Subsistence Systems & Exchange Patterns Anth

What is a subsistence system?

• Practices, skills, and methods used to obtain food for survival.

• Acts as the economic base of society and adapts to the environment.

What are foodways?

Cultural norms and practices associated with preparing and consuming food.

What is the difference between food collectors and food producers?

• Food collectors: Rely on wild plants, hunting, and fishing.

• Food producers: Rely on domesticated plants and animals.

What is the difference between immediate and delayed return systems?

• Immediate return: Food is obtained and consumed relatively quickly (e.g., foraging).

• Delayed return: Food requires time to grow or raise before consumption (e.g., farming).

What are the four modes of subsistence?

• Foraging

• Horticulture

• Pastoralism

• Agriculture

What is foraging, and what are its main characteristics?

• Obtaining food through hunting, gathering, and fishing.

• Nomadic or semi-nomadic, with a broad-spectrum diet.

• Generally egalitarian, with little emphasis on land ownership.

What is optimal foraging theory?

Choosing which foods or animals are worth searching for based on the calories they provide.

What was the Neolithic Revolution?

• The shift from collecting wild foods to producing food through domestication.

• Led to population growth, settled communities, and property ownership.

What are the main characteristics of horticultural?

• Small-scale farming using limited technology and human labour.

• Use shifting cultivation (slash-and-burn).

• Land is often shared, and crops are mainly consumed or shared within the community.

How do yams influence social relationships in the Trobriand Islands?

• Yams represent wealth, respect, and social status.

• Giving and exchanging yams strengthens social relationships.

• Demonstrates that food has social and political importance.

What are the main characteristics of pastoral societies?

• Rely on herding and raising domesticated animals.

• Depend on grazing land and water.

• Livestock provide food, wealth, and social status.

What is the importance of cattle in Maasai society

• Economic: Provide milk and other useful products.

• Social: Represent wealth and status.

• Cultural: Influence marriage practices and gender relations.

What is the difference between extensive and intensive agriculture?

• Extensive: Low population density, less intensive labour and fewer inputs.

• Intensive: High population density, greater use of technology and inputs to increase yields.

What are the characteristics of mechanized industrial agriculture?

• Uses machinery, technology, and fertilizers.

• Focuses on agribusiness, monoculture, and corporate farming.

• Contributes to wealth inequality and environmental degradation.

What is a mode of production?

• How people organize labour, tools, and resources to produce goods.

• Includes forces of production and relations of production.

What is the difference between forces and relations of production?

• Forces: Tools, technology, labour, land, and capital used in production.

• Relations: Social class relationships based on who owns the means of production.

What are the three modes of production identified by Eric Wolf?

• Kin-ordered: Labour organized through family and kinship relationships.

• Tributary: Workers provide payments or goods to rulers or central authorities.

• Capitalist: Capitalists own production resources, while workers sell their labour.

What are the three main characteristics of capitalist production?

• Capitalists own the means of production.

• Workers sell their labour because they do not own productive property.

• Workers produce surpluses that capitalists use for further production.

What are the three main modes of exchange?

• Reciprocity

• Redistribution

• Market exchange

What is reciprocity?

• Exchange of goods or services of roughly equal value between two parties.

• Traditionally involves no money.

What are the three types of reciprocity?

• Generalized: Giving without expecting an immediate return.

• Balanced: Giving with an expectation of repayment within a specific time.

• Negative: Trying to gain more than you give through bargaining or taking advantage.

What did Marcel Mauss argue about gift exchange?

• Gift-giving is connected to social and kinship relationships.

• Contrasted gift reciprocity with modern commodity exchange.

What is redistribution?

• Goods or services are collected by a central authority.

• The authority then distributes them back to members of society.

What is potlatch?

• A ceremony involving feasting, music, dance, and gift-giving.

• Practised by Indigenous communities such as the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw in BC.

• Chiefs or hosts redistribute goods to guests.

What is pastoralism, and what are its main characteristics?

• Raising and herding domesticated animals for food and other resources.

• Depends on grazing land and water.

• Livestock represent wealth, social status, and cultural value.

What is agriculture, and what are its main characteristics?

• Producing food through the cultivation of domesticated plants and animals.

• Uses technology and labour to increase food production.

• Can involve intensive farming, mechanization, and monoculture.