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Food Production

Foraging (hunter-gathering)

Pastoralism

Cultivation

Three Types of Pastoralism

 

1)Nomadic pastoralism--means that everyone moves with the herds.

 

2)Transhumant--some people move, some people stay behind (Samburu practice both of these).

 

3)Agro-pastoralism--people may practice some agriculture, but still place their heaviest emphasis on rearing livestock.

Economies: Terms

Economy:A population’s system of production, distribution, and consumption of resources

 

Formal Economics:The formalist approach to economics, it takes the position that economic theory has to do with the ways people get the greatest personal satisfaction in saving things and in distributing scarce resources, and that economic theory ought to be general enough to apply to all human societies.

 

Substantive Economic Approach:The view that the principles of market economies cannot be applied to all societies, and that a holistic approach is appropriate.A holistic approach relates economic systems to the larger society in which they are embedded, together with the cultural meanings specific to them.

 

Integrative theory of social stratification: The theory based on the assumption that social hierarchy is necessary for the smooth functioning of modern society.

 

Exploitative theory of social stratification: The theory based on the assumption that hierarchy exists because one group of individuals seeks to take advantage of another group for economic purposes.

 

Supply and demand, law of:(Formal) Economic rule that things cost more the scarcer they are and the more people want them.

 

Means (or factors) or production:Land, labor, technology, and capital--major productive resources

 

Market principle:One of the three principles of exchange:Operates in non-socialist industrial nations, as in the world-capitalist economy.It is a profit-oriented principle of exchange that dominates in states, particularly industrial states.Goods and services are bought and sold, and values are determined by supply and demand.

 

Redistribution:One of the three principles of exchange:Associated with chiefdoms, some nonindustrial states, and states with managed economies.It operates when goods, services, or their equivalent move from the local level to a center.The flow of goods eventually reverses direction--out from the center, down through a hierarchy, and back to the population.

 

Reciprocity:One of the three principles of exchange:Predominates in egalitarian band and tribal societies, among foragers, cultivators, and pastoralists living in bands and tribes.(Some form of reciprocity is seen in all societies.)It governs exchange between social equals.

 

Generalized Reciprocity:Principle that characterizes exchange between closely related individuals:As social distance increases, reciprocity becomes balanced and finally negative.In generalized reciprocity, the giver expects nothing concrete or immediate in return.

 

Balanced Reciprocity:Form of reciprocity which applies to individuals who are more distantly related than are members of the same band or household.In this form of reciprocity, individuals may not expect anything in return immediately, but not getting anything eventually, would damage the relationship.

 

Negative Reciprocity:Form of reciprocity which is the most purely “economic.”Reciprocity is expected to be immediate, and individuals try to maximize their immediate return through barter.