Social organization and structure

social organization: patterns of  human interdependence realized through the actions and decisions of a society's members

social structures: durable patterns of relations between members of a given society, patterns that have broadly accepted social sanctions and authority
        multiple levels of abstraction: government and the global economy down to classrooms and lunch tables
        more or less consciously accepted

power: "transformative capacity" (from Anthony Giddens), the ability to make others do one's will
authority: socially structured power position

Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms, and States Typology
based on the typology in Elman R. Service's (1962) Primitive Social Organization: An Evolutionary Perspective

Marshall Sahlins' (1972) Stone Age Economics
        "The Original Affluent Society": hunters and gatherers, taking the Zen road to affluence (that is, wanting little and producing little rather than wanting a lot and producing a lot)
        e.g., the Dobe Ju/'hoansi of the Kalahari (AKA the !Kung San Bushmen)

                                              
"work" 1.9 to 3.2 days per week, about 20 hours (although this does not include domestic chores)

Economic Anthropology

formal economics: assumption of rational actors, endless desires, economize in order to maximize
self-interests: calculations of cost v. utility  (but, of course, what is ultility? cultural as well as material ultility)
        Adam Smith's "invisible hand"
        ultimatum game

substantive economics: economies are firmly embedded in particular cultural systems, there are no universal laws (associated with Karl Polyani)

1. Production
        -Modes of Production = Means of Production + Relations of Production
                --kinship, tributary, capitalist (from Eric Wolf) + Asiatic, communistic, slave-based, and others
2. Distribution
        -Karl Polyani noted 3 types of distribution: reciprocity, redistribution, market exchange
                --reciprocity--mutual exchange of gifts
                ---Marshall Sahlins notes 3 types of reciprocity:  generalized, balanced, negative
3. Consumption