ion has an effect on the taboos which are placed on reproductive behavior. When a warrior brought back a trophy head, he was to refrain from sexual behavior for a period of three years. This lowered the number of males available to father a child in the Jivaro villages. The Yanomamo practice infanticide when a sibling is born to a mother who is still nursing a child (Chagnon 28). Strict rules about who may marry whom limit the number of marriageable partners. This lowers the number of marriages and the number of births.
The mode of production, the settlement pattern and the mode of reproduction set the level of infrastructure for any society. Built upon the infrastructure is the structure of the group. This is comprised of the domestic economy, the group's social organization, and the group's political economy. These three categories proscribe the daily interactions between members of each society.
The domestic economy determines the mode of exchanges within the group. In simpler egalitarian societies, these exchanges
...