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Answer: The word "economy" refers to the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Since Western society is predominantly capitalist and industrialized, we use "economy" to refer to things that are related to money. However, most nonindustrial societies don't use the capitalist mode of production, although they still produce, distribute, and consume goods and services. As a result, most of this chapter is devoted to these kinds of societies—foragers, horticulturalists, agriculturalists, and pastoralists—and the key components of their economies. It is important to realize that industrialized capitalism is a very recent development. Until 10,000 years ago, when the first farming communities emerged, all humans were foragers. Industrialized capitalism has been around for less than 150 years. Answer: In capitalist systems, where high productivity and high efficiency typically increase profit margins, the answer to this question is yes. However, it is important to understand that maximizing profit margins is not the driving principle behind most traditional nonindustrial economies. As a result, productivity and efficiency alone should not be used to determine whether one kind of economy is "better" than another. What about sustainability? Environmental diversity? The quality of public health? It is important to understand that each of the five basic adaptive strategies (foraging, horticulture, agriculture, pastoralism, and industrialism) has its advantages and disadvantages. For instance, foraging is a very efficient and sustainable economy that incorporates a wide range of species into the diet. However, it is not very productive. In contrast, agriculture is very productive, but this productivity is based on only a few staple crops. The relatively restricted diet which results is less healthy than the foraging diet. With the development of agriculture, people began to live in large, densely populated settlements that generate a wide range of public health issues—such as how to contain infectious diseases, plan for waste disposal, and provide adequate drinking water. The industrialized economy of the Western world is extremely productive, but it is not very sustainable. Industrialization has a profoundly negative impact on the environment, including the problems of acid rain, global warming, and deforestation. Answer: One of the contrasts between industrial and nonindustrial economies is the kinds of relations that workers have with the products of their labor. In the case of industrial economies, workers often sell their labor for cash, produce for their employer's profit, and may not feel any strong pride or personal identification with their products. This sense of separation from the product of one's work is called alienation. Moreover, workers may feel a sense of separation or alienation from those that they work with—industrial workers tend to have impersonal relations with their products, coworkers, and employers. In nonindustrial societies, however, the relations of production, distribution, and consumption are social relations with economic aspects. Economy is not a separate entity but is embedded in the society. Answer: The potlatch of the native groups of the North Pacific coast of North America is a good example of the integral role a festival can play in a group's economy. The sponsors of a potlatch traditionally gave away food, blankets, pieces of copper, and other material goods. In return, they gained social prestige, and the more they gave away, the more their prestige increased. Like most regions of the world, the North Pacific coast of North America is subject to local fluctuations in resource abundance. One village might have a good year while another experienced a bad one. A village enjoying a good year would take advantage of its surplus to increase its prestige by hosting a potlatch and inviting the members of the surrounding villages to attend. In this way, the potlatch created and maintained a regional economy in which a series of villages pooled their resources. The needy villages would receive the surplus from the wealthy villages, which in turn gained prestige. |