Writing after watching the documentary The Queen of Versailles (you can find on Hulu and Amazon video). This is not just a summary of the documentary but how it connects to this week's lecture (see attachment) and the keywords provided. You should relate it to at least 2 keywords and explain how they related.
ANT110 SOCIOCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY ANT110 SOCIOCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY WEEK 8 THE ECONOMY WEEK 7 KEY CONCEPTS WEEK 7 KEY CONCEPTS WEEK 7 KEY CONCEPTS WEEK 8 KEY CONCEPTS Economic Anthropology Political Economy Contemporary Economics Production Exchange Consumption Domestic production Tributary production Capitalist production Means of production The Market Neoliberalism/Liberalism Fair Trade Commodity Alienation Class Mobility/Stratification Cultural Capital Anthropology and The Economy Economic Anthropology- also known as Political Economy The subsection of anthropology that is constantly in dialogue with the discipline of economics. Encompasses the production, exchange, consumption, meaning, and uses of both material objects and immaterial services Contemporary Economics Focuses mostly on market exchanges Contemporary Economics Economics Studies decisions made by people and businesses and how these decisions interact with the market place Economics functions on several assumptions That all individual thought can be understood through a narrow lens of rational self-interested decision making People know what they want Their economic choices express these wants That their wants are defined by their culture Economics is based on normative theory because it specifies how people should act if the want to make efficient economic decisions Economic Anthropology Economic Anthropology Largely descriptive social science We analyze what people actually do and why they do it Does not make the assumptions that People know what they want People know why they want it People are free to act on their individual decisions Instead of focusing on market exchanges and individual decision making Anthropologists focus on 3 distinct phases of economic activity Production, Market Exchange, Consumption Phases of Economic Activity Production Involves transforming nature and raw materials into goods that are useful and or necessary for humans Exchange Involves how these are goods are distributed among people Consumption Refers to how we use these material goods ex. By eating food or making a house out of bricks Production Within production there are various modes of production The social relations through which human labor is used to transform energy from nature using tools, skills, organization and knowledge Originated with Anthropologists Eric Wolf which was strongly influenced by Karl Marx Three Modes of Production in human history Eric Wolf Domestic (kin-ordered) Tributary Capitalist Domestic (kin-ordered) Production organizes work on the basis of family relations and does not necessarily involve formal social domination or control of and power over other people Some power and authority may be exerted based on gender and age Typically foragers and/or small scale subsistence farmers Mostly egalitarian structures (except for age/gender divisions) Labor organized around kinship relations Ex. Indigenous populations of Southern Mexico and parts of Central America Domestic Production Subsistence Farming Food is produced by the family for the family’s own consumption rather than selling it Family production systems Men generally clear the fields and the family works together to plant the seeds Men also weed the crops until the seeds sprout Children protect the seeds until they spout Women work to dry the corn and remove the kernels from the cob for storage Throughout the year the women ground the corn and ultimately use it to make tortillas or other staple food products Labor and daily activities are organized around the gender and generational divisions within the family Domestic (Kin Ordered) Foraging societies characterized by: Collective ownership of the primary means of production Lower Rates of Social domination Sharing Ex. !Kung San Tributary Production The primary producers pays tribute in the form of material goods or labor to another individual or group of individuals who control production through political, religious or military force Found in social systems divided in to classes of rulers and subjects Subjects Typically farmers/herders who produce for themselves and their families but also give a portion of goods/labor to ruling class Pre-capitalist, state-level societies formed in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas Tributary Production Common Features The dominant units of production are communities organized around kinship relations The state’s society depends on the local communities and the tribute collected is used by the ruling class (not exchanged or reinvested) Relationships between producers and rules are often conflictual Production is controlled politically rather than through direct control of the means of production Ex. Feudal Europe, Medieval Japan (loosely organized); Pre-Contact Inca Empire and Imperial China (tightly organized) Tributary Production Imperial China Rulers not only demanded tribute in form of material goods also organized large scale production and state organized projects irrigation systems, roads and flood control -Imperial officers controlled large industrial and commercial enterprises getting necessarily products like salt, porcelain, bricks etc from non-market mechanisms Mostly closed ranked (decent based/military service/political service) but some lower class men could potentially make it to ruling status (exception not the rule) Capitalism You know what capitalism is…. Three Central Features Private property is owned by its members of the capitalist class Workers sell their labor power to the capitalists in order to survive Surpluses of wealth are produced a. These surpluses are either kept as profit or reinvested in production in order to generate further surplus Most recent mode of production- first originated Europe and North America 17th/18th century Defining feature is private property owned by capitalist class Capitalism Workers typically do not own their means of production the way that domestic and tributary modes of production do Sell their labor power to other people (capitalists) to survive By keeping wages low, those who own the means of production, are able to sell the product of the worker’s labor for more than it costs to produce This allows capitalists (those who own the means of production) to generate surplus that is either kept or reinvested to create more surplus Most important distinctions between capitalism and the other two modes The worker is separated from the means of production Do not own their means of production Cannot keep what they produce or even a portion of it Do not have ultimate control over how much and how often they work Economic Anthropologists Stress that people and communities are differentially integrated into the capitalist mode of production ex. Subsistence farmers may grow their own food but they may have to grow a small crop as a commodity to make money to pay for necessary tools (machetes for swindling) ex. Capitalist societies have informal economies (babysitting, mowing lawns, garden shares etc) Informal jobs/economies are especially important in developing countries where they make up three quarters of the economic structure Fair Trade Farming Small scale semi-subsistence farmers make up the largest group of people in the world (once called peasants) Exist both inside and outside of global capitalism and state societies Primarily use their own labor to grow food for their families to eat but also may produce a commodity to sell They sell crops like coffee in order to buy the necessities that they can’t make (school supplies, building supplies etc) 20-25 million small scale farmers growing coffee in 50 different countries Some form small cooperatives to sell the coffee collectively around the world called fair trade Fair Trade Farming Fair Trade A trading partnership based on dialogue, transparency, and respect that seeks greater equity in international trade Supports workers to combat poverty and strengthen their livelihoods by establishing a minimum price to pay for fair trade products Simultaneously practice domestic modes of production AND produce agricultural commodities for global markets *Paige West’s article Modes of Exchange Three ways to integrate (exchange) economic and social relations and distribute material goods Market exchange Sole focus on modern economics Reciprocity Redistribution There are diverse modes of exchange that shape and are shaped by everyday life Modes of Exchange Market Exchange Revolves around general purpose money, bargaining and supply and demand price mechanisms Reciprocity Involves exchange of goods and services and is rooted in a mutual sense of obligation and identity (Malinowski, Marcel Mauss “The Gift” Redistribution Occurs when an authority of some type (temple, priest, chief or institution) collects economic contributions from community members and redistributes them back in the form of goods and services Requires centralized government Modes of Exchange Market Exchange Social institutions with prices or exchange equivalencies Don’t necessarily have to be localized in geographic place (like an actual market place) but cannot exist without institutions to govern exchange (regulation) Key distinction with reciprocity is the mechanism of supply and demand This causes risks for people living in societies that largely distribute goods through the market Maine Lobster Fishermen Example of market exchange and the mechanism of supply and demand James Acheson studied everyday economic lives of Maine lobster fishermen Lobster markets very sensitive to supply and demand because catch volumes and prices vary radically throughout the year Winter- catches low because lobsters activity slow down and weather conditions are cold/stormy/risky April lobsters are more active, water is warmer, migrate closer to shore so – catch volume increases May prices fall dramatically- barely any tourists so demand is low while the supply is high June/July catch volume decreases because its molting season- but prices go up because with tourist season the demand goes up Fall- tourists leave- catch volume increases again because recently molted lobsters are coming in- prices drop again Price and catch are inversely related- catch is high then the price is low. Catch is low then price is high Maine Lobster Fishermen Fishermen generally sell whole sale to dealers and have very little to do with the rest of the process (from the moment they sell to dealers to how it ends upon your dinner table) This process after selling to the dealers is obscured for the fishermen (alienation) To balance the risk they form long term personalized economic relationships with dealers The dealer’s goal is to ensure large scale steady supply of lobsters for as low a price as possible Create contracts with fishermen to always buy all the lobsters they are selling even if the market is flooded already In return the fisherman agree to a fixed price to their lobsters regardless of the market fluctuations and lose with right to bargain Money General Purpose Money It is a medium for exchange, tool for storing wealth, a way to assign interchangeable values and can be exchanged for all manner of goods Reflects our ideas about generalized interchangeability Takes off these different goods/items/commodities and makes them relatable and commensurable with through one specific metric (i.e. currency) ***Money is highly symbolic and political*** Consumption What does consumption mean? Buying commodities but also buying into ideas, values, norms. Consumption in the globalized world Particular fear with Western consumption in non-western societies that it would lead to global homogeneity Anthropologists argue through ethnographic research that Western influence and influx of western commodities in non western countries does not necessarily produce a carbon copy of the West Research has show that sometimes it actually creates a resurgence of local identities and desire for local structures over global structures/influences Conspicuous Consumption The idea that there are certain kinds of commodities that people consume because they signal to other people the value of the person consuming the commodities Signaling you are a certain kind of person Always in a social context and always signaling who you are to other people (i.e