Upgrade to remove ads
Only $2.99/month

Chapter 11

Terms in this set (16)

social organization
the patterning of human interdependence in a given society through the actions and decisions of its members
economic anthropology
the part of the discipline of anthropology that debates issues of human nature that relate directly to the decisions of daily life and making a living
institutions
complex, variable, and enduring forms of cultural practices that organize social life
neoclassical economies
a formal attempt to explain the workings of capitalist enterprise, with particular attention to distribution
gift exchanges
non capitalist forms of economic exchange that are deeply embedded in social relations and always require a return gift
commodity exchanges
impersonal economic exchanges typical of the capitalist market in which goods are exchanged for cash and exchange partners need have nothing further to do with one another
modes of exchange
patterns according to which distribution takes place: reciprocity, redistribution, and market exchange
reciprocity
the exchange of goods and services of equal value. Anthropologists distinguish three forms of this: generalized (in which neither the time more the value of the return is specified), balanced (in which a return of equal value is expected within a specified time), and negative (in which parties to the exchange hope to get something for nothing)
redistribution
a mode of exchange that requires some form of centralized social organization to receive economic contributions from all members of the group and to redistribute them in such way as to provide for every member of the group
market exchange
the exchange of goods (trade) calculated in terms of a multipurpose medium of exchange and standard of value (money) and carried out by means of supply-demand-price mechanism (the market)
labor
the activity linking human social groups to the material world around them; from the point of view of Karl Marx, labor is therefore always social labor
mode of production
a specific, historically, occurring set of social relations through which labor is deployed to wrest energy from nature by means of tools, skills, organization, and knowledge
means of production
the tools, skills, organization, and knowledge used to extract energy from nature
classes
ranked groups within hierarchically stratified society whose membership is defined primarily in terms of wealth, occupation, or other economic criteria
consumption
the using up of material goods necessary for human survival
affluence
the condition of having more than enough of whatever is required to satisfy consumption needs
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE...