Announcements:

1. Optional Extra Credit Lecture: February 5 (Monday), 4:00pm, Rehm Library: "Two Ethnographies by Holy Cross Students -- Volunteer and Nonprofit Work in Worcester: Does it Help the Socially Marginalized?" Professor Susan Rodgers, Martina Umunna '18, and Katelyn Lyons '18.

2. First writing assignment due on Monday

 

I. Two definitions of economic

A. Substantive (Karl Polanyi): the fact that human beings depend on nature and each other in order to make a living (broad definition)
B. Formalist: needs are greater than means (scarcity) ==> choices (specific definition)

 

II. Substantivists and Cultural Relativism

A. Karl Polanyi, economic historian: under capitalism, the substantive and formal models are the same

1. Capitalism naturalizes itself, e.g. Smith's arguments about innate impulse to trade and profit
2. We see formal market structures as the only economic aspects of our society

B. In other cultures, the economy is part of other social structures
C. Economy as instituted process

1. process: occurs over time, changes, evolves
2. instituted: governed by institutions, organized, patterned

D. The substantive view of trade

1. "a relatively peaceful method of acquiring goods which are not available on the spot" (133)
2. motives for trade: status, profit; depends on society
3. takes different forms: gifts, administered, market

E. Substantivism and cultural relativism

 

III. The Formalist Reaction

A. Polanyi focuses on social structure, neglects culture and individual motivations
B. Questions substantivists neglected

1. How do we creatively shape our world?
2. How can we compare economic systems?

C. Formalist arguments

1. Maximizing can occur outside of capitalist economy
2. All societies have rational behavior, face scarce ends and means
3. Markets, money are universal; we live in a formal world

D. Focus on economic behavior through case studies
E. People are rational, not irrational prisoners of culture and tradition
F. Malinowski: substantivist or formalist?
G. Formalists believe in logic, rationality

 

IV. Sahlins and Primitive Economies

A. "Original Affluent Society"

1. Economists view hunters and gatherers as struggling to survive, poor
2. Economists assume goal of economic action is material plenty
3. Hunters and gatherers don't want much
4. H & G meet needs with little effort, have much leisure
5. Demand and need are defined by context

B. Formalist aspects of Sahlins

1. H & G are logical and efficient, given context
2. Few possessions and mobility are key to H & G survival

C. Substantivist aspects of Sahlins

1. H & G goals are different from ours
2. Infinite needs concept is a product of capitalism
3. Human behavior, needs, desires are shaped by society and culture

D. Sahlins: a substantivist who attacks formalists on their own terms

 

V. Who won the debate?

A. Underlying question of cultural relativism vs. universalism
B. Debate fizzled in the 1970s
C. Formalists right

1. People generally are rational maximizers
2. Maximizing isn't limited to the economy

D. Substantivists right

1. Economy is connected to different social institutions
2. Economic behavior is culturally defined
3. Can't assume universal logic of human motivations

E. Aftermath of debate

1. Practice of rationality is universal, but content is culturally defined
2. Two very different views of economy: social structure (substantivists) versus individual behavior (formalists)
3. Interactive model: we make decisions based on society/culture, but our actions can also change society/culture
4. Instituted process: anthropologists today focus less on instituted part, more on process

a. evolution of economic systems
b. economic development
c. how do people respond to changing economic circumstances?

 

VI. Monday: debate in class based on study guide question 5

A. Malinowski
B. Polanyi (substantivists)
C. formalists
D. Sahlins