Work in Non-Market and Transitional Societies

Edited by Herbert Applebaum

Series: SUNY series in the Anthropology of Work
Paperback : 9780873957755, 398 pages, June 1984
Hardcover : 9780873957748, 398 pages, June 1984

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Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Theoretical Introduction
Herbert Applebaum

I Introduction: Theory and the Anthropology of Work
1. The Anthropology of Work
June Nash
2. Considerations for an Anthropology of Work
Frederick C. Gamst

Section 1: Non-Market Cultures

II Introduction: Non-Market Cultures: Work among Hunters and Gatherers
3. Hunting among the !Kung San
Richard B. Lee
4. Women's and Men's Work among the Cheyennes
E. Adamson Hoebel
5. Coping with Abundance: Subsistence on the Northwest Coast
Wayne Suttles

III Introduction: Non-Market Cultures: Work in Pastoralist Societies
6. The Nuer: Interest in Cattle
E. E. Evans-Pritchard
7. The Gadulia Lohars: Nomadism and Blacksmithy
P. K. Misra
8. Independence among Pastoralists
Walter Goldschmidt
9. Organization of Work in Herding Teams on the Great Hungarian Plain
Lajos Vincze

IV Introduction: Non-Market Cultures: Work among Cultivators and Gardeners in Villages
10. Trobriand Gardeners and Their Magic
Bronislaw Malinowski
11. Work Patterns in a Mayo Village
Charles J. Erasmus
12. Organization of Labor among the Kapauku
Leopold Popisil
13. Organization of Work among the New Zealand Maori
Raymond Firth

V Introduction: Non-Market Cultures: Work and Attitudes Toward Time
14. The Use of Time
Beate R. Salz
15. Time Allocation in a Machiguenga Community
Allen Johnson

Section 2: Mixed Cultures

VI Introduction: Mixed Cultures: A Clash of Work Values
16. Money Work, Fast Money and Prize Money: Aspects of the Tahitian Labor Commitment
Ben Finney
17. Industrial Employment of Rural Indigenes: The Case of Canada
Charles W. Hobart
18. The Personal Adjustment of Navajo Indian Migrants to Denver, Colorado
Theodore D. Graves
19. Papago Indians at Work
Jack O. Waddell

VII Introduction: Mixed Cultures: Cultural Adaptation and Change
20. Energy Development on Alaska's North Slope: Effects on the Inupiat Population
John A. Kruse, Judith Kleinfeld and Robert Travis
21. Problems of Management and Authority in a Transitional Society: A Case Study of a Javanese Factory
Ann Ruth Willner
22. Household Economy during the Peasant-to-Worker Transition in the Swiss Alps
Wanda Minge-Kalman

Bibliography
Index

Description

In industrialized cultures, what we do to earn a living is usually divorced from what we do the rest of the time. This contrasts with non-market cultures, where work is an intimate part of life. People of such cultures perceive a unity between hunting and raising a family, between making pots and training children, between the building of houses and the practice of religion. Often there is no separate word for work because work is such an all-encompassing activity.

Work in Non-Market and Transitional Societies is an overview of the organization of work in diverse societies, the division of labor, the notions of time that affect work and working, and the kinds of adaptations people make when transplanted from one society to another. The groundbreaking study encompasses pre-industrial and non-market societies as well as cultures in the process of change and modernization. This double focus provides an unusual and stimulating perspective for both anthropology and the social sciences.

This book features a broad theoretical introduction, delineating the major issues and aspects of investigation in this field. It then presents twenty essays that show how work is carried on by women and men in varied societies and cultures. The authors provide guidelines for understanding the different value systems and discuss why each approach to work is appropriate in its specific societal structure.