ANTH 112 Introduction to Socio-Cultural Anthropology
Winter 2018
January 30, Feb. 1, 6: How do political and economic systems affect how people live their lives? READ: Course notes on Political and Economic Anthropology
ALSO READ: Sikkink, Lynn (2001) “Home sweet market stand: Work, gender and getting ahead among Bolivian traditional medicine vendors.” Anthropology of Work Review 22(3): 1-6.
ALSO READ: Tapper, Richard (2008) “Who are the Kuchi? Nomad self-identities in Afghanistan.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.  14(1): 97-116.

Midterm test: Feb. 8

Formalist-Substantivist Debate
    - formalist view: individuals strategize to achieve maximum satisfaction in a context of scarce resources    
    - substantivist view: that there is wide cross-cultural diversity in how societies pursue livelihoods.
    - money:
        - general purpose money (legal; portable; anonymous; general; standard of value; medium of exchange)
        - special purpose money: has only one or two of the basic characteristics of general purpose money

Sikkink:
    - examines traditional medicine sellers in Bolivia, a state society with industry, capitalism
        - emphasises how these vendors combine household and income-earning work – these are not separate categories
            - children may learn this as a job through their participation in their mother’s work
        - also shows how this commodified work is linked to gathering (but this is not a foraging society), and to the production of food for home use and sometimes for sale (but this is not considered to be a horticultural or an agricultural society)
    - gender is a factor in what women do in the traditional medicine field, and the scale at which they operate.

Tapper:
    - questions the clarity and stability of ways of categorizing peoples, including ethnicity, nomadism, pastoralism
    - points to how the question of who various Afghan or Iranian peoples are to be categorized has changed over time, according to who is doing the naming, and what the political circumstances are
        - exonyms versus autonyms
    - “Kuchi” seen by Tapper as an ethnic term particularly used by Pashtun near Kabul, going from a derogatory term to a claimed identity as designated seats have been set aside for them in contemporary Afghan parliaments
    - many nomads not Pashtun, many Pashtun not nomads
    - some nomads want to be called nomads, others are reluctant nomads and want to be settled
    - some are forced to settle, some lose their prior rights to pasture land
    - is nomadism a problem, to be solved through “modernization,” an ecological solution, a political identity or what?
        - even pastoralist conferences are organized by “specialists” who decide who is a pastoralist.
        - but these and other things show there is an effort to let people decide for themselves how they wish to be categorized

Forms of Exchange (from Polanyi, Sahlins and Mauss)
    Reciprocity: generalized; balanced, negative
    Redistribution:  
    Market exchange: note difference between market capitalist exchange and barter
- but does the use of money necessarily different from reciprocal exchanges?

Some Political Concepts
    - political struggle:
        - resistance: structure and agency debate
            - Foucault and the idea that resistance can diagnose the operation of power
        - rebellion
        - revolution
        - the operation of power:
            - Foucault and the modern state use of pastoral power
            - Gramsci and the idea of hegemonic projects

Political and Economic Structures
- terms from cultural ecology to set out stereotypical political-economic ideal types
 (see the theory section) models distinct economic and political structures were developed.
    - the economic typology included foragers, pastoralists, horticulturalists, intensive cultivators, and industrial societies.
    - the political structures included band societies, tribes, chiefdoms and states (Service 1963).
    - here we will combine these as there is general correspondence between the two typologies although you will note some flexibility as well.
    Note that these are presented to give you vocabulary about these types. There is much debate about whether these are distinct autonomous structures, or whether those we know about were formed through interaction with dominant states, including colonial powers. The readings by Sikkink and Tapper show how complex it is to attempt to categorize economic activity or ethnic identity.

    Foragers (or hunter-gatherers) : bands or chiefdoms
        - flexible division of labour, few political differences among people (tend to egalitarianism)  
        - usually nomadic
        - no concept of private property or general collective rights
        - mostly engage in reciprocal exchanges
        - usually bands  but sometimes chiefdoms

    Horticulturalists
        - division of labour flexible, but perhaps with more emphasis on gender and age than among foragers
        - semi-sedentary
        - collective rights or no concept of private property
        - generalized, balanced reciprocity and redistribution.
        - bands, chiefdoms or tribes
            - tend to be egalitarian or ranked

    Pastoralists
        - division of labour flexible, but perhaps with more emphasis on gender and age than among foragers
        - transhumant or nomadic
        - collective rights to property
        - generalized and balanced reciprocity.
        - tribes
            - tend to be egalitarian

    Agriculturalists
        - division of labour tends to be firmer and based on multiple characteristics: age, gender, status, class, rank, etc.
        - sedentary
        - there may be private property
        - balanced reciprocity, redistribution, market exchange (as well as generalized and balanced reciprocity)
        - tend to be chiefdoms or states
            - thus ranked or stratified

Industrial and post-industrial society
        - complex division of labour: age, gender; status; class; religion; education; etc    .
        - formal economy and informal economy.
        - sedentary
        - private property is usually important
        - dependence on market exchange (but all the other forms are also present)
        - state, therefore stratified

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