World History & Geography Reading Assignment 1 for the week of 10/8-10/12 Modes of production o An economy is a system of production,

distribution and consumption of resources; economics is the study of such systems. o A mode of production is a way of organizing productiona set of social relations through which labor is deployed to wrest energy from nature by means of tools, skills, organization and knowledge. Specific set of social relations that organize labor. o In the capitalist mode of production, money buys labor power and there is a social gap between the people involved in the production process (bosses and workers). By contrast, in nonindustrial societies, labor is not usually bought but is given, as a social obligation, in such kin based mode of production, mutual aid in production is one among many expressions of a larger web of social relations. o Societies representing each of the adaptive strategies tend to have a similar mode of production. Differences in the mode of production within a given stratify may reflect differences in environments, target resources or cultural traditions. Therefore, a foraging mode of production may be based upon individual hunters or teams, depending on whether the game is a solitary or a herd animal. Gathering is usually more individualistic than hunting, although collecting teams may assemble when abundant resources ripen and must be harvested quickly. Fishing may be done alone (as in ice fishing or spearfishing) or in crews (as with open-sea fishing and hunting of sea mammals). Production in nonindustrial societies o Although some kind of division of economic labor related to age and gender is a cultural universal, the specific tasks assigned to each sex and people of different ages vary. Many horticultural societies assign a major productive role to women but some make mens work primary. Similarly, among pastoralists, men generally tend larger animals, but in some cultures, women do the milking. Jobs accomplished through teamwork in some cultivating societies are done by smaller groups or individuals working over a long period of time in others. Means of production (major productive resources) o In nonindustrial societies, there is a more intimate relationship between the workers and the means of production than there is in industrial nations. Means or factors of production include land (Territory), labor and technology o Land Among foragers, ties between people and land were less permanent than among food producers. Although many bands had territories, the boundaries usually were not marked, and there was no way they could be enforced. The hunters stake in an animal being stalked or hit with a poisoned arrow was more important than where the animal finally died. A person acquired the rights to use a bands territory by being born in the band or by joining it through a tie of kinship, marriage or fictive kinship. Among food producers, rights to the means of production also come through kinship and marriage. Descent groups are common among nonindustrial food producers and those who descend from the founder share the groups territories and resources. If the adaptive strategy is horticulture, the estate includes garden and fallow land for sifting cultivation. As members of a descent group, pastoralists have access to animals to start their own herds, to grazing land, to garden land and to other means of production. o Labor, Tools and Specialization: Like land, labor is a means of production. In non-industrial societies, access to both land and labor comes through social links such as kinship, marriage and descent. Mutual aid in production is merely one aspect of ongoing social relations that are expressed on many other occasions. Nonindustrial societies contrast with industrial nations in regard to other means of production: technology. Manufacturing is often linked to age and gender. Women may weave and men may make pottery or vice versa. Most people of a particular age and gender share the technical knowledge associated with that age and gender. If married women customarily make baskets, all or most married women know how to make baskets. Neither technology nor technical skill is specialized as it is in some states.