Anthropology, Economic

Michael Joseph Francisconi

Economic anthropology includes the examination of the economic relationships found among precapitalist societies (nonmarket economies); this includes band, village, and peasant societies. Economic anthropologists study the historical incorporation into the world market economy (capitalism) or state socialist economies of tribal peoples and peasant societies. Cross-disciplinary studies are both an admirable and a desired pursuit. Formal economics is designed to study the psychology of marginal utility, scarcity, price theory, economizing rationality, entrepreneurial skills, and buying and selling in a market economy. The question remains: To what degree are its concepts relevant to most of the economic history of the world, in which market either plays a minor role or no role at all in the everyday lives of the people? Formal economics uses individual behavior as its methodology to answer this question. Cost under capitalism includes labor. Cost to a peasant farm is that drudgery is the major cost. In an ...

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