Anthropology

Subsistence Anthropology

Learning Objectives

• Reflect on the origins of food ingredients in meals and their geographic sourcing.

• Understanding subsistence systems provides insights into societal food practices.

Key Concepts of Subsistence Systems

Subsistence Definition

• Subsistence System: Practices by societies to acquire food, influencing our understanding of their connection to food sources.

Types of Subsistence Systems

1. Foraging (Hunting and Gathering)

   • Utilizes wild plants and animals.

   • Immediate return on labor; less secrecy around food production.

   • Broad spectrum diet; adaptable to various resources.

   • Social structures tend to be egalitarian with minimal wealth differences.

2. Pastoralism

   • Focuses on raising domesticated livestock.

   • Requires movement for grazing due to environmental demands.

   • Emphasizes community; involves shared labor and resources.

   • Gender roles often favor men, with women handling most daily chores.

3. Horticulture

   • Small-scale farming, also known as shifting cultivation.

   • Relies on manual labor; utilizes technologies to clear land.

   • Produces diverse crops primarily for household consumption.

   • Intercropping is common to enhance sustainability and yield.

4. Agriculture

   • Intensive farming of staple crops with technology and tools.

   • Often leads to surplus production and commercial distribution.

   • Acts as a base for socioeconomic stratification and complex societal structures.

Symbolic Meaning of Food

• Food is culturally significant; influenced by norms and taboos (e.g., dietary restrictions among religious communities).

• Foodways: The cultural norms surrounding food acquisition and consumption.

Anthropological Insights

• Carrying Capacity: The number of calories that can be extracted from land resources to support a population.

• Malthusian Theory: Population grows exponentially, resources grow arithmetically, leading to potential crises.

• Ester Boserup: Contends that population pressure can drive agricultural innovation and cultural change.

Foraging Societies

Characteristics

• Small group sizes, reliance on shared knowledge of ecosystems.

• Limited wealth accumulation; community-oriented practices emphasize sharing.

Gender Dynamics

• Gender roles can lead to inequalities; men's skills in hunting often valued higher than women's gathering.

Stability and Mobility

• Some settled foraging societies exist where fishing provided surpluses, leading to population growth.

Pastoralism: An Interconnected Lifestyle

• Nomadic Pastoralism: Movement required for grazing; also follows seasonal patterns.

• Emphasizes communal resource management; wealth measured in livestock.

• Concerns of gender inequality persist with men controlling animals, while women manage labor.

Agriculture: A Double-Edged Sword

Transition to Agriculture

• Neolithic Revolution marks technological advancements in subsistence strategies.

• Characteristics:

  • Reliance on staple crops, creation of surplus and larger populations, division of labor, and wealth differences arise.

Global Agricultural System

• Uneven resource distribution leads to food insecurity and malnourishment despite ample agricultural capacity.

• Commodity chains illustrate the journey of food from producers to consumers, often leading to exploitation of farmers at the onset of these chains.

Conclusion and Discussion Questions

Reflection Points

• Consider how knowledge about food origins affects dietary choices and connections to food production.

• Explore possible solutions to wealth discrepancies within global food systems.

GLOSSARY

Agriculture: the cultivation of domesticated plants and animals using technologies that allow for intensive use of the land.
Delayed return system: techniques for obtaining food that require an investment of work over a period of time before the food becomes available for consumption. Farming is a delayed return system due to the passage of time between planting and harvest. The opposite is an immediate return system in which the food acquired can be immediately consumed. Foraging is an immediate return system.
Domestic economy: the work associated with obtaining food for a family or household.
Foraging: a subsistence system that relies on wild plant and animal food resources. This system is sometimes called “hunting and gathering.”
Horticulture: a subsistence system based on the small-scale cultivation of crops intended primarily for the direct consumption of the household or immediate community.
Modes of subsistence: the techniques used by the members of a society to obtain food. Anthropologists classify subsistence into four broad categories: foraging, pastoralism, horticulture, and agriculture.
Pastoralism: a subsistence system in which people raise herds of domesticated livestock.
Subsistence system: the set of skills, practices, and technologies used by members of a society to acquire and distribute food.

Economics in Anthropology

Learning Objectives

• Human flexibility: Culture allows survival in diverse environments (e.g., arctic, deserts, urban, rural).

• Universals of human life: All humans need to eat and obtain material necessities.

• Economic anthropology: Study of livelihoods—methods to secure necessities like food, clothing, and shelter.

• Focus on production, exchange, consumption, and the significance of immaterial factors (labor, services, knowledge).

Definitions

• Economic Anthropology: Field that explores how different societies organize economic lives, contrasting with traditional economics' focus on market exchanges.

• Key inquiry: How social, cultural, and political forces influence economic decisions.

Modes of Production

Types of Production

1. Domestic Production (Kin-Ordered)

   • Family-based labor organization.

   • Example: Small-scale maize farming in southern Mexico.

2. Tributary Production

   • Classes of rulers and subjects; tribute paid by primary producers to rulers.

   • Example: Pre-capitalist societies like feudal Europe.

3. Capitalist Production

   • Private property, workers sell labor for survival, focus on surplus generation.

Modes of Exchange

Types of Exchange

1. Reciprocity

   • Exchange based on mutual obligation:

     • Generalized: No specific return expected.

     • Balanced: Expectation of equal value return.

     • Negative: Seeking to gain without giving.

2. Redistribution

   • Accumulation of goods/labor for later distribution (e.g. taxes, potlatch).

3. Market Exchange

   • Trades governed by supply and demand, often involving general purpose money.

Significance of Money

• General purpose money: A medium facilitating various transactions.

• Can obscure social relations, creating inequalities.

Global Production and Consumption

• Consumption as a cultural process: Reflects social identities, status.

• Commodities can embody social relations affecting local and global scales:

  • Example: Ethnically correct Barbie dolls and consumer identity.

Structural Violence and Economic Inequality

• Examines how structures harm individuals by limiting access to fundamental needs.

• Case study: Structural issues in Haiti post-earthquake and the failure of international aid.

Glossaryy

Balanced reciprocity: the exchange of something with the expectation that something of equal value will be returned within a specific time period.
Consumption: the process of buying, eating, or using a resource, food, commodity, or service.
Generalized reciprocity: giving without expecting a specific thing in return.
General purpose money: a medium of exchange that can be used in all economic transactions.
Means of production:  the resources used to produce goods in a society such as land for farming or factories.
Mode of production: the social relations through which human labor is used to transform energy from nature using tools, skills, organization, and knowledge.
Negative reciprocity: an attempt to get something for nothing; exchange in which both parties try to take advantage of the other.
Political economy: an approach in anthropology that investigates the historical evolution of economic relationships as well as the contemporary political processes and social structures that contribute to differences in income and wealth.
Redistribution: the accumulation of goods or labor by a particular person or institution for the purpose of dispersal at a later date.
Structural violence: a form of violence in which a social structure or institution harms people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs.
Subsistence farmers: people who raise plants and animals for their own consumption, but not for sale to others.

Political Anthropology

Learning Objectives

• All cultures exercise social control over their members to manage interpersonal conflicts.

• Disputes must be contained across societies, regardless of complexity.

• Political anthropology studies the means of social control.

Basic Concepts in Political Anthropology

• Political Anthropology: A cross-cultural approach to understanding the organization of societies.

  • Identify four levels of socio-cultural integration: band, tribe, chiefdom, state.

  • Compare leadership systems in egalitarian vs. non-egalitarian societies.

  • Analyze how tribes and chiefdoms encourage social integration.

  • Evaluate benefits and issues related to state-level organizations.

Political Forces

• Power vs. Authority:

  • Power: Ability to induce behavior through coercion (e.g., gulags, Supermax prisons).

  • Authority: Ability to persuade and encourage compliance (e.g., forager societies).

• Legitimacy: The perceived right to lead, rooted in various historical principles, including hereditary succession or divine right.

  • Examples:

    • Inca: Rule justified by connections to the Sun God.

    • Aztec: Derived authority from deities.

    • Democratic: Rests on the consent of the governed.

• Reverse Dominance:

  • Concept where societies reject individual power using ridicule or disapproval.

  • Example: The !Kung ridiculing an individual rather than appreciating gifts.

Levels of Socio-Cultural Integration

• Band: Small, family-based units lacking formal leadership.

  • Leadership changes daily

• Tribe: More complex than bands, with defined groups and temporary leadership roles.

  • Head person is merit-based

• Chiefdom: Centralized power with a hereditary chief.

  • chief has “mana” = personal power

• State: Most complex, governed by a central authority and formal laws.

  • Egalitarian: No significant status differences (band and tribe).

  • Ranked: Substantial differences in social status (chiefdom).

  • Stratified: Significant inequalities, often in wealth and power (state).

Role of Law and Norms

• Norms of Reinforcement:

  • Positive (rewards) and negative (punishments) consequences for compliance with societal directives.

  • Resolution in bands uses informal conflict resolution methods without formal courts.

• Conflicts: Often arise from interpersonal disputes; resolved through negotiation or mediation rather than codified law.

  • Example : Nuer Leopard Skin Chief acting as mediator.

Warfare and Conflict in Societies

• Conflict can arise in bands, tribes, or chiefdoms, often tied to interpersonal disputes, resource theft, or women's abduction.

Characteristics of Ranked Societies and Chiefdoms

• Ranked societies differ from egalitarian societies by permitting significant inherited statuses. Chiefdoms have permanent leadership and defined rules of succession, visible in events like potlatch ceremonies.

  • Leadership validation occurs through public recognition and displays of generosity.

Integration Mechanisms

• Kin-Based Integration: Especially prevalent in chiefdoms.

  • Marriage alliances, gift exchanges, secret societies, and kinship systems are used to strengthen social ties and maintain order.

• Influence of Secret Societies: They often bridge political and kinship realms, reinforcing social structures and political authority.

Conclusion

• The chapter connects forms of government ranging from forager bands to complex stratified states, exploring the underlying causes of socio-economic inequalities and the role of various mechanisms of social control.

GLOSSARY

Affinal: family relationships created through marriage.
Age grades: groups of men who are close to one another in age and share similar duties or responsibilities.
Age sets: named categories to which men of a certain age are assigned at birth.
Band: the smallest unit of political organization, consisting of only a few families and no formal leadership positions.
Big man: a form of temporary or situational leadership; influence results from acquiring followers.
Bilateral cross-cousin marriage: a man marries a woman who is both his mother’s brother’s daughter and his father’s sister’s daughter.
Bilateral descent: kinship (family) systems that recognize both the mother’s and the father’s “sides” of the family.
Caste system: the division of society into hierarchical levels; one’s position is determined by birth and remains fixed for life.
Chiefdom: large political units in which the chief, who usually is determined by heredity, holds a formal position of power.
Circumscription: the enclosure of an area by a geographic feature such as mountain ranges or desert or by the boundaries of a state.
Codified law: formal legal systems in which damages, crimes, remedies, and punishments are specified.
Egalitarian: societies in which there is no great difference in status or power between individuals and there are as many valued status positions in the societies as there are persons able to fill them.
Feuds: disputes of long duration characterized by a state of recurring hostilities between families, lineages, or other kin groups.
Ideologies: ideas designed to reinforce the right of powerholders to rule.
Legitimacy: the perception that an individual has a valid right to leadership.
Lineage: individuals who can trace or demonstrate their descent through a line of males or females back to a founding ancestor.
Matrilateral cross-cousin marriage: a man marries a woman who is his mother’s brother’s daughter.
Matrilineal: kinship (family) systems that recognize only relatives through a line of female ancestors.
Nation: an ethnic population.
Negative reinforcements: punishments for noncompliance through fines, imprisonment, and death sentences.
Oaths: the practice of calling on a deity to bear witness to the truth of what one says.
Ordeal: a test used to determine guilt or innocence by submitting the accused to dangerous, painful, or risky tests believed to be controlled by supernatural forces.
Patrilineal: kinship (family) systems that recognize only relatives through a line of male ancestors.
Peasants: residents of a state who earn a living through farming.
Positive reinforcements: rewards for compliance; examples include medals, financial incentives, and other forms of public recognition.
Proletarianization: a process through which farmers are removed from the land and forced to take wage labor employment.
Raids: short-term uses of physical force organized and planned to achieve a limited objective.
Ranked: societies in which there are substantial differences in the wealth and social status of individuals; there are a limited number of positions of power or status, and only a few can occupy them.
Restricted exchange: a marriage system in which only two extended families can engage in this exchange.
Reverse dominance: societies in which people reject attempts by any individual to exercise power.
Segmentary lineage: a hierarchy of lineages that contains both close and relatively distant family members.
Social classes: the division of society into groups based on wealth and status.
Sodality: a system used to encourage solidarity or feelings of connectedness between people who are not related by family ties.
State: the most complex form of political organization characterized by a central government that has a monopoly over legitimate uses of physical force, a sizeable bureaucracy, a system of formal laws, and a standing military force.
Stratified: societies in which there are large differences in the wealth, status, and power of individuals based on unequal access to resources and positions of power.
Sumptuary rules: norms that permit persons of higher rank to enjoy greater social status by wearing distinctive clothing, jewelry, and/or decorations denied those of lower rank.
Tribe: political units organized around family ties that have fluid or shifting systems of temporary leadership.
Unilineal descent: kinship (family) systems that recognize only one sex-based “side” of the family.

patterns of subsistence

• foraging/hunting: the practice of gathering wild plants and hunting animals for food, often associated with nomadic lifestyles.

• Pastoralism: A form of subsistence agriculture focused on the raising of livestock for food, clothing, and other products.

• Horticulture - characteristics The practice of cultivating small plots of land using simple tools and techniques, often involving the use of slash-and-burn methods to enhance soil fertility.

• Agriculture - The systematic cultivation of crops and domestication of animals for food production, which allows for larger-scale farming and often leads to the establishment of permanent settlements.

• natural resources: The raw materials found in nature that are utilized in the production of goods and services, including water, minerals, forests, and fertile land.

• technological resources: The tools and equipment utilized in the production process, including machinery, irrigation systems, and advanced farming techniques that improve efficiency and yield.

• labor resources: The workforce involved in agricultural production, including skilled and unskilled laborers, who contribute to planting, harvesting, and maintaining crops and livestock.

• division of labor: The allocation of different tasks to different people or groups to improve efficiency and productivity.

• task specialization

• reciprocity

  • balanced

  • negative/imbalanced

• Potlatch

ethnographic work and research methods

cultural relativity

economic systems

political systems

• Band: Small, family-based units lacking formal leadership.

  • Leadership changes daily

• Tribe: More complex than bands, with defined groups and temporary leadership roles.

  • Head person is merit-based

• Chiefdom: Centralized power with a hereditary chief.

  • chief has “mana” = personal power

• State: Most complex, governed by a central authority and formal laws.

  • Egalitarian: No significant status differences (band and tribe).

  • Ranked: Substantial differences in social status (chiefdom).

  • Stratified: Significant inequalities, often in wealth and power (state).

Terms:

Culture: The shared beliefs, practices, norms, and values that characterize a group or society.

Enculturation: The process by which individuals learn and adopt the cultural norms and values of their society, often occurring through socialization and interaction with others.

• Dependence Training: “We all pass this when everyone succeeds, everyone needs everyone else”. A socialization process that emphasizes fostering reliance on others for emotional and physical support, often seen in collectivist cultures where group harmony and interdependence are prioritized.

• independence training : An individual gets a “gold star”A socialization process that encourages self-reliance and personal autonomy, often associated with individualistic cultures where independence and personal achievement are highly valued.

Conspicuous Consumption: The practice of purchasing and using goods or services to publicly display wealth and social status, often to signal one's economic power to others.

Naming and Identity: The significance of names in shaping personal and social identity, reflecting cultural heritage, and influencing perceptions of individuality within a community.

Phases of cultural transition:

• Separation: Individuals detach from previous identities.

• Liminal: Transitional phase involving ambiguity and transformation, often through rituals.

• Reintegration: Return to society with a new identity after integrating experiences.

Marriage: A culturally significant union between individuals that often reflects societal norms and values, influencing personal identity and social roles within a community.

rite of passage: A significant event or ceremony that marks an individual's transition from one stage of life to another, often associated with cultural or social expectations, such as entering adulthood or beginning a new familial role.

core values : Fundamental beliefs or principles that guide behavior and decision-making within a society or organization, shaping the way individuals interact with one another and their environment.

mythology and worldview : The collection of stories and beliefs that a culture holds regarding the nature of the universe, existence, and human life, influencing how individuals perceive their place in the world and interact with others.

ritual: A prescribed set of actions or ceremonies performed in a specific order, often for religious or cultural significance, that reinforces communal beliefs and values.

origin myths : Stories that explain the beginnings of a culture, its people, or the universe, often featuring deities or supernatural beings that shape the world and its inhabitants.

cultural appropriation : The adoption of elements from one culture by members of another culture, often without permission or understanding, which can lead to the commodification of cultural practices and the erasure of their original meanings.

ethnocentrism : The belief in the superiority of one's own culture or ethnic group, often resulting in the evaluation of other cultures through the lens of one's own cultural norms and values, which can lead to misunderstanding and prejudice.

social construct: An idea or perception that is created and developed by society, influencing how individuals understand and engage with the world around them.

anthropology: The study of humans, their societies, cultures, and development, examining both past and present human behavior and interactions.

redistribution: The process of distributing or reallocating resources, wealth, or opportunities within a society to promote equality and address disparities.

egalitarian

prestige

leveling mechanism: A method or policy designed to reduce inequality by redistributing resources or opportunities among different groups.

money

moieties: Distinct social groups or divisions within a society, often characterized by shared cultural or economic traits. system where someone identifies as a descendant of beaver or bear. households get along. may have ritual warfare once a year. Cal vs Stanford or Gryffindor vs Slytherin.

social control: The various means used by a society to regulate individual behavior and maintain social order, including laws, norms, and informal sanctions.

economic systems

reciprocity - when items in a trade are exactly equal

negative reciprocity - when rank is involved in a trade, often resulting in one party receiving more value than they give, typically in contexts of exploitation or coercion.