Reciprocity, redistribution, and market capitalism are not separate stages of economic history—all three are present in every society today. Redistribution in anthropology means resources flow into a central place or person—through tribute, taxation, or contribution—and come back out in new patterns. It has been around since the palace economies of Mycenaean Greece, since Cahokia, since long before the IRS. For Introduction to Anthropology, this class continues chapter 9 of The Human Story with sections 9.3–9.4, pairing with Introduction to Economics in Anthropology, which covers sections 9.1–9.2 on reciprocity, market systems, and the emergence of capitalism. Because redistribution is always a question of who centralizes and who decides, this page connects to the Power Analysis hub.
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Key Concepts: Redistribution in Anthropology
- Redistribution means resources flow into a central place or person—through tribute, taxation, or contribution—and are put back out in new patterns. It does not mean everybody gets an equal share.
- Reciprocity, redistribution, and market capitalism are present in all societies; they are not cleanly separate items or evolutionary stages (The Human Story, chapter 9).
- Taxation and food banks are contemporary redistribution: collectively it is very difficult to build a road—or run an airport, a library, or a hospital—on a market system.
- In the palace economies of Mycenaean Greece and Mesopotamia, grain, cloth, and animals flowed into the palace; feasts, rations, and textiles came back out. Unless everybody contributes to the feast, you can’t have a feast.
- Cahokia, near present-day St. Louis, was probably the largest concentration of people north of Mexico before European arrival—some estimates run as high as 50,000 people in and around the site—and its mounds now sit beside a highway and a golf course.
- Postcolonial states experimented with redistribution economies after independence: Cuba prioritized free education and healthcare and sent doctors across Latin America—and shows the cost of deviating from the capitalist economy.
- Moral economies rest on shared justice norms, economic practices that uphold those norms, and mechanisms of social pressure: the idea that food, water, education, and healthcare should not be left to the market.
- The ultimatum game shows that people reject unfair offers even at a cost to themselves—and that what counts as a fair offer varies across cultures.
What Redistribution Means
Redistribution depends on centralization. Goods and services flow into a central place or a central person—as tribute, as taxes, as donations—and then get put back out into the economy in a different pattern than they came in. That does not mean an equal share for everyone. It means someone, or some system, is redirecting the flow.
Taxation is the example closest to home. Coming up on April 15th, the grumble about sending taxes to the federal government is real—a lot of it goes to the military. But at least some goes to libraries, schools, hospitals, and roads. We pay taxes because collectively it is very difficult to build a road on a market system: somebody else decides that we should all have an airport, and that we should pay people to check us through. Food banks work the same way at a smaller scale—donations flow into a central place, and the food goes out to people who need it, not back to the people who donated it.
This distinguishes redistribution from reciprocity—a give-and-take between individuals or sets of people—and from a market system, where things are bought and sold for money. Reciprocity, markets, and capitalism’s emergence are treated in detail at Introduction to Economics in Anthropology.
Palace Economies: Mycenaean Greece and Mesopotamia
Redistribution long predates the modern state. In the palace economies of Mycenaean Greece and Mesopotamia, people contributed grain, simple cloth, and animals; the palace stored them; and back out came feasts, rations, and textiles. The palace functioned as a way of storing resources and returning them in a different form—because unless everybody contributes to the feast, you can’t have a feast. Redistribution is a way of amplifying resources that no household could assemble alone.
Cahokia: The Mounds We Drove a Highway Through
Cahokia—named long after the people who built it had come and gone—is one of the greatest archaeological sites in the United States. Located near present-day St. Louis, it was probably the largest concentration of people north of Mexico before European arrival; some estimates run as high as 50,000 people living in and around the site at its peak, with huge festivals and ritual ceremonies organized through redistribution. We don’t care about mounds too much in this country: there is now a highway and a golf course running through the site. It’s embarrassing.
There is also some indication that people got angry and burned parts of the place down—sometimes the people at the top of the redistribution get in trouble. By the time Europeans arrived, Cahokia had been completely abandoned and people were living in different ways. For how societies build, resist, and abandon hierarchy, see the Dawn of Everything lectures.
Postcolonial Redistribution: Ghana and Cuba
Countries emerging from colonization and extractive systems of exploitation often tried different kinds of redistribution economies—the famous photograph of Queen Elizabeth II dancing with Ghana’s President Kwame Nkrumah in 1961 caused a stir precisely because decolonization was redrawing those economic relationships. Some experiments worked better than others, and most societies ended up mixing reciprocity, redistribution, and capitalism—which is where ideas like food sovereignty come in.
Cuba prioritized redistribution: high taxes, but rationed access to food, and free education and healthcare. Cuba produced so many doctors it sent them across Latin America and the world. The lecture also notes the cost: Cuba remains under a US embargo, with hospitals short on electricity. Deviate from the capitalist economy, and other people get mad at you.
Moral Economies
The textbook defines moral economies through three elements: shared justice norms, economic practices that uphold those norms, and mechanisms of social pressure. The idea is that certain things—food, water, education, healthcare—should not be provided by the market system but should be accessible to all. Water privatization protests make the stakes concrete: when a privatized water system charges more than people can afford, the moral economy pushes back against the market allocation.
Alternative Economies Within Capitalism
Redistribution also operates inside capitalist economies. Rotating credit associations pool contributions from a group and rotate the pot, so each member gets a turn at a sum large enough to start a business or cover a major expense—without a bank loan. Revamped barter systems draw on Indigenous traditions of trading goods and animals to increase buying power without money. Worker cooperatives put the means of production in the hands of the workers who own and manage the company—some have worked well, some have not. And community gardens reclaim urban land as collective places nobody owns but anybody can plant; a map of community gardens in Washington DC shows how much of this is happening in urban areas, more than we might think.
The Ultimatum Game: Fairness Over Maximization
The ultimatum game—played all over the world—proves that even after 500 years of being told to economically maximize, people don’t. Offered an unfair split, most people reject it: “We’re just going to go down together.” Instead of maximizing self-interest, we place a value on fairness. But what counts as fair varies: in some societies any low offer gets rejected, while in others people accept almost anything. Cultural context shapes the idea of fairness and what is right to have.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is redistribution in anthropology?
Redistribution is an economic system in which resources flow into a central place or person—through tribute, taxation, or contribution—and are put back out in new patterns. It does not mean equal shares; it means centralized collection and redirected flow, from Mycenaean palaces to the modern tax system.
How is redistribution different from reciprocity and market exchange?
Reciprocity is give-and-take between individuals or sets of people; market exchange buys and sells with money; redistribution routes resources through a center. All three coexist in every society—taxation, food banks, and community gardens operate alongside markets and gift exchange right now.
What was Cahokia?
Cahokia, near present-day St. Louis, was probably the largest concentration of people north of Mexico before European arrival—some estimates run as high as 50,000 in and around the site. Its festivals and ceremonies ran on redistribution, and it was completely abandoned before Europeans arrived.
What is a moral economy?
A moral economy rests on shared justice norms, economic practices that uphold those norms, and mechanisms of social pressure. It names the conviction that food, water, education, and healthcare should be accessible to all rather than allocated by the market.
Why do people reject unfair offers in the ultimatum game?
Because people value fairness over pure economic maximization—rejecting an unfair offer costs the rejecter, but people do it anyway. Cross-cultural versions of the game show that the threshold of a “fair” offer varies widely, so fairness itself is culturally shaped.
Course Navigation
Previous: Introduction to Economics in Anthropology (chapter 9, sections 9.1–9.2). Next: Warfare and Agriculture. Course home: Introduction to Anthropology: The Human Story.