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Allyn & Bacon 75 Arlington St., Suite 300 Boston, MA 02116 www.ablongman.com THE BIG QUESTION

• WHAT is the scope of economic anthropology? • WHAT are the characteristics of the five major modes of production? • WHAT are some directions of change in the five modes of production? 3 ECONOMIES AND THEIR MODES OF PRODUCTION

CULTURE AND ECONOMIES CHANGING MODES OF PRODUCTION Typologies: Modes of Production Changing Economies of Foragers: The Tiwi of Northern Links: Globalization and the World Economy Australia MODES OF PRODUCTION Changing Economies of Horticulturalists: The Mundurucu Foraging of the Brazilian Amazon ■ Unity and Diversity: Hare Indians of Northwest Canada Changing Economies of Pastoralists: Herders of Mongolia and the Importance of Dogs Changing Worlds of Family Farmers: The Maya of Horticulture Chiapas, Mexico Pastoralism Changing Worlds of Industrialists: Taiwanese in South Africa Agriculture THE BIG QUESTIONS REVISITED ■ Lessons Applied: The Global Network of Indigenous Knowledge Resource Centers KEY CONCEPTS ■ Critical Thinking: Was the Invention of Agriculture at SUGGESTED READINGS Terrible Mistake? Industrialism and Post-Industrialism

51 In this chapter we explore how people cross-culturally make a living. This topic fits within the scope of the sub- field of economic anthropology, which is the cross-cultural study of economic systems. Economic systems include three major areas: production, or making goods or money; consumption, or using up goods or money; and exchange, or the transfer of goods or money between people or institutions. This chapter looks at the first area. We review the characteristics of the five major modes of production, or the dominant way of making a living in a society, and we consider examples of change in each of these modes, as well as the effects of capitalist globalization.

or thousands of years of human life, people made their living by gathering food and other CULTURE AND ECONOMIES basic necessities from nature. Everyone had F This section discusses two aspects of the study of pro- equal access to life-sustaining resources. We now duction in cultural anthropology. The first introduces the live in a rather different cultural world. A woman in major modes of production. These modes provide the Florida recently established the name of the conceptual foundation for all the material that appears in Yanomami, an Amazonian tribe who live in the rain subsequent chapters of this book, so you must know forest in Venezuela, for a web site address she was them well. Second, this section initiates a discussion of auctioning: http://www.yanomami.com for $25,000. how global economic change in recent years, especially When leaders of the 26,000 Yanomami people the spread of capitalism, is affecting local forms of pro- heard about this, they were not happy. Apparently, duction and how cultural anthropologists study such in order to use their own tribal name for their site, changes. they would have to buy it. Private property has moved into the virtual realm. Cultural anthropologists have long studied economic systems cross-cul- Typologies: Modes of Production turally. In this globalizing world, they have to study much more: the new global economy, e-commerce, In their study of production cross-culturally, cultural and how these changes affect economic systems anthropologists have gathered rich data that are then that have existed for thousands of years. placed into analytical categories called modes of production. Categorizing a certain society as having a particular mode of production implies an emphasis on that type of production and does not mean that it is the only kind of production undertaken. In a given society, not everyone will necessarily be involved in the dominant mode of production. Also, a particular individual may be involved in more than one; for example, a person could be both a farmer and a herder. In most cultures, however, a dominant mode of production exists that ana- lysts use as a basis for classification. These categories blend with and overlap each other, but they are nonethe- less useful as broad generalizations. The modes of production are discussed in order of their historical appearance in the human record (see Fig- ure 3.1). Please note, though, that this continuum does not mean that a particular mode of production evolves into the one following it—for example, foragers do not necessarily transform into horticulturalists—and so on, across the continuum. Nor does this ordering imply any kind of judgment about level of sophistication or superi- ority of the more recent modes of production. Even the

52 FIGURE 13.1 Dental and Retroflex Tongue Positions. (A typical source note for creative art.)

INDUSTRIALISM FORAGING HORTICULTURE PASTORALISM AGRICULTURE (CAPITALIST)

Reason for Production Reason for Production Production for use Production for profit Consumption level: low Consumption level: high Exchange: sharing-based Exchange: market-based

Division of Labor Division of Labor Family-based Class-based Overlapping gender roles High degree of occupational specialization

Property Relations Property Relations Egalitarian and collective Stratified and private

Resource Use Resource Use Extensive and temporary Intensive and expanding

Sustainability Sustainability High degree Low degree

oldest system involves complex and detailed knowledge periphery nations. Thus, core nations experience eco- about the environment that a contemporary city dweller, nomic growth and become more wealthy and developed, if transported to a rain forest, would find difficult to learn while periphery nations are trapped in poverty and as a basis for survival. None of these systems of produc- dependency. tion is “frozen in time,” for they have all undergone This chapter examines several modes of production change and indeed are still changing. that, over time, have been increasingly affected by the power and influence of globalization, especially the effects of capitalism. We return to a more in-depth look Links: Globalization and the at how global capitalism interacts with local economies World Economy at the end of this chapter. The spread of Western capitalism in recent centuries The spread of global capitalism has had far-reaching has had far-reaching effects on modes of production that effects on all modes of production. According to one it meets. The intensification of global trade created a social theorist, global capitalism involves world trade in global division of labor, or world economy, in which goods and transfers of labor and resources. It creates a countries compete unequally for a share of the wealth “world-economy” (Wallerstein 1979). Competition among (Wallerstein 1979). The modern world-system is stratified capitalist nations—and socialist nations as well—for mar- into three major areas: core, peripheral, and semiperiph- kets, resources, and labor has led to ever-increasing dom- eral. Core areas monopolize the most profitable activities ination of “periphery” societies by the “core” societies of the division of labor, such as the high-tech service, (Hall 1996). manufacturing, and financial activities, and they have the Core societies specialize in manufacturing, whereas strongest governments, which play a dominating role in periphery nations provide labor and raw materials. Core the affairs of other countries. Peripheral areas are stuck societies tend to have strong governments and play a with the least profitable activities, including the produc- prominent role in the affairs of periphery societies. tion of raw materials, foodstuffs, and labor-intensive Periphery societies have weak governments and are heav- goods and import high-tech goods and services from ily influenced by core societies. This system works to the other areas. They tend to have weak governments and advantage of core nations and to the disadvantage of are dominated, either directly or indirectly, by core coun-

CHAPTER 3 ■ Economies and Their modes of Production 53 try governments and policies. Semiperipheral areas stand Successful foraging requires sophisticated knowledge in the middle with a mixture of wealth and power. of the natural environment: how to find particular roots According to this analysis, all areas are equally inter- buried deep in the ground, how to follow animal tracks dependent in the division of labor, but the benefits that and other signs, and how to judge the weather and water accrue from their specialized roles are highly unequal. supply. It also relies on a diverse set of tools to aid in the Core states, with about 20 percent of the system’s popu- processing of wild foods, including nutcrackers, seed- lation, control 80 percent of the system’s wealth and put grinders, and cooking containers. Depending on the envi- out 80 percent of world pollution. In the political sphere, ronment, the main activities of foraging include gather- the core states have increased their economic power and ing such food as nuts, berries, roots, honey, insects, and influence through international organizations such as the eggs; trapping or hunting birds and animals; and fishing. World Trade Organization (WTO), which forces “free Tools include digging sticks for removing roots from the trade” policies on peripheral countries and appears to be ground and for penetrating the holes dug by animals in yet another mechanism that intensifies the unequal divi- order to get the animals out, bows and arrows, spears, sion of labor and wealth. nets, and knives. Baskets are important for carrying food- This chapter examines several modes of production stuffs. For processing raw materials into edible food, for- that, over many centuries, have been variously but increas- agers use stones to mash, grind, and pound. Meat can be ingly affected by the capitalist logic of commodity pro- dried in the sun or over fire, and fire is used for cooking duction for markets for ceaseless capital accumulation. either by boiling or by roasting. Obtaining and processing food requires few nonrenewable fuel sources beyond wood or other combustible substances for cooking. MODES OF PRODUCTION The reader should keep in mind throughout the following discussion of the five major modes of production that cultural anthropologists are always uneasy about creating typologies. This uneasiness stems from the kind of research that cultural anthropologists do: long-term, people-close study that yields a high degree of locally specific knowledge about a particular culture. Such rich and specific insights often mean that a particular culture does not fit well in any of the broad categories. Reflecting the creative tension between Boasian particularists and ecological determinists (Chapter 1), contemporary cultural anthropologists tack between their detailed knowledge of culture and the need, from time to time, to make more general statements.

Foraging Foraging is based on using food that is available in nature, provided by gathering, fishing, or hunting. It is the oldest economic system, having existed since the appearance of Homo sapiens around 100,000 years ago, perhaps earlier. Foraging has thus survived as the predominant mode of production for 90 percent (or more) of human existence. Foraging is now in danger of extinction as a “pure” form. Very few people—roughly a quarter of a million people—support themselves predominantly from forag- During a time of food shortage in 1999, a Sudanese ing. European colonialism and contemporary economic mother and her daughter coll ect leaves to eat. ■ globalization have drastically changed their lifeways. For- What knowledge and skills would people require to agers now are mostly located in what are considered mar- obtain “famine foods” in such circumstances? How ginal areas, such as deserts, the circumpolar region, and capable would you be of foraging for food in a some dense tropical forest regions. similar situation? (Source: to come)

54 PART II ■ Economic and Demographic Foundations Foraging is an extensive strategy, a mode of produc- ment in hunting is found in more depleted and resource- tion involving temporary use of large areas of land and limited environments (Hiatt 1970). The implication is much spatial mobility. Before being contained in reser- that men’s hunting of large game is an adaptation to vations and settled into agricultural contexts, the Ju/wasi increasing resource scarcity in recent times and thus was of southern Africa moved several times during a year, not necessarily common throughout the long history of depending on the seasonal availability of water sources. foraging. Each cluster of families would return to “their” territory, In contrast to the “Man the Hunter” model, some cul- reconstructing or completely rebuilding their shelters with tural anthropologists have proposed a “Woman the Gath- sticks for frames and leaf or thatch coverings. Sometimes erer” model (Slocum 1975). This model makes more the shelters were attached to two or three small trees or sense, because the bulk of everyday food in most forag- bushes for support. Among the Ju/wasi, the amount of ing systems came from gathering, the primary work of investment of time, labor, and material in constructing women. Among the Ju/wasi, women’s gathering provides shelters is modest. 75 to 80 percent of the diet, and large game provided by In contrast to foragers of temperate climates, such as men accounted for the rest. In some cultures, women the Ju/wasi, those of the circumpolar regions of North have roles in hunting game similar to those of men, as America, Europe, and Asia have to devote more time and among the Agta of the Philippines (Estioko-Griffin 1986; energy to obtaining food and providing shelter. The spe- Estioko-Griffin, Goodman, and Griffin 1985). Among cialized technology of circumpolar peoples includes the Agta, some women go hunting while other women spears, nets, and knives, as well as sleds and the use of stay at the camp caring for the small children—thus dis- domesticated animals to pull them. Dogs or other ani- proving the proposition that women’s maternal roles uni- mals that are used to pull sleds are an important aspect versally prevent them from hunting. Most cultural of circumpolar peoples’ economic technology. (See the anthropologists now agree that the “Man the Hunter” Unity and Diversity box.) Considerable amounts of labor model is an example of male bias in interpretation. Yet are needed to construct durable igloos or permanent log “Man the Hunter” lives on in much popular thinking houses, which are necessary adaptations to the cold tem- and is perpetuated through textbook images and museum peratures. Protective clothing, including warm coats displays (Gifford-Gonzalez 1993). and boots, is another feature of circumpolar economic Age is a basis for task allocation in all societies because adaptation. children and the aged generally spend less time in food provision. In foraging societies, both boys and girls perform various tasks that North Americans would label as Division of Labor “work,” particularly gathering food. Among the Ju/wasi, Among foraging peoples, occupational specialization young boys begin practicing hunting skills through the (assigning particular tasks to particular individuals) exists games they play with small bows and arrows. They grad- to varying degrees and depends mainly on gender and ually take on more adult skills as they mature. Among the age. Among temperate foraging cultures, a minimal gen- Agta of the Philippines, both girls and boys learn to hunt der-based division of labor exists. People get the major- along with their mothers. ity of their food by gathering roots, berries, grubs, small birds and animals, and fish. One difference is that when hunting is done, men are more likely to be involved in Property Relations long-range expeditions to hunt large animals. However, The concept of private property, in the sense of owning hunting large animals provides only a small portion of the something that can be sold to someone else, does not diets of temperate-climate foragers. In contrast, hunting exist in foraging societies. Instead, the term use right is large animals (including seals, whales, and bears) and more appropriate. It means that a person or group has capturing large fish is important in circumpolar groups, socially recognized priority in access to particular and gender-based specialization is therefore more resources such as gathering areas, hunting and fishing marked. areas, and water holes. This access is willingly shared Many anthropologists have emphasized a “Man the with others by permission. Among the Ju/wasi, family Hunter” model for prehistoric humans and contempo- groups are known to control access to particular water rary foragers in general (for example, Lee 1979). This holes and the territory surrounding them (Lee 1979: view takes men’s hunting roles in some foraging groups 58–60). Visiting groups are welcome and will be given and uses them as the model for all foraging groups. Early food and water. In turn, the host group, at another time, cultural anthropologists used these roles as the basis for will visit other camps and be offered hospitality there. In theories about patterns of male dominance in the past India’s Andaman Islands, each family group controls a and the present. Comparative studies of foragers around known offshore area for fishing, and sharing is a common the world, however, indicate that greater male involve- practice if permission has been given. Encroaching on

CHAPTER 3 ■ Economies and Their modes of Production 55 Unity and Diversity HARE INDIANS OF NORTHWEST CANADA AND THE IMPORTANCE OF DOGS

SEVENTY-FIVE Hare Indians live in the community of Among the 14 households, there are a total of 224 dogs. Colville Lake in Canada’s Northwest Territories (Savishin- Some households have as many as 4 teams, with an aver- sky 1974). They survive by hunting, trapping, and fishing age of 6.2 dogs per team, corresponding to people’s esti- in one of the harshest environments in the world. Joel mation that 6 dogs are required for travel. More than Savishinsky’s major research interest was to analyze the being only economically useful, dogs play a significant experience of stress, tension, and anxiety among this iso- role in people’s emotional lives. They are a frequent lated group and observe how they cope with it. Ecologi- topic of conversation: “Members of the community con- cal stress factors include “extreme temperatures, long stantly compare and comment on the care, condition, and severe winters, prolonged periods of isolation, haz- and growth of one another’s animals, noting special ardous weather and travel conditions, an often precari- qualities of size, strength, color, speed, and alertness” ous food supply, and the constant need for mobility dur- (169). Emotional displays, uncommon among the Hare, ing the harshest seasons of the year” (xiv). Social and are significant between people and their dogs: psychological stress factors also exist, including contact The affectionate and concerned treatment of young with White people: fur traders and missionaries. animals is participated in by people of all ages, and Savishinsky discovered the importance of dogs in rela- the nature of the relationship bears a striking resem- tion to the economy and the people’s psychological well- blance to the way in which people treat young chil- being: dren. Pups and infants are, in essence, the only recipi- ents of unreserved positive affect in the band’s social [L]ater in the year when I obtained my own dogteam, life, all other relationships being tinged with varying I enjoyed much greater freedom of movement, and degrees of restraint and/or negativism. (169–170) was able to camp with many people whom I had pre- viously not been able to keep up with. Altogether I travelled close to 600 miles by dogsled between mid- FOOD FOR THOUGHT October and early June. This constant contact with dogs, and the necessity of learning how to drive, train Think of another culture in which animals are a focus and handle them, led to my recognition of the social of intense human interest. Which animals are important and psychological, as well as the ecological, signifi- in what ways and to whom in that culture? Do you know cance of these animals in the lives of the people. (xx) of a culture in which people have no interest in animals?

someone else’s area without permission is a serious mis- ited area since earliest observations of them in the late demeanor that could result in violence. In foraging nineteenth century. groups, use rights are generally invested in the collective One reason for the sustainability of foraging is that group and passed down equally to all children who are foragers’ needs are modest. Some anthropologists have members of the group. typified the foraging lifestyle as the “original affluent society” because needs are satisfied with minimal labor efforts. This term is used metaphorically to indicate that Foraging as a Sustainable System foraging economies should not be dismissed as poor and When untouched by outside influences and with abun- inadequate attempts at making a living. That is an eth- dant land available, foraging systems are sustainable, nocentric judgment made from the perspective of a con- which means that crucial resources are regenerated over sumer culture with different economic and social values. time in balance with the demand that the population In the 1960s, when the Ju/wasi of the Kalahari desert makes on them. One island in India’s Andaman Islands were still a foraging system, their major food source was provides a clear case because its inhabitants have lived the mongongo nut, which was so abundant that there in a “closed” system. The few hundred Andamanese on was never a shortage (Howell 1986). In addition, hun- Sentinel Island, which has never been entered by out- dreds of species of plants and animals were considered siders, have maintained their lifestyle within a fairly lim- edible. Yet the people were thin and often complained of

56 PART II ■ Economic and Demographic Foundations hunger, year round. Their thinness may be an adaptation to seasonal fluctuations in food supply. Rather than max- imizing food intake during times of plenty, they minimize it. Mealtime is not an occasion for stuffing oneself with treats until there is no room for anything more. Ju/wasi culture taught that one should have a hungry stomach, even in the midst of plentiful food. Because foragers’ needs for goods are not great, minimal labor efforts are required to satisfy them. Foragers typically work fewer hours a week than the average employed North American. In traditional (undisturbed) foraging societies, people spend as few as five hours a week collecting food or making and repairing tools, so they have more leisure time for activities such as story- telling, playing games, and resting. Foraging people also traditionally enjoyed good health records. During the 1960s, the age structure and health status of the Ju/wasi compared to those of the United States of around 1900— without any modern medical facilities (Lee 1979:47–48). They were a “healthy and vigorous population with a low incidence of infections and degenerative diseases.” The high level of needs satisfaction and general health and well-being of foragers is the basis of their being called Hare Indian children use their family’s sled to haul the “original affluent societies.” drinking water to their village. ■ What tasks are children responsible for in a microculture that you know? (Source: Joel Savishinsky) Horticulture Both horticulture and pastoralism emerged only within of garden plots in order to allow used areas to regener- the last several thousand years of human existence. Each ate and thus is also termed “shifting cultivation.” Aver- mode of production involves an emerging dependence on age plot sizes are less than 1 acre, and 2.5 acres can sup- the domestication of plants and animals, or their control port a family of five to eight members for a year. Yields by humans in terms of both their location and their repro- are sufficient to support semipermanent village settle- duction. No one is sure when and where domestication ments of 200 to 250 people. Overall population density first occurred or whether the domestication of plants and per square mile is low because horticulture, like forag- animals occurred at the same time or sequentially. Some ing, is a land-extensive strategy. But horticulture is more evidence indicates that plant domestication came first. labor-intensive than foraging because of the energy Horticulture is a mode of production based on the cul- required for plot preparation and food processing. Hor- tivation of domesticated crops in gardens using hand ticulturalists supplement their diets by fishing or hunt- tools. It emerged first around 12,000 BCE in the Middle ing, or both, and they may trade with nearby foragers. East. A horticultural economy is based mainly on food Anthropologists distinguish five phases in the horti- crops that people plant and harvest. The food grown in cultural cycle: gardens is often supplemented by foraging for wild foods ■ Clearing: A section of the forest is cleared, partially and trading with pastoralists for animal products. Hor- or completely, by cutting down trees and brush and ticulture is still practiced by many thousands of people then setting the area on fire to burn off other growth. mainly in sub-Saharan Africa; South and Southeast Asia, This burning creates a layer of ash that is rich fertil- including the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea; Cen- izer. The term “slash and burn cultivation” refers to tral and South America; and some parts of the Caribbean the two stages of cutting and burning. islands. Prominent horticultural crops include yams, corn, ■ beans, grains such as millet and sorghum, and several Planting: This is accomplished with a digging stick to types of roots, all of which are rich in protein, minerals, loosen the soil, into which seeds or slips of plants are and vitamins. placed, or through the broadcasting method of scat- Horticulture involves the use of hand-held tools, such tering the seeds by hand over the ground. as digging sticks, hoes, and carrying baskets. Rain is the ■ Weeding: Weeds are a minor problem because of the sole source of moisture. Horticulture requires rotation ash cover and shady growing conditions.

CHAPTER 3 ■ Economies and Their modes of Production 57 ■ Harvesting: This phase requires substantial labor to Diet is often supplemented through hunting, primar- cut or dig crops and carry them to the residential area. ily by men. In rural Malawi, in southern Africa, for exam- ■ Fallowing: After cultivating the same garden plot for ple, hunting is strictly associated with men, whereas food a certain number of years (which varies depending on crops are women’s responsibility (Morris 1998). In some the environment and the type of crop grown), the land horticultural societies, women grow the staple crops and must be left unused for a period of time so that it men the “prestige foods” used in ritual feasts. In these regains its fertility. contexts, men tend to have higher public status than women. Two unusual horticultural cases involve extremes Crop yields from horticulture can be great and can in terms of gender roles and status. The first involves the support denser population levels than foraging. Surpluses pre-contact Iroquois Indians of central New York State in food supply are possible in horticulture. These sur- (Brown 1975). Iroquois women cultivated maize, the pluses enable trade relationships to increase and cause most important food crop, and they controlled its distri- greater affluence for some people. In some cases, horti- bution. This control meant that they were able to decide culture was the foundation for complex civilizations— whether the men would go to war, because a war effort for example, in Central Africa and in the Mayan civi- depended on the supply of maize to support it. A con- lization of Central America. trasting example is that of the Yanomami Indians of the Venezuelan Amazon (Chagnon 1992). Yanomami men Division of Labor clear the fields and tend and harvest the crops. They also As with foraging, no class differences exist in horticul- do much of the cooking for ritual feasts. Yanomami tural societies. A family of husband, wife, and children women, though, are not idle. They play an important forms the core work group for cultivation, but groups of role in providing the staple food that comes from man- men form for hunting and fishing expeditions, and ioc, a starchy root crop that requires substantial pro- women often work in collective groups for food processing work—it has to be soaked for a long time to cessing. Gender is the key factor structuring the organi- remove toxins and then scraped into a mealy consistency. zation of labor, with male and female work roles often Among the Yanomami, women’s status is very low. being clearly differentiated. Most commonly, men do the We have no simple explanation why different divisions clearing, and men and women plant and tend the staple of labor in horticulture emerge, but their differences have crops that are the basis of the people’s everyday diets. clear implications for gender status (Sanday 1973). Cross- This pattern exists in Papua New Guinea, much of South- cultural, comparative analysis of many horticultural soci- east Asia, and parts of West and East Africa. eties shows that women’s contribution to food produc-

Cassava, also called manioc, is a root crop grown extensively in western Africa. Here, a man displays his crop in Niger. Cassava and millet, a grain, are the staple foods for many West Africans. ■ Do Internet or library research to learn about growing cassava and millet, how they are prepared for eating, and what they contribute to nutrition. (Source: Cecil Images)

58 PART II ■ Economic and Demographic Foundations tion is a necessary but not sufficient basis for status. In ■ reduced access to land as a consequence of incursions other words, if women do not contribute to producing from ranchers, miners, farmers, tourists; food, their status will be low. If they do contribute, their ■ government pressure on horticulturalists to intensify status may be high—but it may not be. The critical factor production for cash in order to pay taxes and other appears to be control over the distribution of what is pro- fees; duced, perhaps especially its public distribution beyond ■ interest of horticulturalists in boosting production for the family. Slavery is a prime illustration of a contribu- cash in order to buy manufactured commodities; and tion to production that does not bring high status because ■ the slave has no control over the product. pressure from population growth when outmigration Children do much productive work in horticultural is not an option. societies, perhaps more than in any other type of econ- The last factor, population growth, is often blamed as omy. A comparative research project, the “Children of the sole culprit, but often it is not involved at all. For Six Cultures” study (Whiting and Whiting 1975), exam- example, in one case in eastern India, the major causes of ined children’s roles in different modes of production. land degradation were heavy government taxes and Children among the Gusii of Kenya, horticulturalists, growing indebtedness to merchants in the plains: performed more tasks at younger ages than children in the other cultures. Both boys and girls were responsible Up to thirty years ago, the hill area occupied by the Sora for caring for siblings, fetching fuel, and hauling water. was covered by dense jungle, while today the hillsides are near-deserts of raw red soil. Shifting agriculture is prac- The reason why horticultural societies involve children in tised with only three to four year fallow periods, as “responsible” tasks more than other societies is that in opposed to over ten years some generations ago. The most horticultural societies, adult women’s time alloca- population has grown only slowly, and certainly at a tion to work is very high and children’s labor serves as a much slower rate than the rapidly increased destruction replacement in the domestic domain. of the environment might suggest. (Blaikie 1985:128)

Property Relations As in foraging societies, the concept of private property Pastoralism as something that an individual can own and sell is not Pastoralism is a mode of production based on the domes- found in horticultural societies. Use rights are important tication of animal herds and the use of their products, and more clearly defined than in foraging societies. By such as meat and milk, for 50 percent or more of the diet. clearing and planting an area of land, an individual puts Pastoralism has long existed in the “old world”—Europe, an indisputable claim on it and its produce. With the pro- Africa, and Asia, notably in regions where rainfall is lim- duction of surplus goods, the possibility of social inequal- ited and unpredictable. In the Western hemisphere, before ity in access to goods and resources emerges. Rules about the arrival of the Spanish in the fifteenth century, the only group sharing may decline or even disappear as some indigenous herding system existed in the Andean region people gain access to higher status. and involved llamas. Sheep, goats, horses, and cattle became prominent after the Spanish conquest (Barfield Horticulture as a Sustainable System 2001). Some Native American groups, especially in the Crop rotation and fallowing are crucial factors in the sus- southwestern United States, still rely on herding animals. tainability of horticulture. Crop rotation varies the Pastoralists raise a limited variety of animals (Barfield demands made on the soil. Fallowing allows the plot to 2001:349). The six most popular species are sheep, goats, rest completely and recover its nutrients. It also promotes cattle, horses, donkeys, and camels. Three others have soil quality and helps prevent compaction by allowing more restricted distribution: yaks at high altitudes in Asia, the growth of weeds, whose root systems help keep the reindeer in northern sub-Arctic regions, and llamas in soil loose. Once the fallow period is over, the weeds are highland South America. Many pastoralists keep dogs burned off, providing a layer of ash that serves as a rich for protection and for help with herding. Pastoralism can source of natural fertilizer. The benefits of a well-man- succeed in a variety of environments, depending on the aged system of shifting cultivation are clear. animal involved. For example, reindeer herding is done A major constraint in horticulture is the time required in the circumpolar regions of Europe and Asia, and cat- for fallowing in situations of pressure on the land. In gen- tle and goat herding is common in India and Africa. eral, seven years or more of fallow time are required for Pastoralism is geared to providing daily food, pri- a year of cultivation. Reducing fallowing time quickly marily milk and milk products. Thus, this mode of pro- brings negative consequences, including depletion of soil duction is limited in what it can provide, so pastoralist nutrients and soil erosion. Several factors contribute to groups forge trade links with settled groups. In this way, overuse of plots that should be left fallow (Blaikie 1985): they secure food and other goods that they cannot pro-

CHAPTER 3 ■ Economies and Their modes of Production 59 duce themselves, particularly grains and manufactured items such as cooking pots, in return for their animals, hides, and other animal products. Pastoralism may seem to resemble contemporary large-scale ranching operations, but in fact, ranches resemble modern industry more than traditional pastoralism (Fratkin, Galvin, and Roth 1994; Loker 1993). The primary purpose of ranching is to provide meat for sale, whereas pastoralism provides many animal products. Also, pastoralism involves the movement of animals to pasture, whereas ranching moves the fodder to the animals. A common problem for all pastoralists is the continued need for fresh pasture for their animals. This need makes pastoralism, like foraging and horticulture, an extensive form of economic adaptation. Herds must move or else Among the Ariaal, herders of Kenya, men are in the pasture area will become depleted. A useful distinction charge of herding camels. ■ Why do you think an between pastoralists is whether they move their herds for adult man is in charge of these baby camels? short or long distances (Fratkin, Galvin, and Roth 1994). (Source: Elliott Fratkin) The Nuer are an example of short-distance herders. E. E. Evans-Pritchard’s (1965 [1947]) classic study describes the Nuer, cattle herders of Sudan in the late 1930s. exists between male and female tasks. Men are in charge Depending on the availability of water, the Nuer spent of the herding activities—moving the animals from place part of the year in settled villages and part in temporary to place. Women are responsible for processing the herd’s camps. Cows provided food for the Nuer from their milk, products, especially the milk. A cultural emphasis on mas- meat, and blood (the Nuer, and other pastoralists, extract culinity characterizes many herding populations. Tradi- blood from the cow’s neck, which they then drink). Cows tional reindeer herding among the Sami of Finland was also furnished hides, horn, and other materials for every- connected to male identity (Pelto 1973). The definition day use and were the medium of exchange for marriage of being a man was to be a reindeer herder. As traditional and payment of fines. The importance of cattle is reflected herding declined and men no longer made their living in the Nuer’s detailed vocabulary for cattle on the basis of from herding, they had to redefine their sense of identity. their colors and markings. In contrast, women are the predominant herders among Pastoralist systems vary greatly in their level of wealth the Navajo of the American Southwest. Navajo men tra- and in the degree of political organization among groups. ditionally had little to do with herding the sheep. Instead, Environmental setting seems to explain much of this vari- their major role is crafting silver jewelry. ation. The Qashqa’i of Iran are long-distance sheep The size of the animal involved appears to be a factor herders and camel drivers (Beck 1986). Iran is lush, with in the gender division of labor. Women are often herders a rich and varied natural resource base that supports agri- of smaller animals, perhaps because smaller animals need culture and urban centers, including the city of Shiraz. to graze less widely and can be kept penned near the The nomadic pastoralism of the Qashqa’i involves sea- house. Men tend the animals that are pastured farther sonal migration to remote pastures separated by about away. This difference suggests the emergence of a dis- three hundred miles. Long-distance herding makes the tinction between men’s wider spatial range than women’s, Qashqa’i vulnerable to raids and requires negotiation something that becomes accentuated in many agricul- with settlements along the way for permission to cross tural systems. their land. This vulnerability prompted them to develop Children play important roles in tending herds. a confederacy of tribes into a centralized political orga- Among the cattle-herding Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania, nization for protection. In areas with fewer resources and parents prefer to have many children so that they can sparser settlements, such as Mongolia in Central Asia help with the herds. Before boys in these pastoralist soci- and the circumpolar region, pastoralist groups are less eties advance to the “warrior” stage, beginning around politically organized and less wealthy than the Qashqa’i. adolescence, their main task is herding.

Labor Property Relations Families and clusters of related families are the basic unit The most important forms of property among pastoral- of production. Gender is an important factor in the allo- ists are animals, housing (such as tents or yerts), and cation of work. In many pastoralist cultures, little overlap domestic goods (rugs, cooking ware). Use rights regulate

60 PART II ■ Economic and Demographic Foundations Girls are in charge of herding water buffaloes to the Ganges River, at Banaras, India, for watering. ■ What knowledge might these girls have to possess in order to do their job? (Source: Barbara Miller)

pasture land and migratory routes. Some sense of private power for weeding, conscientious use of fertilizers, and property exists with animals, because they may be traded control of water supply. The earliest agricultural systems by the family head for other goods. A family’s tent or are documented from the time of the neolithic period, yert is also their own. However, no private rights in land beginning around 10,000 BCE in the Tigris-Euphrates val- or travel routes exist; instead, these are generally accepted ley, India, and China. Agricultural systems now exist on informal agreements. Many pastoral societies emphasize all continents except Antarctica. male ownership of the herds, and sons inherit herds from Agriculture involves the use of domesticated animals their fathers. In other societies, such as the sheepherding for plowing, transportation, and organic fertilizer— Navajo of the southwestern United States, women are manure or composted materials. It also relies on irriga- the primary herders and the herds pass from mother to tion as a source of water and on the construction of elab- daughter. orate terraces and other ways of increasing the amount of land available for cultivation. Pastoralism as a Sustainable System Like the modes of production we have already considered , agriculture involves complex local forms of Pastoralism is a highly extensive system, requiring that knowledge about the environment, including plant vari- groups be able to range widely with their herds in search eties, pest management, precipitation patterns, and soil of grass and water. Pastoralists have been able to develop types. Anthropologists refer to this knowledge as indige- sustainable cultures in extremely limited environments; nous knowledge (IK) to distinguish it from Western, sci- an example is the Mongolian herders, who created a vast entific knowledge. As longstanding agricultural traditions and powerful empire. Thus pastoralism can be a highly are increasingly displaced by methods introduced from successful and sustainable economic adaptation that func- the outside, indigenous knowledge is threatened. It is in tions complementarily with other economic systems. danger of becoming extinct, along with the cultures and As with horticulture, however, when outside forces begin languages associated with it. Many anthropologists are to squeeze the space available for migration, overex- now actively involved in recording indigenous knowl- ploitation of the environment results, and pastoralism is edge as a resource for the future (see the Lessons Applied then accused of depleting the environment. Outside pres- box). sure, including national interests bent on sedentarizing Settlements are permanent and houses are not mov- (settle down) pastoralists so that they will be easier to able. Permanent homes, investment in private property, tax, and commercial interests that covet pastoralists’ and increased yields all promote larger family size as a land, threaten the sustainability of pastoralism. way of further increasing production through the use of household labor. Population density increases substan- Agriculture tially in agricultural societies, and urban centers of thousands of people develop. Occupational specialization Compared to horticulture, agriculture is an intensive increases. Instead of people repairing their own tools and strategy of production. Intensification involves new tech- weapons, some people take on this work as a full-time niques that allow the same land to be used repeatedly job and no longer grow their own food but become depen- without losing its fertility. Key inputs include more labor dent on trading their skills for food with farmers. Other

CHAPTER 3 ■ Economies and Their modes of Production 61 specializations that emerge as full-time occupations are is the basis of the public/private dichotomy in family political leaders, religious leaders or priests, healers, arti- farm societies, in which men are more involved with the sans, potters, musicians, and traders. Three major types nondomestic world and women are increasingly involved of agriculture are described here (see Figure 3.2). in activities in or near the home. Analysis of time allocation data for men and women in horticultural and agricultural societies reveals that both Family Farming men’s and women’s work hours are substantially higher Over a billion people, or about one-sixth of the world’s in agricultural economies, but in differing proportions population, belong to households involved in family for inside and outside work (Ember 1983). Women’s con- farming (formerly termed “peasant agriculture”). In fam- tribution to production is not less in agriculture. Instead, ily farming, farmers “produce much of their own sub- the shares of time devoted to particular activities shift. sistence as well as some food or fiber to sell, supplying Women’s inside work hours increase absolutely and rel- labor largely from their own households, and possessing atively (compared to men’s), and their outside work hours continuing, heritable rights to their own resources” (Net- increase absolutely but decline relative to those of men. ting 1989:221). Family farming is always part of a larger Why do many family farm agricultural systems in- market economic system (Wolf 1966a:8). It is found crease men’s workloads and increase women’s involve- throughout the world but is more prevalent in primar- ment in the domestic domain? One hypothesis is based on ily agrarian countries such as Mexico, India, Poland, and the importance of plowing fields in preparation for plant- Italy than in more industrialized countries. Family farming and the fact that plowing is almost exclusively a male ers exhibit much cross-cultural variety. They may be full- task (Goody 1976). This fact has led some anthropolo- time or part-time farmers; they may be more or less gists to argue that men plow simply because they are closely linked to urban markets; and they may or may stronger than women or have the advantage of greater not grow cash crops such as coffee or sugar cane. Major “aerobic capacity” (the ability of the circulatory system tasks include plowing, planting seeds and cuttings, weed- to nourish the blood through processing air). In south- ing, caring for terraces and irrigation systems, harvest- central India, weather patterns require that plowing be ing, and processing. accomplished in a very narrow time band (Maclachlan 1983). Assigning the task to the physically stronger gen- Division of Labor The family is the basic unit of pro- der ensures that the work can be done more quickly. This duction. Gender and age are important factors around is thus an adaptive strategy because it optimizes chances which productive roles are organized. A marked gender- for a good crop. Another hypothesis is that women are based division of labor characterizes most family farm not involved with plowing and other fieldwork because economies. Cross-cultural analysis of gender roles in such tasks are incompatible with child care (J. K. Brown forty-six cultures revealed that men perform the “bulk” 1970). of the labor in more than three-fourths of the sample Yet another view emphasizes that agriculture increases (Michaelson and Goldschmidt 1971). The few societies the demand for labor within and near the house (Ember in which females were found to predominate in agricul- 1983). Winnowing, husking, grinding, and cooking of ture were located in Southeast Asia. Men work more agricultural products such as rice are extremely labor- hours in agricultural production than in the previous sys- intensive. The high demand for family labor in agriculture tems considered, and women’s work tends to be more prompts people to want many children, so child care devoted to activities near the home, such as processing becomes a more demanding task that is relegated to food and child care (Ember 1983). This division of labor women. As women become isolated within their house-

FIGURE 3.2 Characteristics of Three Forms of Agriculture

Family Industrial Capital Industrial Collectivized Farming Agriculture Agriculture

Labor Inputs Kin-based Hired, impersonal Communal

Capital Inputs Low-moderate High Moderate-High

Sustainability High Low Low-Moderate

62 PART II ■ Economic and Demographic Foundations Lessons Applied THE GLOBAL NETWORK OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE RESOURCE CENTERS

IN 1992 the United Nations Conference in Environment An effort is now under way to link universities and and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro, first promoted agricultural research laboratories worldwide in order to global awareness of the complementary relationships support IK data collection and documentation. Over between indigenous knowledge about the environment thirty IK resource centers exist, housing computerized and biodiversity (Warren 2001). Scholars had long recog- databases of case studies and ethnographical reports. nized the links (Scott 1998), but its official recognition in Coordination among the centers is leading to improved 1992 led to action directed at preserving and promoting guidelines and recommendations about data recording, IK in order to prevent loss of biodiversity. Cultural archiving, and sharing. All of these practices are aimed anthropologists have documented IK about agriculture in at both preserving the knowledge for the future and matters such as emic classification of soil types, what providing wider access to it. Although the primary goal kinds of foods grow best in what contexts, how to mix of the project is to support biodiversity, it will have the crop plantings effectively, and how to prevent pests from effect of supporting cultural diversity as well. destroying crops. Studies also reveal that IK is microcul- turally variable: Men know some things, women know other things, and young and the old have different kinds FOOD FOR THOUGHT of IK, as do members of different economic niches within This global information network will clearly help inform the same cultural area. All these varying “knowledges” agricultural policy makers, but how will it benefit the need to be documented as part of indigenous people whose knowledge is being recorded and pre- cultural/agricultural heritage, because they have local served in the databanks? specificity and validity that outside systems often lack.

holds, they are less able to depend on labor contributions where wet rice agriculture is practiced. This is a highly from other women than in modes of production where labor-intensive way of growing rice that involves start- women live and work collectively. ing the seedlings in nurseries and transplanting them to In family farms in the United States, the gender divi- flooded fields. Males play a role in the initial plowing of sion of labor is clear. The husband is usually primarily the fields, but this work is less arduous than in dry-field responsible for daily farm operations, and wives’ partic- agriculture, because the earth is wet. Women’s labor and ipation ranges from equal to that of husbands to minimal decision making are the backbone of the operations. (Barlett 1989:271–273). Women do run farms in the Why women predominate in wet rice agriculture is an United States, but generally only when they are divorced intriguing question (Bardhan 1974; Goody 1976; or widowed. Wives are usually responsible for manag- Winzeler 1974). Its consequences are clearer than its ing the domestic domain. On average, women’s daily causes: Where female farming systems exist, women are work hours are 25 percent more than those of men. A more likely to own land, to play a greater role in house- new trend is for family farm women to take salaried jobs hold decision making, and to have more autonomy and off the farm to help support the farm. Children in the higher status in general (Dyson and Moore 1983; Stivens United States are not formally employed in farm work, et al. 1994). but many family farms rely on children’s contributions on A third variation in the gender division of labor in weekends and during summer vacations. Amish farm family farming involves complementary and balanced families rely to a significant extent on contributions from task allocations between males and females, with males all family members (Hostetler and Huntington 1992). involved in agricultural work and females involved in In some family farming systems, females play an equal food processing and marketing. This form of gender divi- role or even a more important role than males in agri- sion of labor is common among highland communities of cultural production and distribution. Such “female farm- Central and South America. For example, among the ing systems” are numerically fewer than male farming Zapotec Indians of southern Mexico’s state of Oaxaca systems. Most are found in Southeast Asia, a region (pronounced Wah-haka), men grow maize, the staple

CHAPTER 3 ■ Economies and Their modes of Production 63 crop, and cash crops—bananas, mangoes, coconuts, and and is increasingly being exported to developing nations sesame (Chiñas 1992). Zapotec women sell produce in such as India and Brazil. It is also found in socialist coun- the town markets and make tortillas and sell them from tries such as China. their houses. The farming household thus derives its income from the labor of both genders working interde- Corporate Farming in the United States Industrial pendently on different aspects of the production process. agriculture has brought the advent of a new subcategory Male status and female status are also relatively balanced. of corporate farms, huge enterprises that produce goods Children’s roles in agricultural societies range from solely for sale and that are owned and operated by com- prominent to minor, depending on the context (Whiting panies that rely entirely on hired labor. Studies reveal and Whiting 1975). The “Children of Six Cultures” study four aspects of the evolution of industrial agriculture over found lower rates of child work in the North Indian and the past 150 years: Mexican agricultural villages, compared to the horticul- ■ tural village in Kenya. But in some agricultural societies, The increased use of complex technology, including children’s work rates are very high, as shown through machinery, chemicals, and genetic research on new detailed observations of children’s activities in two Asian plant and animal varieties. This new technology has villages, one in Java and the other in Nepal. In these vil- social impacts. Replacing mules and horses with trac- lages, an important task of children, even as young as six tors for plowing in the South during the 1930s led to to eight years old, is tending the farm animals (Nag, the eviction of small-scale sharecroppers, because the White, and Peet 1978), and children spend more time car- land as the landowners were able to cultivate larger ing for animals than adults do. Girls aged six to eight spend units. The invention of mechanical cotton pickers more time than adults in child care. Some Javanese chil- prompted research on varieties of cotton that were dren in the six- to eight-year-old group work for wages. In more easily picked by machine. These innovations general, girls work more hours each day than boys. combined to displace field laborers. ■ Increased use of capital—that is, wealth used in the Property Relations Family farmers make substantial production of more wealth, in the form of either investments in land, such as the clearing, terracing, and money or property. Industrial agriculture uses the most fencing that are linked to the development of firmly delin- capital per unit of production of all farming systems eated and protected property rights. Rights to land can be (Barlett 1989:260). The high ratio of capital to labor acquired and sold. Clear guidelines exist about inheri- has enabled farmers to increase production, but it tance and transfer of rights to land through marriage. reduces flexibility. If a farmer invests in an expensive Social institutions such as law and police emerge to pro- machine to harvest soybeans and then the price of soy- tect private rights to resources. The more marked gender division of labor in many family farming systems means that men tend to have access to the more highly valued tasks and to goods that have value in the outside world. The women are more involved with food processing, childbearing and child rearing, and family main- tenance—tasks that generate no income and have no exchange value. In family farming systems where male labor and decision making predominate, women and girls tend to be excluded from land rights and other forms of property control. Conversely, in female farming systems, inheri- tance rules regulate the transmission of property rights more often through females. Class distinctions become more rigid, and there are greater gaps between those who have access to resources and those who do not.

Industrial Agriculture This farmer works near a highly urbanized area of Kyoto, in Japan, where farming now often Industrial capital agriculture produces crops through combines elements of industrial mechanization with means that are capital-intensive, using machinery and intensive labor. ■ Which features fit with inputs such as processed fertilizers instead of human and industrialized agriculture? Which do not? (Source: animal labor (Barlett 1989:253). It is most practiced in Barbara Miller) the United States, Canada, Germany, Russia, and Japan

64 PART II ■ Economic and Demographic Foundations Family farming in highland Ecuador. A man plows while women in the family follow, planting seed potatoes. ■ What is the major difference shown here between farming and horticulture? (Source: Jeremy Horner/CORBIS)

beans drops, the farmer cannot simply switch from owned by corporate farms in southern California. Many soybeans to a more profitable crop. of these migrants are Indians from Oaxaca, Mexico. They ■ Increased use of energy—primarily gasoline to run the sneak across the border to work in the United States as machinery and nitrates for fertilizer—to grow crops a way of making ends meet. In the San Diego area, they which often exceeds the calories of food energy yielded live temporarily in shantytowns, or camps, that resemble in the harvest. Calculations of how many calories of Third World living conditions. Here is what a camp, energy are used to produce a calorie of food in indus- where all male workers live, is like on Sunday when the trial agricultural systems reveal a very high ratio of men do not go to work in the fields: perhaps 2.5 calories of fossil fuel to harvest 1 calorie On Sundays, the campsites take on a community-like of food, and more than 6 calories are invested when appearance. Men bathe, and wash their clothes, hanging processing, packaging, and transport are counted (Bar- them on trees and bushes, or on lines strung between the lett 1989:261). Industrial agriculture is thus a less effi- trees. Some men play soccer and basketball, using a hoop cient mode of production than foraging, horticulture, someone has rigged up. Others sit on old crates or tree- and pastoralism. stumps as they relax, talk, and drink beer. Sometimes the ■ men talk about fights from the night before. With little Decline of the family farm. In the United States, fam- else to do, nowhere to go, and few outsiders to talk to, ily farms were the predominant pattern until a few the men often drink beer to pass the time on Saturday decades ago. Now, experts speak of “the death of the nights and Sundays. Loneliness and boredom plague family farm.” Many family farms have fallen into them during nonworking hours. (65) debt, unable to compete with industrial farms. In Canada, foreclosure notices to family farms tripled Industrial Collectivized Agriculture Industrial col- between 1984 and 1990 (Young and Van Beers 1991). lectivized agriculture is a form of industrialized agricul- A key difference exists between corporate farms and ture that involves nonprivate control of land, technol- family farms in terms of labor force. Corporate farms ogy, and goods produced. In China, Mao Tse-tung depend completely on hired labor rather than on family undertook a massive effort to establish collective pro- members. Much of the labor demand in industrial agri- duction in China. Collectivism’s basic goal was to provide culture is seasonal, creating an ebb and flow of workers, for greater economic equality and a greater sense of depending on the task and time of year. Large ranches group welfare than is possible under competitive capi- hire seasonal cowboys for round-ups and fence mend- talism. A variety of collective agriculture arrangements ing. Crop harvesting is another high-demand point. Leo have been used, with varying degrees of success, in places Chavez (1992) studied the lives of undocumented (“ille- such as Russia and Eastern Europe, China, Tanzania, gal”) migrant laborers from Central America who work Ethiopia, and Nicaragua. Cultural anthropology studies in the huge tomato, strawberry, and avocado fields of collectivized agriculture are rare. This section presents

CHAPTER 3 ■ Economies and Their modes of Production 65 Migrant workers picking broccoli in Salinas, California. ■ Provide some comparisons between this mode of production and family farming. (Source: Morton Beebe/CORBIS)

some findings from a study conducted in Romania, tinctions remained between males and females. Women specifically its Olt Land region, which comprises about were relegated to agricultural and reproductive labor, sixty-five villages and a high degree of social homogene- whereas rural men moved into industry. Although women ity (Kideckel 1993). David Kideckel conducted fieldwork were the mainstay of collective farm labor, they were in two periods: first in 1974, during a period of optimism underrepresented among the leadership. Nevertheless, for socialism, and later in 1990, after the revolution that women’s increased involvement in wage earning and their brought socialism’s end. roles in cultivating household use plots strengthened their Romanian socialism, brought in through Soviet sup- influence in the household and the community. Overall, port, was Stalinist and involved highly centralized state the gender division of labor involved substantial overlap planning. Romania had the most comprehensive and cen- between male and female roles in the rural sector. tralized system of Eastern Europe. The state oversaw The 1980s brought dramatic economic decline to nearly every aspect of society, from university enrollments Romania. In December 1989, the Romanian revolution to the production of steel and tractors. Romanian agri- began. Conflict continued through 1990, when the oppo- culture was organized into state farms and collective sition party won the national election. By 1991, about farms. With the completion of collectivization in the early 80 percent of the farm land had reverted to private own- 1960s, about 30 percent of the land was in state farms, ership. The revolution had mixed results throughout 60 percent in collectives, and 10 percent privately held. Romania and Olt Land: “At first it improved people’s Workers on state farms were paid wages and received a daily lives and brightened their outlook. . . . Ultimately, small garden for their own use. Organized like a rural however, the persistent uncertainties intensified the com- factory, the state farm provided services such as child care petitive and divisive forces that had so long been at work facilities and shopping centers. Collective farms, in con- in Olt Land society” (216). The transition to private land trast, were “ostensibly” owned and controlled by their was not easy. State farms gave up land reluctantly, and members, who pooled land, labor, and resources. Their many collective farmers had second thoughts about pri- earnings were determined by total farm production, and vate agriculture: their wages tended to be lower than state farm workers’ wages. Collective farm workers were entitled to a “use One couple in their early forties . . . were horrified when plot” of the collective land. they heard a rumor that people were to be required to take back the land. . . . They had no desire to work in Labor was separated into tasks according to whether agriculture, and to them the half hectare to which they it was manual or mental labor. Although manual labor- were entitled was a burden. Many people who were ers were elevated in state rhetoric and were more highly close to retirement or recently pensioned and some paid than intellectuals, intellectual work was more highly younger unmarried people also saw private agriculture valued than manual work. In spite of the socialist rhetoric as not worth the effort. They had grown accustomed to proclaiming equality among all workers, economic dis- the shared risk and shorter workdays of collective farm-

66 PART II ■ Economic and Demographic Foundations ing. . . . Some young people liked the idea of private agri- labor market” to unstable or part-time and less lucrative culture but doubted that they knew enough to be suc- jobs in the “secondary labor market” (Calhoun, Light, cessful at it. (221–222) and Keller 1994). Cultural anthropologists conduct research in any number of domains, ranging from huge The Sustainability of Agriculture multinational corporations to neighborhood beauty par- Agriculture requires more in the way of labor inputs, lors, but the tendency has been to focus on small-scale technology, and the use of nonrenewable natural re- organizations, especially factories. Factory studies are an sources than the systems discussed earlier. The ever- important genre in cultural anthropology. Fieldwork increasing spread of corporate agriculture is displacing techniques in factory studies include conducting inter- other longstanding economic systems, resulting in the views with workers and managers in the plant and in destruction of important habitats, notably rainforests, in their homes and observing plant operations. Findings its search for agricultural land (along with commercial shed light on how people adapt to this environment and ranching and other aspects of industrialism, discussed on the stresses that arise. next) and for water and other energy sources to support In one study, a team of cultural anthropologists and its enterprises. Intensive agriculture itself is nonsustain- graduate students focused on the role of ethnicity in social able. It is also undermining the sustainability of other relationships in a Miami clothing factory (Grenier et al. systems. Anthropologists have pointed to some of the 1992). The clothing plant, a subsidiary of the largest U.S. social costs of agriculture. (See the Critical Thinking box.) clothing manufacturer, employs about 250 operators, mainly women. The majority of employees are Cuban women who, fleeing from the Castro regime, immigrated Industrialism and Post-Industrialism to Miami many years ago. As these employees are aging and beginning to retire, they are being replaced by new Industrialism is the production of goods through mass immigrants from Central America, some Haitians, and employment in business and commercial operations. In some African Americans. The workers are organized into industrial capitalism, the form of capitalism found in a union, but members of the different ethnic groups have most industrialized nations, the bulk of goods are pro- more solidarity with each other than with the union. duced not to meet basic needs but to satisfy consumer Interethnic rivalry exists around the issue of manage- demands for nonessential goods. Employment in agri- ment’s treatment of members of different groups. Many culture decreases while jobs in manufacturing and the non-Cuban workers claim there is favoritism toward service sector increase. In some industrialized countries, Cuban employees. Some supervisors and managers the number of manufacturing jobs is declining, with more expressed ethnic stereotypes, but not always consistent people being employed in service occupations and in the ones: “Depending on whom one listens to, Haitians are growing area of “information processing” (such as com- puter programming, data processing, communications, and teaching). Some experts feel that the United States, for example, has moved out of the industrial age and into the “information age.” As the growth of cybersystems and virtual economies continues worldwide, cultural anthropologists are beginning to conduct research on these new developments. Within industrial capitalism an important distinction exists between the formal sector, which is salaried or wage-based work registered in official statistics, and the informal sector, which includes work that is outside the formal sector, not officially registered, and sometimes illegal. If you have done babysitting and were paid cash that was not formally recorded by your employer (for tax deduction purposes) or by you (for income tax purposes), then you have participated in the informal sector. Informal sector activities that are illegal are referred to as being part of the “underground economy.” Members of this Romanian collective farm work team are sorting potatoes. Teams were composed of close friends, relations, and neighbors. ■ How The Formal Sector might this form of organization contribute to The formal sector comprises a wide array of occupations, productivity? (Source: David Kideckel) ranging from stable and lucrative jobs in the “primary

CHAPTER 3 ■ Economies and Their modes of Production 67 Critical Thinking WAS THE INVENTION OF AGRICULTURE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE?

MOST EURO-AMERICANS have a “progressivist” view from which we have never recovered” (Diamond that agriculture is a major advance in cultural evolution 1994[1987]:105–106). Some of the “costs” of agriculture because it brought with it so many things that Western- include social inequality; disease; despotism; and destruc- ers admire: cities, centers of learning and art, powerful tion of the environment from soil exhaustion and chemi- state governments, and monumental architecture: cal poisoning, water pollution, dams and river diversions, and air pollution from tractors, transportation, and pro- Just count our advantages. We enjoy the most abun- cessing plants. With agriculture, life did improve for dant and varied foods, the best tools, and material goods, some of the longest and healthiest lives, in his- many people, but not for all. Elites emerged with distinct tory.... From the progressivist perspective on which I advantages, but the gap between the haves and the was brought up, to ask “Why did almost all our have-nots increased. Health improved for the elites, but hunter–gatherer ancestors adopt agriculture?” is silly. not for the landless poor and laboring classes. With the Of course they adopted it because agriculture is an vast surpluses of food created by agricultural production, efficient way to get more food for less work. (Dia- elaborate state systems developed with new forms of mond 1994[1987]:106) power exercised over the common people. Another claim about the advantage of agriculture is that it allows more leisure time, so art could flourish. Why FOOD FOR THOUGHT would one rather be a hunter–gatherer, struggling every What is your definition of “the good life”? day to make ends meet? On the other hand, many scholars raise serious ques- What are the benefits and costs of achieving the good tions about the advantages of agriculture. These “revi- life among, say, the Ju/wasi compared to your vision of sionists” argue that agriculture may be “the worst mis- the good life in your microculture? take in the history of the human race,” “a catastrophe Who gets to live the good life in each type of economy?

either too slow or too fast; Cubans may talk too much or an anthropologist. This is not always the case, however, be extraordinarily dedicated workers” (75). Managers since many informal sector workers are involved in more see ethnic-based competition and lack of cooperation as than one enterprise in an attempt to make ends meet, as a key problem that they attempt to deal with in various well as being responsible for child care. ways. For example, management banned workers from The illegal drug industry is an important part of the playing personal radios and installed a system of piped- globalized informal economy. Neither international drug in music supposedly by a radio station that alternates dealers nor street sellers pay income tax on their profits, between “American” and “Latin” songs. and their earnings are not part of the official GNP of any nation. In the United States, many young males are drawn into the drug economy as sellers. Their lives are fractured The Informal Sector with danger and violence (Bourgois 1995). Studying the informal sector presents several challenges. In many parts of the world, sex work is illegal but People who work in the informal sector are unlikely to be exists as part of the informal sector, both locally and glob- clustered in one location such as a factory. Often, work- ally. In the United States, sex work is legal only in the ers in the informal sector are involved in illegal activi- state of Nevada, where income from sex work is taxable ties, which means they are even less willing than other just like any other occupation. In other states, it is illegal people to be studied. In general, it is easier to do research and part of the informal economy. on aspects of people’s lives of which they are proud. Work In Thailand, the sex industry is the leading sector of the in the informal economy may yield a sense of pride less economy, accounting for about 10 percent of Thailand’s often than work in the formal economy. On the other GNP. Much of the income derives from Thailand’s inter- hand, some research advantages exist. Compared to a national popularity as a place for “sex tourism.” Thai CEO of a multinational corporation, people involved in sex workers are also part of the international export sex the informal economy may have more time to share with industry. Over 200,000 Thai sex workers live in Europe,

68 PART II ■ Economic and Demographic Foundations ers are exploited and often seriously harmed, but it does show that the simple model of “victim” does not easily apply either. This study and other research on various kinds of child labor raises universal questions about what childhood is, what a good childhood is, and what child rights are (Pan- ter-Brick and Smith 2000). Surely, the voices and views of the children must be heard. But scholars and activists alike must look beyond the children’s microeconomy to the global, macroeconomic structures that generate and support the people who pay for sex with children and the poverty in the communities that send children into sex work. These facets must be pursued if child prostitution is to be stopped. Child labor is prominent in many modes of production. In this photograph, a girl picks coffee beans in San Juan la Laguna, Atitlan, Guatemala. ■ Should a child have the right to work, or should more international pressure be brought to bear CHANGING MODES OF against child labor? (Source: Sean Sprague, Stock PRODUCTION Boston) This section draws attention to the changes that have occurred in recent times in each of the modes of production. Contemporary economic globalization is only the and many others live in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Sin- latest force of outside change to be exerted on local gapore, the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. economies. European colonialism had major effects on Child sex work in Thailand is an increasingly impor- indigenous economies, mainly by introducing cash crop- tant part of this informal economy. The number of child ping in place of production for household use. sex workers under sixteen years old is estimated to be In the later part of the twentieth century, major eco- about 800,000, or 40 percent of the total prostitute labor nomic growth in Asia, the demise of socialism in the for- force. Recent changes, especially the increased fear of mer Soviet Union, and the increasing economic power of AIDS, have stepped up the demand for ever younger sex the United States throughout the world combined to cre- workers, because people associate child sex with safe sex. ate the current “global economy” or economic global- In the 1990s, recruitment of children as young as 6 years ization. The term global economy refers to the intercon- old began (Petras and Wongchaisuwan 1993:441). nectedness of all aspects of international, transnational, Declining rural incomes in the northern areas of Thai- national, and local economies: raw materials, labor sup- land prompt more parents to sell their children into sex ply, transportation, finance, and marketing (Robins work; the price of a child ranges between $280 and 1996). This interconnectedness is also characterized by its $1200, depending on the child’s looks. In Thailand, sta- instantaneity-electronic forms of communication mean, tistics show that AIDS is increasing rapidly among child more than ever, that when a world economic power cen- sex workers. Many international organizations have ter sneezes, the rest of the world will catch a cold. Social become involved in focusing attention on the issue of scientists vigorously debate the effects of economic glob- child sex work. alization on poverty and inequality (Ravaillon 2003). An anthropological study of child prostitutes in a Economists, who tend to rely on national figures about tourist community in Thailand sought to elicit the voices changing income levels and distribution, have often and views of the children themselves (Montgomery espoused the “aerial view” that economic globalization 2001). The study found that the children themselves do is beneficial overall, because it increases economic activ- not feel that they fit the uniform view of child prostitutes ity. Cultural anthropologists, who work with localized that international organizations have. Their stories are datasets and a more “on the ground” view, tend to varied, complicated, and full of internal contradictions, emphasize the negative effects of capitalist expansion into questions, and struggles. They believe that the work they noncapitalist settings (Blim 2000). They point to three do is moral because it is carried out mainly in support of major transformations: their family. The child sex workers and their pimps, also children, exercise some choice in deciding which clients ■ increases in commercial production in local and to accept and which to reject. This more complex view of periphery regions in response to the demands of a child prostitution does not deny that the child sex work- global market;

CHAPTER 3 ■ Economies and Their modes of Production 69 ■ recruitment of former foragers, horticulturalists, pas- source of iron. Later, in 1897, an Australian buffalo toralists, and family farmers to work in the industri- hunter named Joe Cooper came to the islands and kid- alized sector and their exploitation in that setting; and napped two native women to train as mainland guides ■ dispossession of local people of their land and other in the Tiwi language. Cooper and his group greatly resource bases and substantial growth in the numbers changed the Tiwi by introducing a desire for Western of unemployed, displaced people. goods, especially tobacco. Later, Japanese traders arrived, offering Tiwi men manufactured goods in return for Tiwi Although there are instances in which local cultural women. In the early 1900s, the French established a groups have selectively taken advantage of outside eco- Catholic mission on one island. The mission disapproved nomic influences and remade them to fit their own inter- of the traditional Tiwi marriage pattern of polygamy ests, it seems that in most cases, local economies have (multiple spouses, in this case a man having more than been almost completely transformed and local knowl- one wife) and promoted monogamy instead. The year edge abandoned. 1942 brought World War II to the Tiwi as the Japanese bombed and strafed an American airstrip. Military bases were prominent on the islands. Tiwi dependency on West- Changing Economies of Foragers: The ern manufactured goods increased. Tiwi of Northern Australia Today, the Tiwi are incorporated into the modern world as a part of the Australian nation. Tiwi residence The Tiwi live on two islands off the north coast of Aus- patterns have changed substantially. From being mobile tralia (Hart, Pilling, and Goodale 1988). As foragers, the foragers, the Tiwi have become settled villagers living in Tiwi gathered food, especially vegetables (such as yams) houses built of corrugated iron sheets. Tiwi men now and nuts, grubs, small lizards, and fish. Women provided play football (soccer) and water polo and engage in the bulk of the daily diet with their gathered vegetables competitive javelin throwing. Tiwi art, especially carv- and nuts that were ground and cooked into a porridge. ing and painting, is widely recognized in Australia and, Occasionally men hunted kangaroos, wildfowl, and other increasingly, internationally. Tiwi are active in public game such as goanna, larger lizards. Vegetables, nuts, affairs and politics, including the aboriginal rights and fish were abundant the year around. The Tiwi lived movement. Another major factor of change is interna- a more comfortable life than Aboriginal groups of the tional tourism, a force that the Tiwi are managing with mainland, where the environment was less hospitable. dignity and awareness. One Tiwi commented that The Tiwi have long been in contact with different for- tourism may mean “that white people too will learn to eign influences, beginning in the 1600s with the arrival live with and survive in the country” (Hart, Pilling, and of the Portuguese, who were attracted to the islands as a Goodale 1988:144–145).

Changing Economies of Horticulturalists: The Mundurucu of the Brazilian Amazon Outside economic and political factors have major effects NEW GUINEA on horticultural societies. The rubber industry’s impact on indigenous peoples of the Amazon ranges from main- INDONESIA PAPUA tenance of many aspects of traditional life to the complete NEW loss of traditional lifeways. The Mundurucu illustrate the GUINEA complexities of change that are neither complete cultural Tiwi Islands retention nor complete loss (Murphy and Murphy 1985). After the arrival of rubber planters in the Brazilian Ama- zon in the late nineteenth century, many Indians began to Great Sandy Desert work for the Brazilians as latex tappers. For over a cen- Tanami tury, Mundurucu men combined their traditional horti- Desert cultural life with seasonal work in the rubber area collecting latex. Marked cultural change occurred when Western Northern Australia Territory Queensland many Mundurucu opted to leave their traditional villages, migrating to live in the rubber area year-round. AUSTRALIA In the traditional villages, men still live in a separate house at one side of the village, with husbands visiting

70 PART II ■ Economic and Demographic Foundations Aboriginal artist Eymard Tungatalum retouches a traditional Tiwi carving in an art gallery in Australia’s northern territory. Tungatalum’s carvings, along with songs and poems, are an important part of the Aboriginal people’s efforts to revive their culture. ■ Have you ever seen any Australian Aboriginal art in person? Or on a web site? Was it placed within its cultural context so that you could learn about the people who made it? (Source: Reuters/Megan Lewis/Archive Photos)

wives and children in their group houses. In the rubber Since the 1950s, the then USSR ruled Mongolia and settlement, husbands and wives live in their own houses sought to transform it into an agricultural and industrial and there is no separate men’s house. In the traditional state. As urban centers were established, the urban pop- villages, women’s communal work groups shared water- ulation began to grow and the rural population declined. carrying tasks. Such groups do not exist in the rubber The state provided all social services such as health and settlement villages. The husbands have taken over the education. There was no homelessness or unemployment. task of carrying the water, so men work harder than in The official policy regarding pastoralism was to ban the traditional village. Although women in the settlement private ownership and collectivize the herds. The transi- area work more hours per day than men, they believe tion was not smooth or easy. Collectivization resulted in that life is better because they like living in the same a 30 percent reduction of livestock, as owners chose to house with their husbands. slaughter animals rather than collectivize them (Barfield 1993:169). Subsequently, policy was altered and the people were allowed to control some of their own animals. Changing Economies of Pastoralists: Starting in the late 1980s, the transition away from Herders of Mongolia socialist economic policies spread to Mongolia. By the early 1990s, privatization, a process of transferring the In the early 1990s, cultural anthropologist Melvyn Gold- collective ownership and provision of goods and services stein and physical anthropologist Cynthia Beall (1994) to a system of private ownership, was the government’s were allowed to do fieldwork among herders in Mongo- policy guideline. Collective ownership of herds was lia, a landlocked and mountainous country located abandoned, and family-organized production was rein- between Russia and China. Mongolia has the highest stated. ratio of livestock to people of any country in the world. Goldstein and Beall (1994) selected a more traditional The Mongolian rural economy has long been, and still is, region for their research: the Moost district in the Altai heavily dependent on animal herds. The “big five” ani- Mountain area in the southeastern part of the country. mals are sheep, goats, cattle (mostly yak), horses, and The district includes over 10,000 square miles of moun- camels. As one herder said, “The animals are our food tain and valley land, of which 99.9 percent is pasture. and money. They give us our dairy products and meat to The area contains about 4000 people and about 115,000 eat, dung to warm our ger [tent], and wool and skins to head of livestock. Goldstein and Beall set up their ger make our felt and clothes . . .” (p. 38). Sheep and goats and were immediately welcomed by an invitation to have provide meat and clothing and some milk, yaks are most milk-tea, a hot drink made of tea, water, milk, butter, important for dairy products because they give milk all and salt. During their stay, they spoke with many of the year, and horses and camels provide transportation. nomads, participated in their festivals, and learned about Goldstein and Beall wanted to study how the transfor- perceptions of economic change. mation from a socialist, collectivized, pastoral economy Changes in the wider Mongolian economy during pri- to a capitalist, market system was affecting the people. vatization created serious problems for the herders. Their

CHAPTER 3 ■ Economies and Their modes of Production 71 standard of living declined markedly in the early 1990s. Goods such as flour, sugar, candy, and cooking oil were no longer available. Prices for meat fluctuated widely, and the herders, who had become accustomed to the security of state-controlled prices, had to learn to adjust to the vagaries of the market. Lower meat prices meant fewer herd animals were slaughtered. Larger herd sizes increased the potential for exceeding the carrying capacity of the grasslands. It is obvious that external political and economic policies and events have had major effects on Mongolian herders’ lifestyle. They have had to adjust to dramatic restructuring of their economy, from private family herding to collectivized herding and then back to private herding, in the space of a few decades. Along with these changes, social services such as health care and schools, In parts of Mongolia and Siberia, many pastoralists continue to herd reindeer as a major part of their which were relatively easy to access during the collective way of making a living. ■ Do some research to period, became less readily available with privatization. learn about the worldwide distribution of reindeer We can only wonder how individual agency and choice in the wild and the people who herd them. (Source: have played a part within these massive structural Xinhua-Chine Nou, Gamma Liaison) changes. One scholar of central Asian pastoralists com- ments in an upbeat way that the cultural identity and pride of the descendants of Genghis Khan will endure (Barfield 1993:176) even though their numbers have nearby city. They were largely independent of outside dwindled their standard of living has declined, and their forces in terms of their own food supply. The commu- herding practices are now part of the global economy. nity was closely knit, its social boundaries defined by people’s commitment to community roles and cere- monies. Twenty years later, both the local economy and Changing Worlds of Family Farmers: the social system had changed, reflecting the much The Maya of Chiapas, Mexico greater effects of the world system economy on the region. Zinacantán’s economy was never completely Some applied anthropologists and other development closed, but it had become much more connected with specialists have said that family farmers in closed com- forces beyond its borders. munities are “risk averse” because they avoid adopting The major direct cause of change was the massive innovations such as new techniques for cultivation, new increase in public spending by the government in the seed varieties, and new forms of fertilizer. Economic 1970s. This spending supported the construction of anthropologists have shown, in contrast, that such con- roads, dams, schools, and housing throughout the Chia- servatism may be adaptive. Family farmers have intimate pas region. The government also sponsored outreach pro- knowledge of the systems within which they work, and grams to promote agricultural change, mainly crop diver- they are capable of assessing costs and benefits of inno- sification and ways to increase production. Another vations. These two perspectives both emphasize the farm- important factor was the oil boom in northern Chiapas ers’ agency as decision makers, determining whether they and nearby Tabasco province, which brought huge should change in certain directions. In contrast, devel- amounts of cash into the local economy. opment projects such as the construction of roads, global By 1983, 40 percent of the households had no land at patterns in demand for certain products, and labor all and planted no corn. The majority of the population opportunities shape the options that farmers have to had become involved in wage work, and unemployment, consider. rather than a bad farming season, was the major threat Economic anthropologist Frank Cancian first studied to food security. Wage work included the new opportu- production among the Mayan Indians of Zinacantán, nities in road construction, government jobs, trans- located in the Chiapas region of Mexico’s far south, in portation (of people, food goods, and flowers), and full- 1960. He returned in 1983 to conduct a restudy and time trading in urban markets now reachable via the new thus gained insight into changes that had taken place roads. in the intervening twenty years (1989). At the time of his This story, in its general outlines, is similar to that of first research, most Zinacantecos earned their livelihood many family farmers throughout the world, especially in by growing corn and selling some of their crops in a developing countries. It involves transformation from

72 PART II ■ Economic and Demographic Foundations production for own use to production for sale within a Although Karl Marx predicted that capitalism would monetized system of trade for profit. Having sold the wither away, it hasn’t done so yet. In its latest aspect, family farm, self-employed farmers entered the wage global incorporation, its impacts are ever more power- economy and became dependent on it for their livelihood. fully felt in localities worldwide. Marx would be inter- Many Zinacantecos raised their income level substan- ested to observe how the Tiwi are developing interna- tially during this period, and a clear income gap emerged tional tourism, how Mayans in Chiapas took up road among different categories of people. Being able to buy construction for cash and their abandoned corn farming one or more trucks and take advantage of the new oppor- declined, and how Taiwanese knitwear manufacturers in tunities for urban trade created by the new roads was the KwaZulu-Natal encountered problems in cross-cultural most reliable way to become richer. In contrast, the labor management. He would probably be amused to see households with the least access to cash were more clearly how, at the same time, cultural anthropologists are try- left behind; these households were characteristically ing to understand and document all these changes. headed by a woman on her own. Overall, the area became more prosperous, more monetized, and more Changing Cultural Worlds of Industrial dependent on the outside economy. Internally, social dif- ferentiation increased, and social solidarity within the Workers: Barberton community declined. Increased mechanization is another major aspect of change in industry worldwide, and it has marked impacts on labor. Unemployment and manufacturing declines in Changing Worlds of Industrialists: America’s Rust Belt are well-known trends in industrial Taiwanese in South Africa lifeways. Gregory Pappas (1989) studied unemployment in Barberton, a working-class Ohio town. A tire com- In South Africa during the 1990s, after the dismantling pany that had been the town’s major employer closed in of apartheid, political leaders adopted a neoliberal eco- 1980, eliminating 1200 jobs. Pappas lived in Barberton nomic policy (Hart 2002). Links with Taiwanese indus- for a year, interviewing many people and sending a ques- try were forged, and several Taiwanese industries tionnaire to over 600 displaced workers for further infor- wereestablished outside major urban areas. There is no mation. His work sheds light on how unemployed work- simple explanation for the Asian economic “miracle,” ers cope either by migrating or by finding new ways to but one component was the family model of production spend their time in Barberton. These people are faced in which age and gender hierarchies ensure compliance. with having to construct a new identity for themselves: Inclusion of women in production was another key fac- “For factory workers the place of employment is crucial; tor. Taiwanese managers tried to use such a family system their identities are bound up in a particular place, and in South Africa as a way of ensuring a smoothly func- plant shutdowns compromise their ability to understand tioning labor force. An anthropologist who studied Tai- themselves” (83). As one unemployed man commented, wanese knitwear factories in two locations in KwaZulu- “I don’t know who I am anymore.” In this context of Natal province, South Africa, learned of substantial decline, levels of stress and mental disorder have worker resentment against management. Women work- increased for many people. ers were especially vocal. Taiwanese patterns of negoti- Anthropologists and other experts question the cur- ating with women workers by using an idiom of kinship rent and future sustainability of a mode of production and family did not work at all. The South African women that relies so heavily on the use of nonrenewable frequently commented that they felt as though they were resources and creates high levels of pollution. Others being treated like animals (p. 191). The Taiwanese indus- suggest that new forms of energy will be discovered and trialists were separated by a wide racial, economic, and planets besides earth will be able to provide resources social divide from the factory workers. They lived far and places of human habitation. Given the global inter- from the townships, which they considered dangerous. connections of industrialism—its demand for raw mate- Imposing hierarchical kinship metaphors in such a con- rials, markets, and labor, and its social and environ- text failed to create a viable workforce, and ultimately, mental effects—cultural anthropologists are being many of the Taiwanese industrialists found themselves a challenged to devise new theories and methods to study focal point of local political conflict. In one town, a Chi- such complexity and contribute to policies that will have nese welcome monument was removed. positive social effects.

CHAPTER 3 ■ Economies and Their modes of Production 73 KEY CONCEPTS agriculture, p. 00 horticulture, p. 00 intensive strategy, p. 00 capital, p. 00 indigenous knowledge, p. 00 mode of production, p. 00 corporate farm, p. 00 industrial capital agriculture, p. 00 pastoralism, p. 00 domestication, p. 00 industrial collectivized agriculture, p. public/private dichotomy, p. 00 extensive strategy, p. 00 00 use right, p. 00 foraging, p. 00 industrialism, p. 00 formal sector, p. 00 informal sector, p. 00

SUGGESTED READINGS Anne Allison. Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure and Corporate group relations, conflict, identity, and cooperation that Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club. Chicago: University have taken place since the breakup of the former Soviet of Chicago Press, 1994. Based on the author’s participant Union and the subsequent collapse of the local economy in observation, this book explores what it is like to work as the study region. a hostess in a club that caters to corporate male employees Heather Montgomery. Modern Babylon? Prostituting Chil- and discusses how that microculture is linked to men’s dren in Thailand. New York: Bergahn Books, 2001. The corporate work culture. author conducted fieldwork in a tourist community in Jans Dahl. Saqqaq: An Inuit Hunting Community in the Thailand where parents frequently commit their children Modern World. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, to prostitution. She sought to gain a view of this system 2000. This ethnography of Saqqaq, a hunting community from the perspective of the children and the parents them- located on Disko Bay, eastern Greenland, is based on selves. She found that these insiders’ views are far more fieldwork carried out at several times since 1980 in order complex than the monolithic “victim” picture painted by to provide a diachronic perspective. Hunting beluga is a international agencies. central community activity and still forms the basis of Brian Morris. The Power of Animals: An Ethnography. New community identity, even though commercial fishing and York: Berg, 1998. This book is an ethnography of other economic activities have gained importance in recent Malawi, southern Africa. It is based on in-depth fieldwork times. in one region, supplemented by wide travel and study Frances Dahlberg, ed. Woman the Gatherer. New Haven, CT: throughout the country. It focuses on men’s roles in ani- Yale University Press, 1981. These path-breaking essays mal hunting and women’s roles in agriculture as crucial to examine the role of women in four different foraging soci- understanding wider aspects of Malawian culture, includ- eties, provide insights on human evolution from studies of ing diet and food preparation, marriage and kinship, gen- female chimpanzees, and give an overview of women’s der relations, and attitudes about nature. role in human cultural adaptation. Katherine S. Newman. Falling from Grace: The Experience Elliot Fratkin. Ariaal Pastoralists of Kenya: Surviving of Downward Mobility in the American Middle Class. Drought and Development in Africa’s Arid Lands. Boston: New York: The Free Press, 1988. This book provides Allyn and Bacon, 1998. Based on several phases of ethno- ethnographical research on the downwardly mobile of graphical research among the Ariaal beginning in the New Jersey as a “special tribe,” with attention to loss of 1970s, this book provides insights about pastoralism in employment by corporate managers and blue-collar work- general and the particular cultural strategies of the Ariaal. ers and to the effects of downward mobility on middle- It focuses on social organization and family life. class family life, particularly for women. David Uru Iyam. The Broken Hoe: Cultural Reconfiguration Richard H. Robbins. Global Problems and the Culture of Cap- in Biase Southeast Nigeria. Chicago: The University of italism. Boston: Longman, 1999. Robbins takes a critical Chicago Press, 1995. Based on fieldwork among the Biase look at the role of capitalism and global economic growth people by an anthropologist who is a member of a Biase in creating and sustaining many world problems, such as group, this book examines changes since the 1970s in the poverty, disease, hunger, violence, and environmental traditional forms of subsistence—agriculture, fishing, and destruction. The last section includes extended case studies. trade—and such related issues as environmental deteriora- Deborah Sick. Farmers of the Golden Bean: Costa Rican tion and population growth. Households and the Global Coffee Economy. Dekalb: Anna M. Kertula. Antler on the Sea: The Yup’ik and Chukchi Northern Illinois University Press, 1999. This book is an of the Russian Far East. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University ethnography of coffee-producing households in Costa Press, 2000. Economic and social changes among two Rica that describes the difficulties that coffee farmers face groups—sea mammal hunters and reindeer herders—in a as a consequence of unpredictable global forces and exam- Siberian village on the Bering Seas are the focus of this ines the uncertain role of the state as a mediator between ethnography. The author explores adjustments in inter- the global and the local.

74 PART II ■ Economic and Demographic Foundations THE BIG QUESTIONS REVISITED

WHAT is the scope of economic Early agriculture, like many agricultural contexts now, anthropology? was family-based in terms of labor. Most family farming systems involve more male labor in the fields and more Economic anthropology encompasses the study of pro- female labor in the domestic domain, although some duction, consumption, and exchange. Economic anthro- examples of dominant female roles in field labor exist. pology approaches these processes from a cross-cultural Socialist states created another form of labor organization perspective and does not assume that Western economic for farming through the collective, which organized patterns and values are universal. Economic anthropol- workers into teams regardless of family affiliation or gen- ogists study a wide range of modes of production, or der. In collectivized agriculture, men and women were ways of making a living through goods or money. The supposed to have equal roles, but women tended to have five modes of production anthropologists address are for- lower-status positions than men. With settled agriculture aging, horticulture, pastoralism, agriculture, and indus- came the emergence of private property and of social con- trialism. trol and laws to protect private interests. Social inequality in access to the primary means of production—land— emerged, along with gaps between the rich landed people WHAT are the characteristics of the five and the poor landless people. Agriculture’s sustainability major modes of production? is limited by the need to replenish the land, which is used continuously for crops and animals. The five modes of production involve the factors of labor, In industrialism, labor is highly differentiated by class property relations, and sustainability. In foraging societies, in addition to gender and age. Widespread unemploy- the division of labor is based on gender and age, with tem- ment is found in many industrial economies. In capital- perate foragers having more gender overlap in tasks than ist industrial societies, private property is the dominant circumpolar foragers. Property is shared, and all people pattern, with high rates of imprisonment for people who have equal rights to resources such as land and water holes. violate the rules. Socialist industrial societies have These resources are managed by family groups and shared attempted to distribute property among all people, with others as needed. With its strategy of limited exploita- but most such attempts have not been successful. Given tion of local resources in combination with seasonal migra- its intensive and ever-expanding exploitation of non- tion, foraging has long-term sustainability when not renewable resources, industrialism lacks long-term affected by pressure from the outside world. sustainability. Horticulture and pastoralism are also extensive strategies, requiring the sequential fallowing of plots in horticulture and migration of animals to fresh pastures in pas- WHAT are some directions of change in toralism. We cannot easily generalize about the division the five modes of production? of labor in these modes of production. They include those in which men do most of the work, those in which Foragers are being incorporated into more settled women do most of the work, and those in which work economies as their access to large amounts of land is loads are shared more evenly. As with foraging peoples, decreased by outside economic forces. Many former for- use rights are the prominent form of property relations, aging people now work, for example, as farm laborers, but increased levels of production through the domesti- jobs typically of low status in the mainstream cash econ- cation of plants and animals yield more food and goods, omy. Others are participating in the revitalization of their as well as heightened interest in protecting group rights culture in the new global economy, producing art for sale to land. Given the mobile strategies of shifting use of on the world market or developing cultural tourism plots in horticulture and shifting use of pasture land in opportunities for outsiders. Horticulture and pastoral- pastoralism, these modes of production have long-term ism exist on a larger scale than foraging, but these land- sustainability when not affected by encroachments from extensive systems are also under great pressure from the other economic systems. competing economic forms of agriculture and industri-

CHAPTER 3 ■ Economies and Their modes of Production 75 alism. Many former horticulturalists have migrated to A possible sixth mode of production is emerging with plantations or urban areas and become part of the cash the information age and economic processes being carried economy. States have pressured pastoralists to settle out via the Internet. E-commerce is creating new ways of down or (in communist systems) to become collectivized making a living, new labor patterns, new forms of prop- and then (with the decline of communism) de-collec- erty, and new questions about sustainability. Cultural tivized. In many parts of the world, family farms are anthropologists are beginning to address this latest stage declining in number as corporate farms increase. The in economic change with more complex and varied labor supply has changed from being family-based to research methods than in the early days of the discipline. including a high proportion of migrant laborers who are often transnationals.

76 PART II ■ Economic and Demographic Foundations