Possessions

Next: band level politics: power and authority

Some notes on the economics of bands: In bands, the patterns of production and distribution are somewhat standardized. Typically, plant based foods are shared within the family or domestic unit while large hunted food is shared across the community. Since, in the majority of cases, it is men who hunt large animals, their activities in presenting and sharing food are more public than those of women and, although foraging bands are highly equal societies, this may give men an edge in gaining prestige.

Anthropologists generally talk about band economy in terms of reciprocity: the general pattern of gifts and counter-gifts that is present at some level almost everywhere. Anthropology usually teaches that foraging bands operate primarily on "generalized reciprocity." That is, the members of bands give to one another without keeping count of what's given or expecting any specific return. However, I am unconvinced that this ever exists in its pure form. In The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, one of the most famous anthropological works of the first half of the 20th century, Marcel Mauss argued that the exchange and counter exchange of gifts was a fundamental pattern of human activity and a critical part of the forces that held society together. But, this can only be true if a gift requires a counter gift and that requires at least some tracking of who owes what to whom. Exchanges don't need to be even, but unless gifting is anonymous, gifts always require counter-gifts.