Debate
What it studies
The debate is not ‘are tribes rational?’ — it is whether Homo economicus is a good ethnographer.
- Production, distribution, exchange, consumption across cultures — economy inside society, not a separate ‘market planet’.
- Formalists (Firth, Harold Schneider): scarcity and maximising are universal; neo-classics travel.
- Substantivists (Polanyi lineage; Sahlins): Stone Age Economics / original affluent society — foragers have enough because wants are few.
- Reciprocity, redistribution, market (Polanyi’s three) organise circulation.
Formalist
- Universal scarcity
- Maximising individual
- Prices as model
Substantivist
- Instituted economy
- Obligations, kinship
- Sahlins’s affluence
Key points
Production and gender of work
- Resources, technology, labour. Simple tech: maker owns; complex tech: commodity skill.
- Gender patterns: flexible/integrated (~35% shared tasks) vs rigid. Women warriors in some notes puncture biological destiny.
- Age grades loosen in industrial labour markets.
Case
Exchange and consumption
- Hxaro (!Kung / Ju/’hoansi, Wiessner): delayed balanced gifts that make kin and safety nets.
- Silent barter: Vedda honey for Sinhalese tools; Congo forest produce for Bantu goods — negative reciprocity without a fight.
- Minimalist vs consumerism. Bellet’s Indian slum study: status spending crowding food — inequality inside the bazaar.
WRAP Exams coaching notes for UPSC Anthropology optional. Pair with the official syllabus when you need every heading in order.