Introduction to Subsistence Strategies and Cultural Models

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key subsistence strategies, cultural models, and anthropological examples described in the lecture.

Subsistence

The basic methods and practices by which human groups support themselves and obtain food, water, shelter, and medical care.

Vero Model of Culture

A conceptual framework illustrating culture in three interconnected levels: infrastructure, social structure, and superstructure.

Infrastructure

The component of the Vero model of culture dealing with subsistence, economic systems, environment, and physical living conditions.

Social Structure

The component of the Vero model of culture dealing with social organization, family relationships, inheritance, descent, and power hierarchies.

Superstructure

The component of the Vero model of culture encompassing worldviews, religion, artistic expression, symbolism, and values.

Self Control

The ability within a cultural context to manage stresses and feelings of helplessness that can otherwise lead to negative health outcomes or death.

Foraging

A subsistence strategy based on collecting wild plants and animals through gathering, hunting, scavenging, and fishing without relying on domesticated crops.

Scavenging

The foraging practice of locating and consuming animals that are already dead, which requires deep local ecological knowledge.

Fission-Fusion Dynamics

A social pattern in foraging groups where populations split into smaller family units (fission) or aggregate into larger social groups (fusion) based on resource availability and social needs.

Original Affluent Society

A concept describing foraging groups based on the idea that they meet their needs while working only about $4$ to $5$ hours a day.

Starcar Island

A Mesolithic site from $11,000$ years ago on the shores of a former lake, consisting of a $700$\text{ sq ft} flat platform likely used by $4$ to $5$ families.

Potlatch

A complex system of competitive exchange practiced by Pacific Northwest Coast groups where host families hold large gatherings to distribute wealth, demonstrate status, and solidify alliances.

Horticulture

A subsistence strategy based on low-intensity cultivation of crops using simple hand tools without permanent fields.

Swidden Agriculture

A horticultural technique (also called slash-and-burn) where small plot vegetation is cleared and burned, planted, harvested, and then left fallow for years to regenerate soil fertility.

Chinampas

Small, man-made island gardens with natural irrigation channels used historically in Mesoamerica.

The Dani

A horticultural group in Irian Jaya whose diet relies $90\%$ on double yams and who historically practiced organized, ritual small-scale warfare along guarded borders.

Agriculture

A subsistence strategy relying on permanently cultivated fields, intensive labor input, and a narrow range of domesticated plant and animal species.

Pastoralism

A subsistence strategy centered on tending, herding, and managing mobile domesticated animals on seasonal rounds in often marginal environments.

Transhumance

The practice of leading animal herds between seasonal pastures to maximize grazing resources throughout the year.

Maasai

An East African pastoralist society organized into $15$ territorial groups, where men gain political authority and status primarily through the ownership of cattle.