Economics is one of the oldest and theoretically most sophisticated disciplines in comparison to anthropology. But, like other social sciences, economics developed to investigate particular domains of human behavior and work mainly in advanced societies. In small-scale societies wherein the anthropologists mainly study, there may not be distinct economic transaction as found in the advanced societies.
The subject matter of economics has been defined as economizing - the rational allocation of scarce means (resources) among alternative ends (uses). In the west, the goal of maximizing profit - the profit motive - is assumed to guide economic decision making. Studying cross-culturally, the anthropologists find variation in the motivations. Anthropologists know motives other than the desire for personal gain for making economic decisions in different cultures. And, in recent decades, fewer social-cultural anthropologists have tried to borrow some general ideas from economics; others strongly feel that it would be irrelevant to explain economic behavior of small-scale (pre-industrial) societies in terms of formal economics which were developed for the industrial societies.
Economic anthropology classifies the diversity of economic systems into different types at different technological levels. Anthropologists find such categories as hunter-gatherer or band economics, pictorial economies, hoe and forest cultivators, sedentary cultivators and so.
Some of the economic systems of small-scale societies may be found strange and without formal economic value to an economist. If the people happen to be hunters and gatherers, the notion of hard work is likely to be misinterpreted. In western culture, hunting is a sport; hence, the men in food-foraging societies are often misperceived as spending virtually all of their time in recreational pursuits, while the women are seen as working themselves to bone. To understand how the schedule of work or demands of a given society is balanced against the supply of goods and services available, it is necessary to introduce a non-economic variable - the anthropological variable of culture (Haviland, W.A. 1994:417). From this perspective social anthropologists differ from economists, for the economists study the economic behavior and institution in purely economic terms whereas the social anthropologists analyze this sphere of human society in relation to non- economic considerations such as social, religion and polity.
Source: http://www.civilserviceindia.com/subject/Anthropology/notes/relationships-with-other-disciplines.html
The subject matter of economics has been defined as economizing - the rational allocation of scarce means (resources) among alternative ends (uses). In the west, the goal of maximizing profit - the profit motive - is assumed to guide economic decision making. Studying cross-culturally, the anthropologists find variation in the motivations. Anthropologists know motives other than the desire for personal gain for making economic decisions in different cultures. And, in recent decades, fewer social-cultural anthropologists have tried to borrow some general ideas from economics; others strongly feel that it would be irrelevant to explain economic behavior of small-scale (pre-industrial) societies in terms of formal economics which were developed for the industrial societies.
Economic anthropology classifies the diversity of economic systems into different types at different technological levels. Anthropologists find such categories as hunter-gatherer or band economics, pictorial economies, hoe and forest cultivators, sedentary cultivators and so.
Some of the economic systems of small-scale societies may be found strange and without formal economic value to an economist. If the people happen to be hunters and gatherers, the notion of hard work is likely to be misinterpreted. In western culture, hunting is a sport; hence, the men in food-foraging societies are often misperceived as spending virtually all of their time in recreational pursuits, while the women are seen as working themselves to bone. To understand how the schedule of work or demands of a given society is balanced against the supply of goods and services available, it is necessary to introduce a non-economic variable - the anthropological variable of culture (Haviland, W.A. 1994:417). From this perspective social anthropologists differ from economists, for the economists study the economic behavior and institution in purely economic terms whereas the social anthropologists analyze this sphere of human society in relation to non- economic considerations such as social, religion and polity.
Source: http://www.civilserviceindia.com/subject/Anthropology/notes/relationships-with-other-disciplines.html
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