FIELDWORK AND ETHNOGRAPHY - Production, Nature and Technology

4 important questions on FIELDWORK AND ETHNOGRAPHY - Production, Nature and Technology


cultural ecology is a doctrine about cultural evolution, seen as a result of the interaction between different kinds of material factors.

Name the 3 different kinds of material factors

  • demography
  • ecology
  • technology  


Referring to the political scientist Langdon Winner, Pfaffenberger discerns two main pitfalls common among anthropologists in their dealings with technology. Name these two pitfalls

1. Technological somnambulism, which sees techniques irrelevant to social organisation and culture.

2. Technological determinism,  where technology is of paramount importance for culture and social organisation, as ‘a powerful and autonomous agent that dictates the patterns of human social and cultural life’

Explain capitalist production and peasant production

  • Capitalist production is split up: the individual worker carries out only a small part of the process of production
  • Peasant production is holistic: the individual worker takes part in all phases of the process 
  • Higher grades + faster learning
  • Never study anything twice
  • 100% sure, 100% understanding
Discover Study Smart


Wallerstein subdivides the capitalist world system into three distinct regions: the core, the semi-periphery and the periphery. Explain the periphery


In the periphery, economic development depends on the investments and needs of the core areas, and the economy in these areas is subjected to unpredictable fluctuations in market prices, low wages and low rates of investment.

Example: notably Africa, Latin America and most of Asia – largely produce raw materials for the world
market, at prices determined by the demand in the rich countries

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

  • A unique study and practice tool
  • Never study anything twice again
  • Get the grades you hope for
  • 100% sure, 100% understanding
Remember faster, study better. Scientifically proven.
Trustpilot Logo