Economic Anthropology: Distribution and Exchange

Economic Anthropology: Distribution and Exchange

1. Distribution: Exchange Relations

• Once produced, good and service must be distributed
• Three ways by which goods are distributed
• Reciprocity: direct exchange of goods and services
• Redistribution: Flow of goods and services to central authority, then returned in different form
• Market exchange: buying and selling through price mechanism

2. Imperatives of Exchange: Background 

• Marcel Mauss: The Gift
• Preface: “When two groups of men meet, they may
• move away or
• in case of mistrust they may resort to arms
• or else they may come to terms”
• Coming to terms, he called “total prestations” or
• an obligation that
• has the force of law
• in the absence of law

3. Obligations of the Gift

• Obligation to give
• To extend social ties to other person or groups
• Obligation to receive
• To accept the relationship
• Refusal is rejection of offered relationship
• Induces hostilities
• Obligation to repay
• Failure to repay renders one a beggar

4. Types of Reciprocity: Generalized

• The obligations underlie the principles of reciprocity
• Reciprocity: Direct exchange of goods and services
• Generalized reciprocity: altruistic transactions in which
• gifts are freely given without calculating value or repayment due
• Example: meat distribution among !Kung (upper left)
• Example: family pooling of resources, even birthday presents (lower left)
• Usually occurs among close kin

5. Types of Reciprocity: Balanced

• Balanced reciprocity: Direct exchange
• Value of gift is calculated
• Time of repayment is specified
• Selling surplus food (upper left)
• Kula ring, Trobriand Islands
• One trader gives partner a white armband (see map, lower left)
• Expects a red necklace of equal value in return
• Promissory gifts are made until return occurs
• Usually occurs among distant kin

6. Types of Reciprocity: Negative

• Negative reciprocity: An exchange where
• One party tries to get the better of the exchange
• from the other party.
• Example: hard bargaining or deception
• Example: horse raids (upper left)
• Example: selling prepared food to a captive market (lower left)
• Usually occurs among unrelated persons
• Variation: silent trade

7. Case Study: Big Man Complex

• Big men are headmen with a following
• Following created by doing a favor (e.g. lending pigs)
• Favor is difficult to repay
• Individually, exchange is reciprocity
• Collectively, has appearance of redistribution

8. Big Men’s Power: Limits

• Cannot enforce the obligations
• Subject to competition to other big men
• Exchange feasts every 10 years with another big man equal in status

9. Redistribution

• Process whereby goods and services
• Flow to a central authority (king, chief, government)
• Where they are sorted, counted, and
• Reallocated
• Classic example: Potlatch (left)
• Historical example: administered trade

10. Redistribution: Socialist Model

• Central feature of command economies
• Ethnographic example: Inca labor tax
• Here, men turn the soil with foot plows
• While the women break up the clods
• Modern examples: socialist countries
• Students from across Latin America at Cuban medical school

11. Market Exchange

• Exchange of goods among many buyers and sellers
• Directly, by barter, or
• Indirectly, by money and pricing
• Example: Yoruba market in Nigeria (upper left); Haitian market woman (lower left)
• Markets include
• Crowds of buyers and sellers
• Instant information on prices
• Freedom of market entry and exit

12. Market Exchange: Actors

• Supplier, whose willingness to sell is directly proportional to price increases
• Purchaser, whose willingness to buy (demand) is directly proportional to price decreases
• Interaction lead to price equilibrium--no profit

13. Example: Regional Guatemalan Markets 

• Case Study: San Francisco el Alto
• Entry: seller pay small tax; buyers pay none
• Many buyers and sellers
• Price is constant topic of conversation
• Profit is minimal
• Regional specialization guarantee buyers for product

14. Conclusion

• Economy entails distribution of goods and services
• Still, economy is embedded in society
• Big man complex involves politics
• Maintains power by persuasion, negotiation
• Kula ring is also embedded in prestige
• Interconnections will be seen in other topics: social groups and politics