ANTH 310 extra credit
Read the following article from the link or from the document below. Afterwards, in at least 3 sentences,
tell me one thing you learned from the article. Then, in 3 more sentences, tell me what you hoped to learn
from the article. Then, in 3 more sentences, tell me why it is so important for different cultures to share
technologies like this with one another. This is due by 8am on February 27 for full credit. There are no
late assignments accepted. This is worth 10 extra credit points and will be the only extra credit available
this semester for this course.
http://www.woodlandindianedu.com/cornbread.html?fbclid=IwAR2x3221vUuNCHiMG-LKIZRge3xS6PDzmOTa1nD-AtEXMxhOvEh5u8wv3g (As you are able and interested, there are images at this
original link)
Woodland Indian Educational Programs
For Museums, State/National Parks, Heritage Sites, Powwows, Cultural Centers & Schools
By J. Diemer-Eaton (originally published under Yahoo! Voices in 2011, updated 2014 & 2018, with
updated title). To cite this article: Diemer-Eaton, Jessica. (2018, November). Traditional Native
Cornbreads of the Eastern Woodlands. Retrieved
from http://www.woodlandindianedu.com/cornbread.html
Cornbread muffins, hushpuppies, corn pone and Johnny cakes can trace their ancestry to the original
cornbreads first baked, boiled and fried by the Native American Peoples. One major difference between
modern cornbreads and historical or traditionally-based Eastern Native cornbreads was/is the absence of
leavening agents like baker’s yeast or baking soda. Often I am asked about wild yeast and the like...
besides the lack of evidence for its use in cornbread making, the reader should keep in mind that leaving
agents really work better with wheat gluten - the matrix that traps gas bubbles, and our modern cornbread
may owe just as much of it's fluffy texture to the wheat gluten as the leavening agents. Native cornbreads
of the past (and those still made with traditional ingredients/methods) were denser and quite filling, as
well as very “corny” in flavor as European-introduced wheat flour wasn’t traditionally used. New World
cooks were able to achieve the dough textures they wanted, whether it be for making small cakes, large
loafs, or dumplings, and do so without the use of European bread ingredients like milk, eggs, and wheat
flour.
--Two main types of corn dough were made historically: dough made from dry cornmeal, and batter made
from green corn. The first is more widely known today and serves as the base to cornbreads sold in boxes
on supermarket shelves. Cornmeal was made from dried shelled corn (8-Row Eastern varieties of corn
prior to European contact), parched corn (dry corn that has been roasted), and hominy (hominy was made
of dry corn processed with ash alkali). Dry, hard kernels were ground in large wooden "corn mortars”
with wooden pestles.
Because cornmeal of unprocessed corn (plain dried corn) can be gritty, many had there own methods to
soften the cornmeal texture when a hearty bread was not desired. In New England, a Native cook was
seen boiling the meal before baking, and another observed a Native person "steeping" the dough. James
Adair, among the Southeasten Native Peoples, mentions the practice of steeping a loaf (cornbread) before
baking it. These practices of precooking meal or even boiling or steaming cakes of cornbread were
probably much more widespead than ever seen or recorded by outsiders... and the practice of softening
corn dough for traditional bread is still practiced among some Native cooks.
Breads made of hominy meal often keep their shape better than those made of plain corn flour. In the
alkali treatment, corn starches gelatinize, creating a different texture for bread-like applications. For
example, traditional tortillas of Mexican cuisine use the finely ground flour of hominy (made by
processing corn with lime instead of hardwood ashes). You may recognize coarsely ground hominy meal
today by the name of grits. Hominy dough could be made of either dry hominy meal or wet hominy paste.
Such cakes made of this hominy batter were often boiled (sometimes in a leaf/husk covering - more on
leaf bread later), but baking and shallow frying were options as well.
--Other ways to change the dough texture, and the taste, was by adding other ingredients. Nut meals were
among some of the most noted to be added to bread dough; the oily nature of the fresh ground-up nut
meats added a pleasing texture to corn dough. Hickory nuts, butternuts, and walnuts were all used, as well
as chestnuts. Chestnuts were a favorite nut among southern New England and Mid-Atlantic Native
communities, being used in cornbreads and corn puddings. Acorns, while they contain tannic acid (some
more than others), the higher tannin content was simply leached out of such to make the nuts digestible.
Acorn meal could be made in large quantities, an example the Native Peoples of southern California had
demonstrated quite successfully (an area where horticulture was unnecessary due to the provisions of the
oaks – making acorn meal a predominant grain of the region).
--Other ingredients historically noted to be added to dry cornmeal dough includes berries, squash, and
beans. Squash and beans could be added fresh, or dried and grounded into a meal that was mixed with the
cornmeal – both ingredients could soften the texture of cornmeal. Another ingredient that was added for
flavoring was dried deer, bear, and other meats, ground into a powder and mixed into the meal. Maple
sugar was also used at times to add a sweeter flavor to breads, especially for the Northern Nations...
whereas salt was used a little more among Southern Native communities, until some European flavors
took hold in Native cuisine and salting foods became a little more widespread. The flavor variations were
numerous, and Native cuisine took full advantage of the breadth of ingredient combinations. Some bread
recipes that called for dry cornmeal mixes included ashcakes, Johnny cakes and some boiled breads. Such
breads were enjoyed with a smear of bear grease or dipped into meat juices or gravies of sorts.
The second type of corn dough utilized by Woodland Peoples was made from green corn (fresh corn). In
using green corn to make bread, the corn kernels were cut, or most often, scraped from the cob. Deer jaws
are prime tools for this job - the back and forth motion of the teeth saws through the kernels, popping the
soft seed insides out of the hulls. The fluffy mass, "corn-in-the-milk" as it's often referred to (corn juice),
was then prepared into dough (when mixed with dry meal) or wet batters. Often this type of batter was
utilized in tamale-like applications, were the batter was enclosed in green husks or other types of leaves,
sometimes with another ingredient (usually beans), then boiled or baked. The Kickapoo are noted to have
at least a couple of these green-corn batter leaf-bread recipes, the Iroquois/Haudenosaunee a couple too,
and the Delaware their own version (actually, probably every Native community that grew corn in the
East had a version, or two or three, or green-corn batter leaf bread, but we'll explore only a few here).
The 18th century Delaware/Lenape were noted to use green corn meal to make a tamale-like dish – that is
cornbread baked in a cornhusk envelope. Nora Thompson Dean, when referring to traditional Delaware
dishes she grew up with in the early 20th century, states that baked corn-in-the-milk bread was also at
times dried for later use. This was achieved by baking green corn batter (which she grated upon a rough
wooden grater), crumbling the baked bread and then laying it out to dry (which for her meant laying it out
on sheets on the roof of her home). To use the dried corn-in-the-milk bread or “kahahpon,” it was added
to cold water, boiled for a while and flavored with grease (in the likeness of an oatmeal or grits).
Many of these leaf breads, whether using green-corn batter or dry cornmeal, included beans, referring to
the bread as either leaf bread or bean bread (depending on the culture). The Cherokee are probably most
famous for bean bread, but their Iroquoian cousins to the north, the Haudenosaunee, also had a version of
bean bread too. One Kickapoo version of leaf bread included beans, and the Choctaw called their
leaf/bean bread "banaha." Bean bread continues to be one of the most popular traditional breads made by
Indigenous cooks, followed by cornbread with berry ingredients. The Iroquois/Haudenosaunee also made
and enjoyed baked small cornbread cakes in husks, but larger loafs of green or corn-in-th-milk cornbread
were also cooked in the green leaves of basswood trees. In making this bread, known as "ogon’sa,"
Haudenosaunee cooks poured the runny milky corn mass into leaf-lined cooking vessels (presumably
earthenware pots before trade metal kettles), sealing the top with the same leafs. The pot was then
surrounded by hot coals (an option for pit/ground baking) or suspended over a fire with hot coals covering
the top, and the green corn baked overnight. By morning, the bread was done baking into a gummy bread
that was said to be the most delicious of all cornbreads (Photo to the Right: A pot of scraped green
cornbread made in traditional manner by the author, in a brass trade kettle using wet corn husks in place
of green leaves). Like the previous Delaware/Lenape recipe, this bread was also noted to be saved for
later consumption, especially for the winter. After baking, the bread was sliced and laid out to dry
thoroughly. When desired, the dried slices of bread were boiled for a short time, producing the same dish
Nora Thompson Dean grew up with (mentioned earlier). Indeed, whether baking cornbreads in
husk/leaves, drying cornbreads for later use, or enjoying a cornbread mush, many horticultural
Northeastern Peoples had similar dishes, probably due to similar crops, lifestyles, and communication
between Native communities/cultures.
Further Reading:
- “A Woodland Feast” by Carolyn Raine
- “Acorns and Bitter Roots” by Timothy C. Messner
- “Lenape Indian Cooking” with Touching Leaves Woman (Nora Thompson Dean)
- "History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations Who Once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the
Neighbouring States" by John Heckewelder
- "Indian New England Before the Mayflower" by Howard S. Russell
- "Parker on the Iroquois" by Arthur C. Parker
- "The Mexican Kickapoo Indians" by Felipe and Dolores Latorre
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Weekly Assignment 6 ANTH 310
For this assignment, you will be reading an article on San Francisco.
Once you have read the content, in one full paragraph, tell me (in three sentences minimum) one specific
thing that you learned from the article. In your second paragraph, tell me some specific information that
you would have liked to have seen discussed further in the article (in three sentences minimum). Then,
choose 5 vocabulary terms from chapter 7 notes.
Explain each of these vocabulary words in an anthropological way (defining each term in your own
words, not directly from the notes) in relationship to the article. Each vocabulary word should be defined
in one sentence and each relationship in another sentence. Make sure each of your examples comes
directly from the article on San Francisco only!
Your assignment should be typed, spell-checked, written in full sentences, and should be turned in for full
credit by 8am February 27 to the Canvas dropbox. Check your syllabus for the tardy policy. This is worth
25 points.
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=History_of_Redlining_in_San_Francisco_Neighborhoods
History of Redlining in San Francisco Neighborhoods
Historical Essay
by Nuala Sawyer
Hoodline is an online news publication that covers the issues, people, community organizations and local
businesses that make up San Francisco neighborhoods. The following article is by Nuala Sawyer and was
first published on June 3, 2014.
Photo: blupics/Flickr
Redlining is not an unfamiliar term for most urban areas across the country. Defined as the refusal of a
loan to someone based on a neighborhood deemed a "poor financial risk," the term references the literal
drawing of a red line on a map delineating where banks will and will not invest financial support. It's a
word that was invented in the 1940s, but came to popularity in the 1960s during socialist activist
movements.
Thanks to a recent Slate article and a tip from NDDivis, we tracked down a map that shows a particularly
strong case of redlining that occurred in our very own city, all the way back in 1937.
During the Great Depression, it was common for homeowners to take out loans from banks in order to
make ends meet. Seeing a massive upswing in loan requests, banks began drawing the line at certain
demographics through redlining their neighborhoods. In 1935 The Federal Home Loan Bank Board asked
Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) to look at 239 cities and create "residential security maps"
using a colored grade to mark which neighborhoods were appropriate to invest in.
San Francisco was one of those 239 cities where low income families, immigrants, and residents of color
were turned down for bank loans based on the neighborhoods they lived in.
Here's a copy of a map drawn in 1937 by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation:
Images by T-RACES
Take a closer look at the color chart for each neighborhood:
A shortened summary of the color guide states that:
• "Green areas are 'hot spots'; they are not yet fully built up. They are homogeneous; in demand as
residential locations in 'good time' or 'bad'; hence 'on the upgrade.'
• "Blue areas, as a rule, are completely developed. They are like a 1935 automobile still good, but not
what the people are buying today who can afford a new one."
• "Yellow areas are characterized by age, obsolescence, and change of style; expiring restrictions or lack
of them; infiltration of a lower grade population; the presence of influences which increase sales
resistance such as inadequate transportation, insufficient utilities, perhaps heavy tax burdens, poor
maintenance of homes, etc. 'Jerry' built areas are included, as well as neighborhoods lacking
homogeneity."
• "Red areas represent those neighborhoods in which the things that are now taking place in the Yellow
neighborhoods have already happened. They are characterized by detrimental influences in a pronounced
degree, undesirable population or infiltration of it. Unstable incomes of the people and difficult
collections are usually prevalent."
As you can see, the red neighborhoods marked in the map make up Western Addition, the Haight,
Chinatown, parts of the Mission, and a few other neighborhoods that at the time were occupied by a
largely non-white population.
The issue of redlining became particularly poignant in the growth of San Francisco towards the mid1900s. After World War II, San Francisco saw a boom in number of residents. Soldiers returning from
the war settled down, started families, and bought homes, prompting a large settlement of neighborhoods
like the Sunset and Visitacion Valley. As the city's popularity grew, so did a housing shortage. Those who
owned property eventually capitalized from rising real estate values and cashed out, selling their homes,
making a profit and moving to the suburbs. Homeowners were a population that benefited hugely from
San Francisco's growth.
Conversely, if individuals were denied banks' support in purchasing homes in the 1930s and 40s, they
were then unable to benefit from the eventual housing boom. Instead, many were dealt rising rents,
decaying urban infrastructure and no property with which to invest. Homeowners in red neighborhoods
who were denied loans often couldn't pay for the upkeep of their buildings, resulting in homelessness and
abandoned properties, many of which became hotbeds for crime.
One could argue that the redlining that took place in San Francisco in 1937 greatly influenced how our
neighborhoods function in 2014.
Redlining is sadly not a thing of the past, as contemporary articles in BusinessWeek and The New York
Times prove. If you're really into learning more about redlining, check out this epic research
paper published in 2012.
Weekly Assignment 6 ANTH 310
For this assignment, you will be reading an article on San Francisco.
Once you have read the content, in one full paragraph, tell me (in three sentences minimum) one specific
thing that you learned from the article. In your second paragraph, tell me some specific information that
you would have liked to have seen discussed further in the article (in three sentences minimum). Then,
choose 5 vocabulary terms from chapter 7 notes.
Explain each of these vocabulary words in an anthropological way (defining each term in your own
words, not directly from the notes) in relationship to the article. Each vocabulary word should be defined
in one sentence and each relationship in another sentence. Make sure each of your examples comes
directly from the article on San Francisco only! (not from notes!!!!)
Your assignment should be typed, spell-checked, written in full sentences, and should be turned in for full
credit by 8am February 27 to the Canvas dropbox. Check your syllabus for the tardy policy. This is worth
25 points.
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=History_of_Redlining_in_San_Francisco_Neighborhoods
History of Redlining in San Francisco Neighborhoods
Historical Essay
by Nuala Sawyer
Hoodline is an online news publication that covers the issues, people, community organizations and local
businesses that make up San Francisco neighborhoods. The following article is by Nuala Sawyer and was
first published on June 3, 2014.
Photo: blupics/Flickr
Redlining is not an unfamiliar term for most urban areas across the country. Defined as the refusal of a
loan to someone based on a neighborhood deemed a "poor financial risk," the term references the literal
drawing of a red line on a map delineating where banks will and will not invest financial support. It's a
word that was invented in the 1940s, but came to popularity in the 1960s during socialist activist
movements.
Thanks to a recent Slate article and a tip from NDDivis, we tracked down a map that shows a particularly
strong case of redlining that occurred in our very own city, all the way back in 1937.
During the Great Depression, it was common for homeowners to take out loans from banks in order to
make ends meet. Seeing a massive upswing in loan requests, banks began drawing the line at certain
demographics through redlining their neighborhoods. In 1935 The Federal Home Loan Bank Board asked
Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) to look at 239 cities and create "residential security maps"
using a colored grade to mark which neighborhoods were appropriate to invest in.
San Francisco was one of those 239 cities where low income families, immigrants, and residents of color
were turned down for bank loans based on the neighborhoods they lived in.
Here's a copy of a map drawn in 1937 by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation:
Images by T-RACES
Take a closer look at the color chart for each neighborhood:
A shortened summary of the color guide states that:
• "Green areas are 'hot spots'; they are not yet fully built up. They are homogeneous; in demand as
residential locations in 'good time' or 'bad'; hence 'on the upgrade.'
• "Blue areas, as a rule, are completely developed. They are like a 1935 automobile still good, but not
what the people are buying today who can afford a new one."
• "Yellow areas are characterized by age, obsolescence, and change of style; expiring restrictions or lack
of them; infiltration of a lower grade population; the presence of influences which increase sales
resistance such as inadequate transportation, insufficient utilities, perhaps heavy tax burdens, poor
maintenance of homes, etc. 'Jerry' built areas are included, as well as neighborhoods lacking
homogeneity."
• "Red areas represent those neighborhoods in which the things that are now taking place in the Yellow
neighborhoods have already happened. They are characterized by detrimental influences in a pronounced
degree, undesirable population or infiltration of it. Unstable incomes of the people and difficult
collections are usually prevalent."
As you can see, the red neighborhoods marked in the map make up Western Addition, the Haight,
Chinatown, parts of the Mission, and a few other neighborhoods that at the time were occupied by a
largely non-white population.
The issue of redlining became particularly poignant in the growth of San Francisco towards the mid1900s. After World War II, San Francisco saw a boom in number of residents. Soldiers returning from
the war settled down, started families, and bought homes, prompting a large settlement of neighborhoods
like the Sunset and Visitacion Valley. As the city's popularity grew, so did a housing shortage. Those who
owned property eventually capitalized from rising real estate values and cashed out, selling their homes,
making a profit and moving to the suburbs. Homeowners were a population that benefited hugely from
San Francisco's growth.
Conversely, if individuals were denied banks' support in purchasing homes in the 1930s and 40s, they
were then unable to benefit from the eventual housing boom. Instead, many were dealt rising rents,
decaying urban infrastructure and no property with which to invest. Homeowners in red neighborhoods
who were denied loans often couldn't pay for the upkeep of their buildings, resulting in homelessness and
abandoned properties, many of which became hotbeds for crime.
One could argue that the redlining that took place in San Francisco in 1937 greatly influenced how our
neighborhoods function in 2014.
Redlining is sadly not a thing of the past, as contemporary articles in BusinessWeek and The New York
Times prove. If you're really into learning more about redlining, check out this epic research
paper published in 2012.
ANTH 310 Chapter 7: Exchange in Economic Systems
We are used to thinking about owning our own property, private property like land and other
tangible items such as cars or computers, about being able to buy and sell land if we can afford it or get
loans from the bank. This is not the case for the Kosrae people in the South Pacific where men pass their
land down through their eldest sons and families remain in the same area for generations. This means that
village members can bond and protect one another because they have been neighbors for generations as
well. To learn more about the island nation of Kosrae, please check out this link:
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/family-ties-and-corporate-landownership-micronesia
There are stereotypes that somehow private property is an invention, but as long as people have
made objects for personal use, there has been private property. Can you share those objects? Of course,
but the point of it being private property is that the owner has the right to decide who uses those objects,
under what circumstances, and for how long. The understanding is that if I loan something to you, and
you borrow it from me, it still belongs to me. That loan can be as temporary as letting a lab partner use an
eraser for a quick moment or allowing someone who is no relation to live in your home the rest of their
lives.
We have different relationships with other people based on how well we know and trust them.
Usually, if we have had positive interactions with someone before, we will build on that trust for the next
decision. That is the case for individual people as well as entire cultures. We want to maintain positive
social distance (how close you feel to someone based on your relationship) even with total strangers on
public transportation. We keep in mind how we act towards strangers, family members and friends. This
includes the specialized language as well as the physical distance and behavior that differ when we spend
time with our partners and family compared with someone whom we stand behind in line in the grocery
store. We refer to that set of actions as another example of social distance.
Anywhere you are in the world there are forms of reciprocity or ways that people expect others to
maintain social transactions. The three forms of reciprocity are known as generalized reciprocity,
balanced reciprocity, and negative reciprocity.
Generalized reciprocity is giving without expecting anything in return. It could mean giving time
or giving materials. Most parents do that for their children and do not keep receipts for food and clothing
to hand to their children once they reach the age of 18. We also do that with forms of charity where we
give money, food, clothing, or our labor without expecting others to give back to us.
Balanced reciprocity means that each party expects the other to give an equal amount of
money/time/value at some point in the future, and you already know the example of the Kula ring (from
the Trobriand Islands).
As you read in the previous chapter, the Kula ring occurs on a series of islands in the South
Pacific known as the Trobriand Islands where populations maintain good relations with their neighboring
islands by trading armbands in one direction and necklaces in the other. These are token items, high in
value but never meant to be worn on a regular basis. They help balance, for example, low yield crops, so
the amount of respect a neighbor has for you is shown by the intricacy of the jewelry they trade to you
annually. You keep closest relations to the next island over because in times of famine, war and
intermarriage, those neighbors will be your partners.
You also learned in the last chapter about the potlatch ceremonies of the Pacific Northwestern
part of the United States into Canada. Since each clan will be hosting once a year, the expectation is that
the family who hosted last year and the year before will be invited to the current potlatch as a way to pay
back that social debt and maintain balance.
A third example of balanced reciprocity is known as insulting the meat which has to do with
making sure that high quality food (animal protein) is shared by all rather than hoarded by the families of
the best hunters. If you praise the hunters and the game that they bring home, there might be jealousy and
the desire to keep food away from others. On the other hand, if all the villagers mock the hunter and the
food that has been brought home, no jealousy will erupt, and meat will be shared amongst all the peoples.
The hunters, of course, know that these insults are completely ceremonial and do not take them seriously.
After all, each hunter has made fun of the other people who brought home their kills when it was their
time to insult the meat. Think of it as community teasing. A grandmother might say, “Really, how is that
scrawny deer supposed to feed more than an infant?” The deer that the hunter just brought home is an
enormous buck that could feed a family of ten very easily. Here is an article about one South African
version of “insulting the meat” from the Ju/’hoansi culture:
https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/oct/29/why-bushman-banter-was-crucial-to-huntergatherers-evolutionary-success
The third form of reciprocity is known as negative reciprocity which describes a situation when
people will try to get as much as they can for as little effort as possible. In extreme cases, this means
stealing or larger kinds of crimes. In other milder cases, it is like that friend of yours that you really would
rather not spend time with. You know, that one who always ‘forgets’ their wallet when it is time to eat out
or go to the movies, who never remembers your birthday, or never offers to help to pay for gas when you
drive. That is negative reciprocity. Negative reciprocity is cheating a relationship.
One major challenge we have with private property and negative reciprocity is an economic
practice known as redlining. The concept (which became illegal only in the late 1960s) behind banks
redlining is that they draw lines around neighborhoods to keep people from specific backgrounds from
being able to get loans to purchase a home. If I make the right amount of money to put a down payment
on a house, but I am from one of the communities that was historically considered unwelcome (based on
ethnicity alone), I would be denied an opportunity to receive a loan. Alternately, I might be given a loan
but at a higher rate of interest. However, if I were from the correct ethnic group, even if I made less
money that someone from a minority group that a bank wanted to reject, I would be more likely to receive
a loan.
How does this historical practice impact communities today? This happens in neighborhoods like
Oak Park and Del Paso Heights and Rio Linda, so that families cannot afford to get bigger homes and
move out of their neighborhoods if they want to. Since this has been happening for generations, that
means that generations of communities have lower values for their homes which means less property tax
coming in which leads to lower quality education for the K-12 school system since that is where the tax
dollars go. Fewer teachers, less equipment, and less money for infrastructure of fixing schools (air
conditioning, better science labs). To learn more about the historic practice of redlining, please go to this
link from CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/redlining-what-is-history-mike-bloombergcomments/
We have a relationship to people in our community whom we do not know, and while we will
have larger social distance with them, we still take care of them through taxes. We pay sales tax for
example when we purchase books and computers and clothing, and that tax is supposed to be
redistributed to the infrastructure (the parts of communities that help it to function such as emergency
services, public schools, health care, etc.) of our society. We all pay into a tax system, and those funds are
given to specific budgets through that process of redistribution.
Tribute is similar to the taxes that we pay (income, sales and property) in the sense that all the
resources are centralized by the government for redistribution; however, tribute also includes materials
and labor so that if families in cultures like the Ancient Maya in Belize or Ancient China could not pay in
gold or other valuable materials, members of the family could offer goods (such as crops or manufactured
goods like pottery) or they could send members to the capitol to work in communal fields for a specific
amount of time. Those crops in the communal fields would be harvested in order to supply emergency
services in time of war or famine, or they could be used for trade with other nations. Tribute is NOT
paying respect to someone due to their status; while that is a correct definition, that is a completely
different use of that term than what we are covering in this chapter.
In a sense, all contemporary populations live within the need to trade goods for other goods, to
exchange goods for services, or money for goods or services. We refer to this formalized exchange
system as market exchange. Certainly, around the world you know about various stock markets like the
New York Stock Exchange, but recently we also have technology to thank for online shopping, where you
can purchase Thai textiles without leaving your home.
Whether we go online or to a brick-and-mortar store, we need to be able to spend money in order
to purchase our textbooks or gifts for loved ones. If we use something like a gift card for one specific
store or a gift certificate for a restaurant, that is referred to as limited purpose money. This term also
refers to tokens or cards for mass transit or video game arcades. You can ONLY use that type of money in
one place, which is why it is called limited purpose. I cannot take a Target gift card and use it at Raley’s
or vice versa.
On the other hand, using cash or debit/credit cards is referred to as general purpose money
because while $5 may not go as far as it did 50 years ago, I can still go into a grocery store anywhere in
the U.S. and spend $5 to purchase items.
One of the biggest challenges is selling goods but not being the owner of those goods. On one
hand, that seems straight-forward for all of us who have ever worked in retail sales (I worked four years
in retail and am very grateful for everyone who still remain in the field because I do not have the patience
for customers). On the other hand, we do not produce what we sell if we work in someone else’s store. IF
you or your family owns a store/restaurant, you have control over what you would like to sell and how
much you would like to sell. However, in a peasant marketplace these are the people who sell harvests
for example but the people selling in the market do not own the harvest or the land or the profit. They live
on the land, like in the highlands of Guatemala or rural China or medieval England, but they do not own
anything but the clothes and the items in their home. We do not have peasant marketplaces in the
contemporary United States.
If we travel to Mexico, we may pass factories along the border with the United States, and there
will be huge lines of busses filled with girls and women being transported to the factories, and these
women are called maquiladoras. These are the sweatshops we read about, learn about, think happen
somewhere else, but this is an area of huge crime including rape and murder of the women who have no
other choices for work and literally put their lives on the line to support their children and their families.
Men move away from the villages and small cities, but women must stay home to take care of the
children. To learn about the maquiladora murders and how COVID has killed even more of these young
women, please go to this site: https://www.borderreport.com/regions/california/covid-19-killing-manyyoung-maquiladora-workers-study-shows/
One of our greatest challenges in California is dealing with homelessness, especially the issue of
our working poor. That means people work, sometimes full time, but they do not make enough to afford
housing, and in a country like the U.S. that is a shame that there are so many houses that are empty, and
some property owners charge so much that families must live on the street, causing stress and issues with
health for people who need to move from shelter to shelter. Men are less likely to be able to access
shelters than women with children. Plus, there are so many health issues that can lead to homelessness as
well as be exacerbated by the lack of access to clean facilities on a regular basis. There are so many
reasons for homelessness, so it is impossible to state there is only one set of solutions. We know that
some people are one paycheck away from losing their housing, and that homeless can mean living in a car
or a friend’s couch rather than literally on the streets. This is a big challenge for children who are unable
to enroll in school without a street address, which puts them at a bigger disadvantage than their peers. To
learn about homelessness in Sacramento, go to this link:
https://www.saccounty.net/Homelessness/Pages/default.aspx, and to learn about programs at ARC to
assist students who are food or housing insecure, please check out this financial website:
https://arc.losrios.edu/campus-life/health-and-safety/health-and-wellness-center/financial-dimension
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