Economies and Their Modes of Production

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Economies and Their Modes of Production
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Modes of Production Cross-Culturally

• Examines societys way of producing goods, food,
  and services.
• Also examines the rules about ownership and
  control of resources.
• 2 major elements to examining production
• Ownership/control rules.
• Type of technology used.

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Modes of Production
Horticulture, aka swidden farming
Pastoralism
Agriculture Intensive
Industrialism
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Summary
Foraging Horticulture Pastoralism
Agriculture Industrialism
Reasons for Production
Production for use
Production for profit
Division of Labour
Family based
Class based
Property Relations
Stratified/private
Egalitarian/collective
Resource Use
Intensive/expanding
Extensive/temporary
Sustainability
High degree
Low degree
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Foraging, or hunting gathering

• Based on using food provided by nature
• gathering, fishing, hunting
• emerged at least 300 000 years ago
• Major mode of production for 95 of human
  history.
• Maintains balance between resources and lifestyle
• Often nomadic, as people move to follow food
  resources.
• Relies upon large areas of land and spatial
  mobility.
• Usually egalitarian, since property cannot be
  accumulated and stored.

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Overturning old biasesthe myth of hunting
scarcity

• Until the 1960s, many anthropologists assumed
  that foragers lived insecure lives, since they
  had been pushed onto marginal environments.
• Lee overturned 3 major assumptions
• i. that hunting provided the major source of
  food.
• Ii. that hunters had to spend the majority of
  their time securing food.
• Iii. That women were not involved in subsistence
  activities.

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The Dobe !Kung in the 1960s-1970s

• Inhabit the semi-arid northwest region of the
  Kalahari desert in nw Botswana.
• 14 camps, each linked to a waterhole, consisting
  of 466 people.
• Even during a drought year, subsistence was
  secure.
• Vegetable foods, esp. mongongo nuts, provide
  60-80 of their diet.
• Women mainly gathered, hence provided the major
  food inputs for the group.
• Hunted game animals were less secure, but more
  highly valued.
• Average work week was 2.5 days.
• Children, adolescents and the elderly did not
  work. 10 of the population were elderly.
• Caloric and protein intakes were comparable to
  diets in richer, industrialized countries.
• Average distance for gathering and/or hunting was
  6 miles.
• Regular rhythms of work and leisure.
• Men often did not hunt for weeks, but spent their
  time as ritual specialists, esp. organizing
  trance dances, a major form of healing.

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Man the Hunter versus Woman the Gatherer

• Many early anthropologists emphasized the role of
  males as the dominant provider in foraging
  groups.
• However most everyday food is gathered by women
  (Slocum 1975), i.e. women provide the staple
  food.
• Women are also involved in important band
  decisions.
• Both women and men are involved in child-rearing.
• However, in situations where the !Kung have taken
  up farming, women become much more confined to
  the home and to domestic activities.

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Horticulture, also called swidden or slash and
burn agriculture

• Emerged about 14,000 bp
• Defined as the cultivation of domesticated crops
  in gardens using hand tools
• May also involve domesticated animals.
• Domestication the process by which the
  reproduction of plants or animals becomes
  dependent on human intervention.
• Crop yields can support denser populations than
  foraging, typically associated with villages of
  between 500-2,000 people.
• Constrained by time required for fallowing,
  swidden cultivation is ecologically sound only
  when forests are left fallow to regenerate their
  nutrients.
• Found in many highland, tropical jungles, e.g.
  mesoamerica, south america, india and southeast
  asia, parts of africa.

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horticulture and social organization

• An extended family forms the core work group.
• Property in land is held usually by a kinship
  group, e.g. a lineage or clan.
• Kinship relations become dominant, unilineal
  descent groups are common.
• Technology involves gardening tools, plus
  domestication, but not draught animals.
• Work input increases in comparison with foraging
  and children work more in horticultural groups
  than in foraging.

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Pastoralism

• Based on the domestication of animal herds and
  the use of their products
• Existed in Europe, Africa and Asia
• Provides over 50 of groups diet
• Pastoralists trade with other groups to secure
  food and goods they cant produce
• Usually patrilineal.

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Intensive Agriculture

• Intensive strategy of production defined by the
  use of draught animals for ploughing, and
  irrigation.
• more labour, use of fertilizers, control of water
  supply, use of animals
• Permanent settlements and wealth accumulation.
• Produce large surpluses, e.g. rice cultivation
  can produce 5X the amount needed by a family.
• Heavy work input during peak periods of ploughing
  and harvesting.
• Associated with the emergence of individual
  property in land.
• Also linked to the rise of a complex division of
  labour, with artisans, craftspeople, emerging to
  service the agricultural economy, paid in kind or
  in cash by landowners.
• Differentiated from industrial farming, in that
  intensive agriculture does not use mechanized
  inputs, e.g. tractors.

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Main Types of Agriculture

• Peasant Farming
• 1billion people are involved in family farming
• Family based
• Clear gender roles
• Large families
• More rigid class distinctions
• Land rights can be bought or sold

• Plantations
• Used to grow tea, coffee, rubber
• Concentrated ownership of land
• Hired labour
• Severe inequality
• Dominant in former colonies
• Poor social welfare for workers

• Industrial
• Capital-intensive
• Uses machines instead of human labour
• Used in industrialized countries
• Uses more energy
• Decline of the family farm

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Industrialism

• The production of goods through mass employment
  in business and commercial operations
• Capital-intensive can be either privately or
  state-owned.
• Complex division of labour, goods are produced
  for sale.
• Employment increases in manufacturing and service
  sectors
• Formal and informal sections