08: Modes of Substistence

Mode of Subsistence

Primary means by which a society acquires food (there may be other means)

Foraging

Hunting and/or gathering wild animals and plants — can include fishing; what huamns and protohumans did for millions of year

Foraging: Mobile

• Nomadic or mostly nomadic = burden of carrying items = increased caloric output

• Live in small groups of a few dozen

• No food storage facilities

Foraging: Sedentary

• Tend to be located along coastlines, stationed = don’t have to carry items with them

• Live in villages (hundreds of residents)

• Use of food storage

Ethnographic Analogy

Using modern cultures to make inferences about ancient societies — using the Kung San to make assumptions about ancient, early human societies that were hunter-gatherers

• Often seen as controversial and could be misleading if done incorrectly

Marshal Sahlins

Original Affluent Society; suggested that mobile foragers had more leisure time than industrialized populations

• Hunter-gathers: possessed fewer things, wanted fewer things, and trusted nature to provide

• Described foragers as having a “zen” outlook

Problems with Original Affluent Society Theory

• Very small sample

• Did not consider alternative accounts for lower work time (conserving energy, waiting for optimal hunting time, etc.)

• Did not include construction, tool maintenance, or childcare into “work time”

• Did not consider the other sources of discontent that might impact populations

Forager Discontent

Demand sharing, periodic times of malnutrition, high infant mortality rates

Demand Sharing

Intense, insistent pressure to share food and other items of value

Horticulture

The practice of cultivating small gardens or farms to meet household needs

• Exclusively using human-powered hand tools

• Gardens are often not permanent

Horticulturalists

• Mostly sedentary

• Live in permanent villages with storage facilities

• May supplement diet with hunting-gathering

Pastoralism

Nomadic; the maintenance and breeding of herbs of animals on natural pastures

Pastoralists

• Mostly nomadic, primarily semi-arid areas

• Live in variable group sizes from a dozen to a hundred or more — no food storage

• Usually supplement meat/dairy diet by trade with agricultural neighbors

Agriculture

Cultivation and harvesting of plants and/or raising livestock on land that is permanently set aside for this purpose

• Covers a range of scale that can vary from small family plots to massive, complex farms

Agriculturalists

• Sedentary

• Live in variable group sizes from a few hundred to hundreds of thousands

• Usage of food storage

Intensive Agriculture

The use of lang through permanent annual cropping, fertilization, and plows or motor-driven technology

• Made possible through industrialism

Industrialism

A system of production based on heavy machinery with steam-powered or electric-powered technologies

• Makes products more cheaply at scale, relies on individual wage labor, and results in distinct forms of social and political organization