Eco 336



Eco 336 Fall 2008

Test 1 questions

New questions

1. The lifestyle of American Indians before European settlers arrived centuries ago is often held up today as a model of environmental sensitivity and communitarian cooperation. What evidence does Anderson use to determine whether this true or myth?

2. Anderson argues that four explanations for poor economic performance of Indian reservations have been offered by scholars. What are these explanations? Does Anderson believe that one of the explanations is more plausible than the others? Explain.

3. In what way are the concepts of Indian Tribe or Indian Nations misleading in describing the political organization of Native Americans prior to the arrival of Europeans to North America? Explain.

4. Bruce Benson reports that American Indians had well developed legal institutions. In particular he describes in detail the legal institutions of the Yurok Indians of California and the Comanche of the Southern Great Plains. Describe the similarities in their legal institutions. Ultimately, what was the primary purpose of these institutions? Explain.

5. Anderson emphasizes the importance of property rights as an institutional feature that was common to all Native American groups he has examined. How does private property rights “get the incentives right”? Explain with an example or two.

6. Explain why the Montagnais where able to avoid the tragedy of the commons in harvesting beaver, but the plains tribes were unsuccessful in avoiding this tragedy with bison. Explain the two reasons that Baden, Stroup, and Thurman offer for the different outcomes.

7. Explain some of the institutional changes that American Indians made with the introduction of the horse. Specifically, what impact did the horse have on collective action with regard to the hunt and warfare? Explain.

8. According to economists, the primary factor underlying institutional change is a change in relative prices. How did relative prices change after American Indians acquired horses? How did institutions change? Explain.

Old questions

1. Bruce Benson compares the institutions of both the Yurok and the Comanche in his examination of customary Indian law. What institutions where common to both Yurok and Comanche? Is Benson surprised by these similarities? (for this question see Benson(1991). pp. 53-57) What are the differences in legal institutions between Yurok and Comanche? Does Benson find the differences to be minor or major in degree? Explain.

2. How does Bruce Benson (1991) explain the origin and enforcement of law that does not originate from state authority? What adjudicative measures were used in the case of a violation of customary law? Provide an example.

3. Bruce Benson (1990, 1991, 1992) describes characteristics of customary law. What are these characteristics, and how did customary law facilitate wealth creation in American Indian communities?

4. For American Indians an important legal institution is (private) property rights. Explain how property rights were defined and enforced prior to the arrival of Europeans to North America. How did the arrival of Europeans affect property right definition and enforcement activity? Explain.

5. D. Bruce Johnsen, in his article “The Formation and Protection of Property Rights among the Southern Kwakiutl Indians,” offers an alternative explanation for the potlatches of the Southern Kwakiutl Indians. What is Johnsen’s explanation and how does it differ from previous explanations for potlatches? Explain.

4. Explain the difference between pre-equestrian and post-equestrian institutions. That is, what kind of adaptations did American Indians make in response to the arrival of the horse on the Great Plains? Explain how the arrival of the horse affected Indian wealth and culture. Owners of horses enjoyed the benefits of their use, but not at a zero cost. After all, there are no free lunches in this world. What benefits and costs came with ownership of horses?

5. What is a common-pool (open-access) resource? Explain how American Indians responded to the problems caused by open-access resources. Were all efforts to better husband (manage) the resources successful? Explain.

6. In their article on American Indians as resource managers, Baden, Stroup, and Thurman tested two competing hypotheses. What are the hypotheses? Does their evidence allow them to reject one hypothesis in favor of the other? Explain.

7. Explain why American Indian women became more valuable to men after the introduction of the Spanish mustang to North America? Speculate as to how this change in relative value affected customary Indian law.

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