ANTHR 206 LECTURE 16

Exchange and Trade

Introduction

Exchange and trade encompass a variety of interactions that facilitate the transfer of goods, services, and ideas among individuals and groups. There are multiple facets to this subject, including the nature and types of exchanges, the levels and organization of trade, and the methodologies employed in characterization studies.

Nature and Types of Exchange

• Biological Exchanges: Involve human relationships such as marriages and partnerships. These connections can affect social dynamics and economic structures.

• Economic Exchanges: Encompass various categories, including:

  • Labour Exchange: The movement of people providing labor for specific tasks, often influenced by economic needs.

  • Raw Materials: The trade of natural resources essential for production.

  • Manufactured Goods: Such as food, utilitarian items, and prestige goods that hold social value.

• Social and Political Exchanges: These can involve cultural and political transactions, shaping community structures and governance.

• Religious Exchanges: Involve the transfer of beliefs and ideas, often leading to cultural shifts due to war, refugee movements, and trade routes.

These exchanges often lead to differential distribution, prompting societies to emulate successful groups and engage in large-scale construction and manufacturing as observed in archaeology.

Level and Organization of Exchange

• Individual Level: Pertains to transactions and exchanges that occur at a personal level.

• Group/Community Level: Examines exchanges within communities, highlighting collective transactions and interrelations.

• Regional Level: On a broader scale, involves trade across various regions, including the volume of exchanges and the routes established.

• Military Integration: Historical examples, like the Mongol army, show that local populations were often integrated into larger military structures, enhancing the societal fabric.

• Routes: Major trade routes can indicate organized exchanges through land, river, or ocean pathways, signifying the complexity of trade networks.

Internal vs. External Levels

• Internal Exchange: Investigates trades within specific social units, focusing on social organization.

• External Exchange: Analyzes trades between different social units, concentrating on economic interactions and impacts.

The focus can either be internally (within groups) or externally (the flow of goods in and out), which is crucial for understanding economic behavior and market specifications imposed by external demand.

Types of Economic Exchanges (Following K. Polanyi)

• Reciprocal Exchange:

  • Positive: Involves daily interactions where community members share items (e.g., tools or food) without expectation of reciprocity.

  • Balanced: Where exchanged items are expected to be reciprocated equivalently, fostering networks of collaboration.

  • Negative: Characterized by barter systems where goods are exchanged under fair conditions without future expectations of return.

• Redistribution: This method requires a level of social and political organization. Goods flow from peripheries to a center and are redistributed back based on established principles, observed in modern state societies.

  • Egalitarian Redistribution: Centers do not accumulate material prestige but may gain social recognition.

  • Stratified Redistribution: Centers benefit materially and possess control over most goods, with limited distribution to peripheries.

• Market Exchange: This involves three key elements absent in reciprocal exchanges:

  • Marketplace: A place where individuals meet to exchange goods.

  • Merchants and Specialists: Traders and experts play a crucial role in market dynamics.

  • Currency: Facilitates the development of financial systems, leading to loans and interest.

Social and Political Considerations in Exchange

• Level of Autonomy: Investigates how social units can survive using their subsistence strategies.

• Cultural Contact: Examines how different societies interact through cooperation, competition, and conflicts, influencing social roles and relationships.

• Marriage Patterns: Exogamous and endogamous practices affect resource distribution and social networks.

• Migration: Physical relocation impacts archaeological records and necessitates evidence of cultural exchange.

• Invention and Diffusion: Innovative practices and the spread of ideas can alter social structures significantly, particularly in agriculture and resource management.

Characterization Studies

• Identification of Moved Goods: Requires macroscopic and microscopic examinations to verify the origins and compositions of artifacts.

• Technological and Morphological Criteria: Evaluates the technological advancements and styles of products for classification.

• Chemical Tracers and Elemental Characterization: Used to identify non-local materials in archaeological studies, allowing researchers to map trade routes and sources.

Movement of People and Archaeological Evidence

• Levels of Movement: Analysis of individual, group, and community migration dynamics.

• Identification of Migration: Based on archaeological and biological evidence, such as skeletal studies and DNA analysis, to understand patterns and causes of migration.

Models of Exchange

• Kula Ring: A complex transactional system emphasizing negative reciprocity through the exchange of items like shells, serving as a network for trading goods and fostering social relations.

• Results of Exchanges: Examines the consequences of reciprocal, redistribution, and market exchanges, and the mechanisms underlying trade networks, including direct access, down-the-line exchange, and freelance trading.