The essays in the book analyze cases of cooperation in a wide range of ethnographic, archaeological and evolutionary settings. Cooperation is examined in situations of market exchange, local and long-distance reciprocity, hierarchical relations, common property and commons access, and cooperatives. Not all of these analyses show stable and long-term results of successful cooperation. The increasing cooperation that is so highly characteristic of our species over the long term obviously has replaced neither competition in the short term nor hierarchical structures that reduce competition in the mid term. Interactions based on strategies of cooperation, competition, and hierarchy are all found, simultaneously, in human social relations.
The essays in the book analyze cases of cooperation in a wide range of ethnographic, archaeological and evolutionary settings. Cooperation is examined in situations of market exchange, local and long-distance reciprocity, hierarchical relations, common property and commons access, and cooperatives. Not all of these analyses show stable and long-term results of successful cooperation. The increasing cooperation that is so highly characteristic of our species over the long term obviously has replaced neither competition in the short term nor hierarchical structures that reduce competition in the mid term. Interactions based on strategies of cooperation, competition, and hierarchy are all found, simultaneously, in human social relations.
Part 1 Part I. Introduction Chapter 2 Chapter 1. Introduction Part 3 Part II. Cooperation and Competition Chapter 4 Chapter 2. From Reciprocity to Trade: How Cooperative Infrastructures Form the Basis of Human Socio-cultural Evolution Chapter 5 Chapter 3. Market Integration and Pro-social Behavior: Some Evidence from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample Chapter 6 Chapter 4. Critique of Reciprocity: Shifts in Ayni among Andean Groups Chapter 7 Chapter 5. Commerce and Cooperation among the Classic Maya: The Chunchucmil Case Part 8 Part III. Cooperation and Hierarchy Chapter 9 Chapter 6. Cooperation in Conflict: Negotiating Inequality in Midwestern U.S. Hog Contracting Chapter 10 Chapter 7. Cooperation, Equality, and Difference Chapter 11 Chapter 8. Cooperation, Conflict, and Communal Complexity in Marginal Levantine Social Life Part 12 Part IV. Co-operatives Chapter 13 Chapter 9. Cooperation in the Informal Economy: The Case of Recyclers at a Brazilian Garbage Dump Chapter 14 Chapter 10. Is It Possible to Overcome the "Tragedy of Ubuntu?" The Journey of a Black Women's Economic Empowerment Group in South Africa Chapter 15 Chapter 11. The Role of Social Norms in the Construction of American Agricultural Cooperatives Part 16 Part V. Cooperation Rising Chapter 17 Chapter 12. Creating Common Grazing Rights on Private Parcels: How New Social Norms Produce Incentives for Cooperative Land Management Chapter 18 Chapter 13. Cooperation and the Development of Conservation Laws: The Case of the Maine Lobster Industry
Robert C. Marshall is professor of anthropology at Western Washington University.
Shall we base our notions of humanity on the limited cultural
constructs and religious ideology of one time period, one
political-economic system, one system of thought represented by
economics? Or shall we free ourselves of these mental and
ideological shackles to explore the realities beyond these
assumptions? The empirical studies of ethnographic, archaeological,
and even the evolutionary fossil record show why we should
transcend the imprisonment of the mind that assumes that
market-like relations define humanity and even all of nature. This
book provides an impressive range of studies across the spectrum of
anthropology that illustrate the centrality of cooperation in human
relations. The various papers address ways to understand
cooperation among individuals, how both hierarchic and more
egalitarian organizations solve the problems of their members, the
performance of cooperative institutions in difficult economic
times, and the regulation of access to common property resources.
The strength of the work is its focus on fine-grained empirical
work rather than ideologically based assumptions. With its feet on
the ground, this book does much to move economic thought toward
reality.
*Paul Durrenberger, Pennsylvania State University*
This book champions research on cooperation... Although it never
left us in practice, social thinkers are increasingly realizing
cooperation does not belong on the sidelines, used only to help
pick up the pieces where competition fails. It is starting to take
its rightful place alongside competition in the center of the
field. Cooperation in Economy and Society is part of this
realization.
*Anthropology of Work Review*
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