Introduction to Anthropology & Sociology - Making a Living PDF

SSF 1044 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY & SOCIOLOGY Making a Living ECONOMIC SUBSISTENCE  Food collection  Food is obtained from natural resources  Food production  Beginning ~ 10,000 years ago → people began to cultivate and domesticate plants...

SSF 1044 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY & SOCIOLOGY Making a Living ECONOMIC SUBSISTENCE  Food collection  Food is obtained from natural resources  Food production  Beginning ~ 10,000 years ago → people began to cultivate and domesticate plants and animals  3 major types food production  Horticulture  Intensive agriculture  Pastoralism FOOD COLLECTION  The predominant method of food-getting for the most of human history.  Now, is found in the marginal areas of earth – deserts, the Arctic, dense tropical forests – that do not allow easy exploitation by agriculture.  FOOD PRODUCTION: HORTICULTURE  To anthropologists, horticulture means “the growing of crops of all kinds with relatively simple tools and methods, in the absence of permanently cultivated fields” (Ember & Ember 1992)  2 types of horticulture:  Extensive or shifting cultivation  Dependence on long- growing tree crops  Most horticulturalists do not just rely on crops alone for food.  Also hunt and fish, and some are nomadic.  General features:  More food produced means able to support larger and more densely populated communities.  More sedentary compared to food collectors  Beginning of social differentiation: specialisations and social status FOOD PRODUCTION: INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE  Permanent field cultivation  More complex tools and methods → use of fertilisers, irrigation INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE  General features:  Societies with intensive agriculture are more likely to have towns and cities  High degree of craft specialisation  More complex political organisation  Large differences in wealth and power FOOD PRODUCTION: PASTORALISM  Food production that is directly or indirectly dependent on domesticated animals.  Not necessarily for meat!  More often…pastoralists get animal protein in the form of milk, blood.  Animal products are also traded for plant food and other necessities. PASTORALISM  General features:  Generally nomadic  Pastoral communities are generally small  Interdependence between pastoral and agricultural groups  Food Horti- Pastoralists Intensive collectors culturalists agricultur- alist Population Lowest Low- Low Highest density moderate Settlement? Nomadic or More Nomadic or Permanent semi-nomadic sedentary semi-nomadic communities Craft None None or few Some Many specialisation Trade Minimal Minimal Very Very important important Differences in None Minimal Moderate Considerable individual wealth WHY DO DIFFERENT SOCIETIES HAVE DIFFERENT FOOD- GETTING METHODS?  Cross-cultural evidence indicates that food collection or production are not significantly connected to type of habitat/environment  However, there are general patterns:  ~80% of all horticultural societies are in the tropics  ~75% of all (intensive) agricultural societies are not in tropical-forest environments  Pastoralism is usually not found in tropical forest region  Why?  Environment has a limiting, rather than determining effect