Final answer:
An anthropologist defines the study of economics across cultures as economic anthropology, which explores how social and cultural contexts influence economic systems. They analyze modes of subsistence, social structures, and the environmental impact of economic behaviors, emphasizing cultural relativism and diversity.
Step-by-step explanation:
An anthropologist would define the study of economics across cultures as economic anthropology, which is a subfield focusing on how cultural and social processes influence economic practices. This approach examines the diverse ways in which societies understand and organize production, consumption, exchange, and the allocation of resources. It diverges from mainstream economics by employing a human-centered approach that emphasizes cultural relativism, diversity, environmentalism, and holism. Anthropologists explore several key components of economic behavior including modes of subsistence like gathering-hunting, pastoralism, plant cultivation, and industrialism, and they study how these methods impact social structures, values, and power relations within a community.
Economic anthropologists are also deeply interested in the interdependence of humans with nature. This leads them to consider environmental sustainability and the ecological ramifications of different economic systems. They engage with these issues much more frequently than traditional economists, who are more often focused on market forces and universal principles. In examining economic behaviors, anthropologists incorporate their discipline's central commitments to diversity, understanding global variation without preconceived cultural biases.