ANTH 111 - Cultural Anthropology - Topic 5 (Subsistence and Economics)

Chapter 10 (280-288)

What is economy?

It is a cultural adaptation to the environment that allows humans to use available land, resources and labor to satisfy their needs and to thrive.

Who is Yehudi Cohen?

An anthropologist known for using the term adaptive strategy to describe a society's system of economic production.

What are the five primary adaptive strategies Cohen suggest?

1. Foraging (hunter gatherers)

2. Pastoralism (small scale farming with simple tools)

3. Horticulture (raising livestock)

4. Agriculture (large-scale farming with advanced techniques)

5. Industrial Agriculture (industrialism — modern, mechanized production)

What is Economic Anthropology? Describe the 3 key dimensions associated with this.

It studies how people in different cultures make, share, and use things they need. It looks at how economies work in small and big societies, focusing on both money and traditions.

The 3 key dimensions include:

• Production (turning goods from nature into consumable uses)

• Distribution (division of labor)

• Consumption (utilization)

What is foraging?

It is based on resources that are available in nature through gathering, fishing or hunting.

Those living in marginal areas rely HEAVILY on this method (deserts, circumpolar regions, forests)

Oldest form of subsistence - 99% of our human history did this

To forage effectively, one must have sophisticated knowledge about the environment and seasonal changes.

They often change modes of subsistence only when forced to

• Population Density (too many people)

• Environmental degradation

It’s GETTING WHAT YOU NEED.

Foraging societies often deal with the resource curse, in which people in rich countries desire the resources these societies have and turn the places where to get them into mines and plantations, forcing them to move.

What are some key characteristics about foraging?

TOOLS:

• Digging sticks

• Bow and arrows

• Spears

• Baskets

EXTENSIVE STRATEGY: requires lots of land & unrestricted population movement

DIVISION OF LABOR:

• Based on gender and age

  • Young —> help collect

  • Elder —> stay at camp & take care of the young

PROPERTY RELATIONS

• “use rights” — the rights to use and benefit from a resource, like land or water. These rights can be limited by time, place, or rules to make sure the resource is used fairly and wisely.

SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM

• Modest needs = minimal effort to satisfy them

• They are quite healthy —> high protein diet

What is foraging also referred to as? Why?

It is referred to as the Original Affluent Society. This term was coined by Marshall Sahlins, an american anthropologist.

He describes the foragers as hunter gatherers.

WHY?

• Their wealth is measured in valued leisure time

• They have few possessions but do not think of themselves as impoverished.

What are the 2 types of foraging?

1. Temperate- region (warmer)

   • Diet: wide variety of nuts, tubes, fruits, small animals & occasional large game

   • Gender division of labor: men & women forage; men hunt large game

   • Shelter: casual construction, nonpermanent, little maintenance (they move a lot)

   • Ex. San people of southern Africa

2. Circumpolar-region (North Pole area)

   • Diet: large marine & terrestrial animals

   • Gender division of labor: men hunt & fish

   • Shelter: time-intensive construction & maintenance; some permanent (it’s colder)

   • Ex. Inuit and other northern Canadian peoples

What is horticulture?

It is based on cultivating domesticated plants in gardens using hand tools. It’s more labor intensive than foraging. It also requires lots of land. These garden plots increase the amount of predictability of food source that humans can get.

What separates it from agriculture is its non intensive use of land and labor. Horticulturists live on land that is COMMUNALLY CONTROLLED.

Its PRODUCING WHAT YOU NEED WITH A LITTLE BIT OF SURPLUS.

What are some key characteristics about horticulture?

EXTENSIVE STRATEGY

• Sedentary, living in one place

DIVISION OF LABOR

• Men hunt, women do processing

• Children = productive (useful in help)

• Single households produce for themselves, BUT if the job is too big then many groups may come together

  • Ex. Pana-pana Miskito of the Nicaraguan coast

    • Pana-pana = hand go, hand come

PROPERTY RELATIONS

• “use rights” —> use land with the permission from larger kinship groups

• ANY surplus = possibility of inequality

It’s a SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM if there’s enough space.

What is pastoralism?

It is based on domesticated animal herds and their use of products (milk, milk products, meat).

This is relevant in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Central Asia.

It has established trade networks with foragers, horticulturists and agriculturists to get other resources.

Animals with different purposes other than meat:

• Goats

• Cattles

• Camels

• Horses

• Llamas

• Reindeers

What are some key characteristics about pastoralism?

EXTENSIVE STRATEGY

• needs LOTS of space

DIVISION OF LABOR

• Families & clusters = basic production unit

• Men in charge of herding, women in charge of processing products

PROPERTY RELATIONS

• Most important property = animals, housing & domestic goods

• These types of possessions may be inherited, especially though males

• Uses rights to land and migratory routes (used by many generations)

SUSTAINABLE if there’s enough land

What are the 2 types of pastoralism?

Transhumance — where ONLY ANIMALS MOVE. Process in which some men move livestock seasonally to different pastures; everyone else remains at home.

Nomadism — where EVERYONE MOVES. there are no permanent villages for people to reside in. The whole unit moves with the livestock to new pastures

• Ex. Bedouins of the Arabian Peninsula

What is agriculture?

The process of growing crops on permanent plots by plowing, irrigation and fertilizer to create a surplus. This surplus allows individuals to be free from subsistence activities & allows for specialization of food choices.

It relies on domestic animals & artificial water sources.

Its PRODUCING WHAT YOU NEED + TON OF SURPLUS.

What are the 2 types of agriculture?

1. Intensive Agriculture

2. Industrial Agriculture

What is Intensive Agriculture?

It is a smaller scale of agriculture. It can support many times more people per unit of land compared to horticulturalism. Those in the lower class (peasants) devote the most time to prepare the land. It involves the changing of environment.

It includes:

• Plowing

• Planting

• Weeding

• Caring for irrigation

• Terracing

• Harvesting

• Processing

• Storage of surplus

DIVISION OF LABOR

• Family = basic labor unit

• Based on gender and age

• Women’s daily work hours = 25% more than men

  • Wake up & prep breakfast, take care of young while men do their job, stay up to do processing.

PROPERTY RIGHTS

• Land can be OWNED BY INDIVIDUAL

• Rights = acquired and can be sold

• Usually get land from inheritance OR through marriage

• Institutions are made to protect property rights

What is Industrial Agriculture?

It involves mechanization and mass production of food.

Businesses in agriculture (agribusinesses) have increased food production BUT have more complicated results.

• Need MORE labor

• MORE TECH

• MORE NON-RENEWABLE NATURAL RESOURCES

Why is this a problem?

1. The required technology requires LOTS OF LAND, so it take over the land foragers, horticulturalists and pastoralists use = make sustainability harder for those smaller farms

How does intensification relate to agriculture and other subsistence strategies?

Intensive cultivators

• Use of land (big or small) over and over again)

• Sedentary (stay in one place)

• Become more specialized (monoculture — single crop grown in a specific area, makes it susceptible to parasites)

DIFFERENCE:

Horticultural plots = mimics the botanical diversity of tropical forests WHEREAS Agricultural plots = reduce ecological diversity by concentrating on a few staple foods