverse, nutrient-rich foods.

Secondary sector

Economic activity that transforms raw materials into finished goods (manufacturing).

Industrial Revolution

The 18th-19th century shift from agrarian to industrial economies, transforming production and social life.

Tertiary sector

The part of the economy that provides services rather than goods (education, healthcare, trade).

Modes of production

The ways societies organize labor, technology, and resources to produce goods.

Domestic production

Production for household use, often within kin-based or small-scale communities.

Tributary production

A system where producers give a portion of their output as tribute or tax to political or religious authorities.

Capitalist production

A mode based on private ownership, wage labor, and production for profit.

Modes of exchange

The cultural systems governing how goods and services are transferred: reciprocity, redistribution, and markets.

Reciprocity

Exchange of goods and services among equals to build social relationships.

Redistribution

Collection and reallocation of goods or wealth by a central authority (e.g., taxes, tribute).

Markets

Systems where goods and services are bought and sold using standardized value systems.

Money

A symbolic medium of exchange that facilitates trade and measures value.

Consumption

The ways goods and services are used and given meaning within a culture.

Commodity

A good or service produced for exchange rather than personal use.

Political economy

The study of how economic systems are shaped by political and social power.

Structural violence

Systemic inequalities embedded in social, political, and economic systems that harm or disadvantage certain groups.