ANTH 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Marcel Mauss, Karl Polanyi, Harpoon
14 Feb 2018
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Document Summary
An economic system is the part of a socio-cultural system that deals with production, distribution and consumption of goods and services within a particular society. In this lesson, we will focus on distribution and consumption. In all societies, goods and services are exchanged. Some anthropologists, such as marcel mauss, have claimed that the exchange of goods and services is at the basis of exchange. Following that tradition, anthropologists conceive of distribution as systems of exchange. The movement of goods from where they are produced to where they are consumed is called distribution. There are three major ways in which goods circulate: reciprocity, redistribution and market. Today, these three systems coexist in most societies, but often one of them predominates. As political economist karl polanyi established, often the type of distribution that predominates is linked to the means of production and the social organization that exists locally. The social obligation to give, receive and reciprocate is at the heart of exchange.
