Anthropology Chapter 5: Consumption

A grand feast in which guests are invited to eat and to receive gifts from the hosts.

The dominant pattern in a culture of using things up or spending resources in order to satisfy demands.

The dominant pattern, in a culture, of transferring goods, services, and other items between and among people and groups.

An important process in small-scale societies that works to keep people equal. an unwritten, culturally embedded rule that prevents an individual from becoming wealthier or more powerful than anyone else.

A mode of consumption that emphasized simplicity, is characterized by few and finite consumer demands, and involves an adequate and sustainable means to achieve them

Mode of consumption in which people's demands are many and finite and the means of satisfying them are insufficient and become depleted in the effort to satisfy these demands.

A culturally defined right to life-sustaining resources

A plant grown primarily for sale rather than for one's own use

A medium of exchange that can be used for a variety of goods.

A system of transfers in which the goal is either immediate or eventual equality in value

A system of transfers in which one party seeks to make a profit.

Exchange involving the least conscious sense of interest in material gain or thought of what might be received in return.

Something given with no expectation or thought of a return.

An exchange of approximately equally valued goods or services, usually between people roughly equal in social status.

A form of exchange that involves one person collecting goods or money from many member of a group, who then, at a later time and at a public event, "returns" the pooled goods to everyone who contributed.