Learning Objectives

  1. Define economic behavior, and give examples of situations in which people use it and in which they do not.
  2. Summarize the ways in which people in foraging, pastoral, horticultural, and agricultural societies allocate resources.
  3. Explain how people in both small-scale and complex societies use households, kin groups, and firms to organize labor.
  4. Discuss systems of distribution and consumption by analyzing reciprocity, reproduction, and market exchange.
  5. Identify the key characteristics of capitalism and give examples of them.