Question : Write the characteristics of hunting and gathering economy.
(2018)
Answer : Hunter-gatherer is an anthropological term used to describe human beings who obtain their food from the bounty of nature, hunting animals and gathering wild plants. It is a subsistence lifestyle, practiced by all early human societies. Such people are generally nomads, moving on as food supplies dwindle. There is little development of skills or specialized labour beyond that required for hunting and gathering food. Such societies generally remain small, consisting of several, often related, family ....
Question : With the help of appropriate examples, explain the various forms of exchange system.
(2017)
Answer : When goods and services are given away, purchased, sold, or traded, there are potentially two components of the exchange--pure economic gain and social gain.Both of these motives usually occur at the same time in non-market economies. However, in market economies, the social component is often missing except when the exchange is between relatives or friends. With strangers, the social gain is usually sacrificed for efficiency and speed.
Exchange system is defined as the system for distribution ....
Question : Discuss the principles governing production, distribution and exchange in simple societies.
(2016)
Answer : Simple societies are the societies with a subsistence level of technology, whether it is food collection or a food production society.
Food collection societies include mainly hunting-gathering and fishing communities. Societies with horticultural, pastoral and agricultural practices with subsistence level technology like the plough for agriculture comes under simple societies. For survival and continuity, simple societies, like any other society, require, and have certain principles governing the subsistence means. The principles governing production, distribution and exchange ....
Question : Horticulture.
(2015)
Answer : Horticulture is a type of food production where food is grown using very simple tools. For example, most horticultural societies use nothing more than sticks and hoes. Things like plows, mechanized tractors, or even carts pulled by animals usually aren’t part of a horticulturalist’s bag of tools.
Horticulture is a simple form of agriculture based on the working on small plots of land, without draught animals, ploughs or irrigation. It mainly includes the cultivation of fruits ....
Question : Critically examine the Formalists and Substantivists views on the applicability of economic laws in the study of primitive societies.
(2015)
Answer : The field of economic anthropology has been a place of bitter and polemic debates over the best way to study economic systems in both Western market-based societies and in their non-capitalist preindustrial counterparts.
Though outdated but the formalists and Substantivists are the two main ideologies which lead to the development of economic anthropology. The debate among them is based on the economic motives to be attached with the primitive societies, whether they are guided by ....
Question : Differentiate between Economics and Economic Anthropology.
(2013)
Answer : A social science that studies how individuals, governments, firms and nations make choices on allocating scarce resources to satisfy their unlimited wants, Economics can generally be broken down into: macroeconomics, which concentrates on the behaviour of the aggregate economy; and microeconomics, which focusses on individual consumers.
It is the science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, or the material welfare of humankind.
Economic anthropology refers to the organization and conduct of ....
