Economic Activity? YES NO

Shopping Online

Economic Activity? YES NO

Gift-giving during a South Indian wedding

Economic Activity? YES NO

Soccer mom brings snacks for the team

Economic Activity? YES NO

Strangers help motorist stuck in snow

Economic Activity? YES NO

Corporation provides college scholarship

Economic Activity? YES NO

Inuit hunting caribou

Economic Activity? YES NO

Elderly couple move in with daughter’s family

When we think of economics, we think of things and activities involving money. We think of the costs of

goods and services, such as food, rent, haircuts, and movie tickets. We may also think of factories, farms,

and other enterprises that produce the goods and services we need or think we need. In industrial

societies, workers may stand before a moving belt for eight hours, tightening identical bolts that glide

by. For this task they are given bits of paper that may be exchanged for food, shelter, and other goods and

services.

But many societies – indeed, most that are known to anthropology – did not have money or the

equivalent of the factory worker. Still, all societies have economic systems, whether or not they involve

money. All societies have customs specifying how people gain access to natural resources; customary ways of transforming or converting those resources,

through labor, into necessities and other desired goods and services; and customs for distributing and

perhaps exchanging goods and services.