Anthropology: Chapter 7
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Food Foraging:
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a mode of subsistence involving some combination of hunting, fishing, and gathering of wild plant foods.
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Horticulture:
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low-intensity, small-scale, agriculture using small fields, plots, or gardens that relies on human power and simple tools produce household consumption.
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Pastoralism:
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a type of agricultural activity based on the raising of livestock to provide food, clothing, and shelter.
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Intensive Agriculture
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large-scale and complex system of farming and animal husbandry (it is a more productive form of cultivation).
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Industrial Agriculture:
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farming on a much larger scale, relying on complex machinery, high-yeilding seed varieties, and domestic/export marketing produce.
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Explain how people around the world use culture to adapt to their environment.
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-cold climates: include "technological" solutions such as building fires, using animal skins, tend to eat more food, and engage in greater amounts activity. -modern world: technology has enabled humans to adapt to a wide range of environment by producing vast amounts of food and protecting ourselves from the cold and heat by air conditioning and furnaces. -remote area: have an enormous knowledge of plant life which is useful to eating, building houses, and curling illnesses.
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What is the concept of carrying capacity?
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the maximum number of people a given society can support.
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What are the consequences of exceeding the carrying capacity?
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exceeding the carrying capacity can damage the environment and societies can not easily increase their food getting productivity beyond the carrying capacity.
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What is the theory of optimal foraging?
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a theory that foragers choose those species of plants and animals that maximize their caloric intake for the time spent hunting and gathering.
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What are the four generalizations about food collecting societies?
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-food-collecting/foraging societies have low population densities -foraging and collecting societies are usually nomadic or semi-nomadic -the basic social unit among foragers and collectors is the family or band, a loose federation of families -contemporary foraging and collecting peoples occupy the remote and marginally useful areas of the earth
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Generalization 1: food-collecting/foraging societies have low population densities
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this is because they have thresholds for extraction so that they do not overexploit their resources.
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Generalization 2: foraging and collecting societies are usually nomadic or semi-nomadic
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hunters need to be mobile to follow to migrating game. collectors are more likely to have a semipermanent residence with task groups going out to collect food items and then returning.
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Generalization 3: the basic social unit among foragers and collectors is the family or band, a loose federation of families
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the typical form of social organization among hunting and gathering families is small groups of kinsmen coming together at certain times of the year.
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Generalization 4: contemporary foraging and collecting peoples occupy the remote and marginally useful areas of the earth
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it is reasonable to suggest that these food-gathering, hunting-and-fishing societies, with their simple technology, have been forced into these marginal habitats by food producers with more complex technologies.
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Ju/hoansi food collection strategies:
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-had to keep moving in order to keep eating since food and water is sparse -classic hunter and gatherers and possessed no domestic animals except their hunting dogs -women provided two to three times more food by weight
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Inuit food collection strategies:
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-traditionally hunters and fishers living off arctic animal life -the arctic has very little edible vegetation, so the inuit supplemented their diet with seaweed
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Positive changes brought on by the Neolithic Revolution:
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-farming can potentially generate more food per unit of land than hunters and gatherers -store more food for times of scarcity, trade with others, and enable other members to specialize in non-food producing activities -simulated a greater division of labor
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Negative changes brought on by Neolithic Revolution:
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-lead to a decline in overall health -the egalitarianism of traditional hunting and gathering societies was replaced by increasing social inequality and other problems such as poverty, crime, war, and environmental degradation
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What is horticulture?
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small-scale crop cultivation characterized by the use of simple technology and the absence of irrigation
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What is slash and burn agriculture?
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involves clearing land by manually cutting down the growth, burning it, and planting in the burned area
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What are the advantages of slash and burn agriculture?
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-the ash residue serves as a fertilizer -the land is then allowed to lie fallow until the natural vegetation is restored
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What are the limitations of slash and burn agriculture?
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-the soil nutrients are usually depleted within a few years -can eventually destroy the environment if fields not given sufficient time to lie fallow
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Transhumance pastoralism:
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the movement pattern of pastoralist in which some of the men move livestock seasonally.
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Nomadic pastoralism:
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the movement pattern of pastoralist involving the periodic migration of human populations in search of food or pasture for livestock.
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Describe the circumstances surrounding the emergence of a peasantry class.
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-rural people who provide urban inhabitants with farm products but have little access to wealth or political power -are subject to the laws and controls of the state and exchange their farm surpluses for goods produced in other parts of the state -provide most of the dietary needs of city dwellers -powerful city dwellers often extract both labor and products from the peasants in the form of taxation, rent, or tribute
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What are the expenses and benefits of industrialized agriculture?
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-increase productivity -helps farmers with crop management -enables famers to keep records on how much they harvest from each acre and the precise crop variety -good for environment because it uses fertilizer more economically
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What are the expenses of industrialized agriculture?
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-requires complex systems of market change because of its highly specialized nature -causes the demise of small-scale farms -responsible for considerable environmental destruction: lower water tables, the ecology of bodies of water changing, water fauna destroyed by pesticides, soil is salinized from over-irrigation, and air pollution from crop spraying
