Natural and Economic Resource Distribution
This is an excerpt from the paper...
Natural and economic resources are distributed differently in different societies, depending upon several different factors, including the culture of the society, location of its resources, type of government, and the population density and distribution. Some cultures are nomadic in nature, moving around the countryside as resources become depleted, whereas others are more stable and cultivate the land to provide for the continuation of resource availability in one location. Some cultures are primarily agrarian, whereas others are primarily urban. Cultures may be isolated and relatively self-sufficient, and others may depend on trade to buy scarce resources and disperse resources which they have in abundance. The amount of control the government exerts over a region affects the distribution of resources and wealth. Natural resources are needed to provide food, water, and shelter in primitive cultures, whereas most of these elements are provided, or at least administered by the government in more urban environments. A culture exists where societies following similar lifestyles inhabit a region (Haviland 34). There is division of labor between men and women in all cultures, and there are customs and rules as to who does what type of work, and how (Haviland 184). There may be geographical and climatic variations in the region which will cause differences in the use and distribution of resources in different areas within the cultural region. Technological developments
. . .
are the common modes of exchange, and between different groups, barter and trade - the exchange of goods and services - is the dominant mode (194). In societies ruled by some form of government, income in the form of taxes and levies is gathered by the government, and redistributed in three main ways: to preserve leadership through a display of wealth; to buy the support of the leaderĘs supporters; and to buy foreign alliances (197).
In societies where there is a substantial excess of natural and economic resources, there is an unequal distribution of wealth and possessions, with the majority having absolutely no access to natural resources, and the only economic resources available to them are what they can earn by their skills and trades. People in these cultures amass possessions merely for the sake of having them, and as status symbols. This is most evident in Western cultures (Haviland 198). The richer in these societies amass much more than they can ever use in their lifetime, while those at the other end of the scale have to struggle just to make enough to put food on the table. In other cultures, prestige is often gained by giving away possessions.
The marketplace is the main venue for the exchange of goods
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
, natural resources, economic resources, land natural resources, natural economic resources, land natural, natural economic, exchange services, developed countries, ownership land natural, United Wadsworth, natural resources economic, control natural economic, cultures usually, resources economic, distribution resources, resources available,
Approximate Word count = 1464
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Natural and Economic Resource Distribution
|