Deck 7: Economic Systems

Question 1

In a(n) __________ production system, most people produce their own food, but an aristocracy controls a portion of the production.

A) tributary
B) domestic
C) industrial
D) communal

Answer 1

tributary

Question 2

Why do members of food-collecting societies not have private ownership of land?

A) Land has no intrinsic value to foragers; only the animals and plants on the land have value.
B) Land is too expensive to own, so most foragers are forced to rent land.
C) Private ownership has historically led to too much conflict, so they abandoned the practice.
D) Foragers do not usually have a measuring system to equitably distribute the land.

Answer 2

Land has no intrinsic value to foragers; only the animals and plants on the land have value.

Question 3

What kind of exchange takes place at a potlatch ceremony?

A) A chief gives away food and gifts to guests in order to enhance his social status.
B) People provide their annual tribute to the ruling family.
C) Parents of young women give money and gifts to their daughter's future husband.
D) Two friends exchange gifts of relatively equal value.

Answer 3

A chief gives away food and gifts to guests in order to enhance his social status.

Question 4

Chayanov's rule states that when resources are converted primarily to household consumption, people will work harder if __________.

A) there are more consumers in the household
B) everyone in the household contributes to their ability
C) everyone in the household contributes the same amount of labor
D) there are fewer consumers in the household

Question 5

Among horticulturalists __________.

A) individuals almost always make all their own tools
B) tools are almost always made by specialists
C) a tool usually requires years to make
D) people generally use fewer tools than do food collectors

Question 6

Which of the following statements best describes the land ownership situation among the Hadza of Tanzania?

A) The Hadza do not believe that they have exclusive rights over the land they use.
B) The political leaders decide who owns specific parcels of land.
C) Individuals may only use the land that they have purchased.
D) The government owns all the land, and hunting time on it is "rented" by the individual.

Question 7

What do anthropologists mean when they refer to peasant economies?

A) communities that are somewhat more commercialized than traditional subsistence economies
B) people who are actively trying to break into the market economy
C) groups that have a money-based, market economy but do not hold much wealth
D) societies that maintain their traditional subsistence economy

Question 8

What do anthropologists call the transformation of resources into food, tools, and other goods?

A) production
B) manufacturing
C) industry
D) economics

Question 9

In an anthropological sense, an economic system refers to __________.

A) customs specifying how people gain access to resources
B) rules relating to kinship and inheritance
C) exchange rates of different monetary systems on a global market
D) attitudes toward leadership and influence

Question 10

Many have suggested that the United States and other developed countries are now transitioning from __________ to __________.

A) industrialism; post-industrialism
B) domestic production; industrialism
C) communalism; domestic production
D) post-industrialism; postmodernism

Question 11

Among pastoral nomads, wealth is usually measured in __________.

A) animals
B) the amount of land people own
C) the number of children people have
D) the number of wives a man has

Question 12

The term "transnationals" refers to migrants who __________.

A) move back and forth between their homelands and their adopted countries
B) move from one country to another, living in three or more nations throughout their lives
C) permanently move from their homelands to a new country
D) move temporarily to another country for work, sending money back home

Question 13

All societies divide labor by what two factors?

A) gender and age
B) productivity and gender
C) class and productivity
D) age and class

Question 14

Which of these is a common task for young children?

A) tending animals
B) cooking food
C) clearing fields
D) making tools

Question 15

In which societies can there be no profit motive for work?

A) subsistence economies
B) post-industrial societies
C) capitalist nations
D) socialist systems

Question 16

Among the Mundurucú of Brazil, who controls the rights to use land?

A) the village
B) the family
C) the kin group
D) the individual

Question 17

For most horticulturalists, people __________.

A) do not own the land, but own the foods obtained from it
B) own the land but not the foods obtained from it
C) own neither the land nor the foods obtained from it
D) own both the land and the foods obtained from it

Question 18

Why do state authorities have a particularly unfavorable view of mobile pastoralists?

A) Their mobility makes them difficult to control.
B) They have no wealth with which to pay taxes.
C) Most pastoralists are fiercely territorial.
D) Pastoralists use up too much land for their population size.

Question 19

Researchers have found that cooperation is __________.

A) common across cultures and seems to evoke pleasure for people
B) generally considered a good quality but rarely shown by individual people
C) unnatural for humans but socially developed by most societies
D) found in human societies but no other animal communities

Question 20

Private individual ownership is __________ associated with intensive agriculture.

A) usually
B) always
C) rarely
D) never

Question 21

Systems regulating the way goods and services are distributed are closely associated with the society's __________.

A) food-getting technology
B) gendered division of labor
C) dependence on seafood
D) incentives for labor

Question 22

What happens to generalized reciprocity in times of scarcity?

A) Sharing tends to increase during times of food shortage, but not famine.
B) Sharing tends to increase during times of famine, but not food shortage.
C) Sharing tends to increase during both food shortage and famine.
D) Sharing tends to decrease during both food shortage and famine.

Question 23

Which of the following is an important social consequence of commercial agriculture?

A) laborers migrate to urban centers in search of employment
B) social inequality decreases
C) there is less risk of famine due to crop failure
D) the ethic of generalized reciprocity increases

Question 24

Bills, coins, and electronic transfers of wealth in our own society represent what type of money?

A) general-purpose
B) multi-purpose
C) special-purpose
D) local-purpose

Question 25

The different forms of reciprocity are connected by the fact that they all __________.

A) exist without the use of money
B) involve exchanges of relatively equal value
C) are centered on gift-giving
D) are tied directly to food resources

Question 26

Commercialization through which means is associated with the formation of a peasantry?

A) supplementary cash crops
B) migrant labor
C) redistribution
D) subsistence agriculture

Question 27

Researchers studying the Tsimane have found that, among foragers who also farm, those who grow a cash crop __________.

A) are most likely to clear more forest
B) live in more permanent settlements
C) have a more diverse diet
D) are more likely to use migrant labor

Question 28

If you were to trade a pair of shoes you no longer want for a friend's discarded jacket, you would be participating in __________.

A) balanced reciprocity
B) generalized reciprocity
C) redistribution
D) market exchange

Question 29

What factor, in addition to calorie yield, is likely to contribute to a forager's choice of what foods to collect?

A) predictability
B) fat content
C) ease of processing
D) rarity

Question 30

The Aché prefer to hunt peccaries rather than armadillos, because peccaries have a higher calorie yield per work hour. This is an example of __________.

A) optimal foraging
B) ideal gathering
C) maximum food-collecting
D) ultimate gardening

Question 31

What happens to customs of sharing when money is introduced into a society?

A) people tend to be less inclined to share after money is introduced
B) money makes it easier for people to share with others
C) traditional patterns of sharing remain the same after money is introduced
D) people stop traditional patterns of sharing entirely

Question 32

Which of these subsistence strategies finds the individual ownership of land most important?

A) intensive agriculture
B) horticulture
C) pastoralism
D) food collecting

Question 33

When the federal government collects a portion of our wages as taxes and then returns that money in the form of national security, roads, education, and other goods and services to its citizens, it is demonstrating which type of economic exchange?

A) redistribution
B) market exchange
C) generalized reciprocity
D) voluntary labor

Question 34

Taxation is an indirect form of __________.

A) forced labor
B) reciprocity
C) redistribution
D) voluntary labor

Question 35

In all societies, generalized reciprocity exists among __________.

A) families
B) neighbors
C) strangers
D) friends

Question 36

What is an important basis for work organization in nonindustrial societies?

A) kinship ties
B) neighborhood associations
C) short-term contracts
D) permanent employment

Question 37

What factor can predict whether a particular food item will be shared with others?

A) unpredictability
B) calorie content
C) abundance
D) taste

Question 38

Which of these groups of foragers are more likely to have individual or family ownership of land?

A) those dependent upon fishing in rivers
B) foragers living in particularly bountiful environments
C) savanna foragers, who live in very low population densities
D) those that rely on women's gathered foods for most of their calories

Question 39

In parts of Melanesia, pigs can be purchased using strings of shells, which cannot be used to buy any other goods or services. This is an example of __________.

A) special-purpose money
B) general-purpose money
C) bartered commodities
D) peasant money

Question 40

In which groups of pastoralists is private ownership most likely to develop?

A) those that depend on selling their products to non-pastoralists
B) groups that have limited space for grazing
C) groups in which people must save some of their herds for future generations
D) those that use their animals to represent wealth

Question 41

How does the addition of a cash crop to an economic and subsistence strategy affect the society in question?

Question 42

After what point could the Mundurucú be considered a society with a market economy?

A) when migrant workers abandoned their homes for permanent settlements near their rubber crops
B) after they began trading manioc root with neighboring communities
C) when families started sending their children to Brazilian schools to increase their employability
D) after cattle ranchers moved onto their land and started clearing the forest for pasture

Question 43

Studies have shown that many foraging and small-scale horticultural societies work just a few hours a day on subsistence and have much more leisure time than workers in complex societies. Which of the following statements explains this model?

A) Any surplus food these societies collect or produce cannot be stored for long and will rot.
B) These societies value leisure activities as more appropriate pursuits than labor.
C) Members of these societies are lazy and have no interest in work.
D) These groups have political authorities that would collect surpluses for their own use.

Question 44

Explain the relationship between the allocation of resources and food production. Show how foragers, horticulturalists, pastoralists, and intensive agriculturalists denote ownership of land, food, and tools.

Question 45

In contrast to foraging societies, horticulturalists __________.

A) have part-time trade specialists
B) divide labor by interests, rather than by gender
C) have full-time, individual career paths
D) require all individuals to produce their own food

Question 46

Give specific examples of how you, personally, have recently participated in generalized reciprocity, balanced reciprocity, redistribution, and market exchange.

Question 47

In contrast to food collectors, horticulturalists __________.

A) generally grant individual families the exclusive right to land while in use
B) usually grant permanent ownership of land to individual families
C) rarely defend group territories
D) usually grant individuals fewer claims to the land

Question 48

Critically discuss the costs and benefits of having a market exchange economy. What advancements can be gained from this economic system? What social institutions are lost?

Question 49

Compared to horticulturalists, nomadic pastoralists __________.

A) own relatively few personal goods
B) generally produce more of their own food
C) are more sedentary
D) produce more surplus agricultural crops

Question 50

What is the difference between market exchange (when money is not involved) and balanced reciprocity?

A) In market exchange, supply and demand determine the price.
B) In balanced reciprocity, supply and demand determine the price.
C) In market exchange, the person giving is of a higher social status than the person receiving.
D) In balanced reciprocity, the person giving is of higher social status than the person receiving.

Question 51

Redistribution is found in all societies but only becomes an important mechanism in __________.

A) societies with a political hierarchy
B) very small permanent villages
C) horticultural communities
D) societies that emphasize social equality

Question 52

Based on Hardin's arguments in "The Tragedy of the Commons," in which case would resources be best conserved in order to maximize yield?

A) with private ownership of land and resources
B) when there is a centralized political authority regulating land use
C) in societies with no concept of land ownership
D) when land is restricted to use by a single kin group

Question 53

How does the division of labor by gender and age in our own society reflect (or vary) from cross-cultural patterns around the world?

Question 54

A great deal of the cross-cultural variation in economic systems is related to __________.

A) how a society gets its food
B) the wealth of the region's natural resources
C) the literacy level of the society
D) political structure and conquest

Question 55

On what does the form of reciprocity used between people usually depend?

A) kinship distance
B) social status
C) wealth of the individual
D) gender roles