Subsistence

Subsistence: Types of Subsistence Strategies – Food Collectors – Food Producers Horticulturalists Pastoralists Intensive (and mechanized) agricultualists

Variation of Food-Getting & Associated Features

Food Collection Food-getting strategy of obtaining wild plant and animal resources through hunting, gathering, scavenging, and/or fishing Foragers or hunter-gathers: human groups that primarily obtain food this way Strategy utilized by people for most of human (pre)history, but rare today Examples: !Kung (southern Africa), Inuit (Arctic circle)

Food Collectors – General Features Small communities Sparsely populated territories Marginal environments Nomadic Egalitarian Gender- and age-based division of labor

Food Collectors: !Kung Inhabit Kalahari desert in Namibia and Botswana Maintained foraging way of life into 1960s Film: N!ai, The Story of a Kung Woman

Diamphidia - poison on arrow tips

Food Collectors: The Inuit

Food Producers Food production: Cultivation and domestication of plants and animals Originated around 10,000 years ago Most cultures today rely on food production rather than food collection Three types of food production systems: Horticulture, Pastoralism, and Intensive Agriculture

Horticulture Horticulture: Small scale, low-intensity farming Use of simple tools and absence of permanently cultivated fields – Extensive or shifting cultivation, slash-and-burn Usually supplemented with hunting and gathering Today practiced in tropical areas, more common in other regions in past Examples: Yanomamo (the Amazon), Samoans (South Pacific)

Major horticulturalist regions during the 20th century

Horticulturists: General Features Larger, denser communities than food collectors More sedentary than food collectors; may move every few years Minimal social differentiation – some differences in wealth, power Part-time craft specialization and political officers

Horticulturists: The Yanomamö

Pastoralism Pastoralism: Reliance on domesticated herds of animals feeding on natural pastures Two main types of pastoralists: Nomadic, Transhumance In recent history – usually grassland and other semi-arid habitats not suitable for cultivation Examples: Basseri (Iran), Saami or Lapps (Scandinavia), Massai (Eastern Africa)

Pastoralism – Two Main Types Nomadic: – Seasonal migratory pattern that varies year to year – No permanent settlements – Usually self-sufficient Transhumance: – Follow a cyclical pattern of migrations between same two locations – Regular encampments or stable villages often with permanent houses – Usually depend somewhat less on their animals for food than do nomadic ones: » small scale vegetable farming, more likely to trade animal products with agriculturalists for food and other necessities

Pastoralists: General Features Small community size with low population density Nomadic or semi-nomadic Some degree of craft specialization Formal political officials

Pastoralists: The Lapps

Intensive Agriculture Intensive agriculture: use of techniques enabling permanent cultivation of fields, e.g. fertilization, irrigation systems, etc. Generally rely on more complex tools than horticulturalists, but extreme variety in degree of dependence on mechanization Examples: Rural Greece, Mekong Delta (Vietnam)

Intensive Agriculture: General Features Larger, more dense populations- towns, cities Permanent settlements Craft specialization Complex political organization Social differentiation – unequal distribution of wealth and power

Intensive Agriculturalists: Mekong Delta

Intensive Agriculture & Mechanization Commercialization: increasing dependence on buying and selling, usually with money as medium of exchange Increasing commercialization of agriculture associated with mechanization, rather than relying on hand labor Leading to spread of agribusiness (large corporation-owned farms), less of general population directly engaged in food production

Environment & Subsistence Environment has a restraining, not determining, effect on subsistence

Summary Two main categories of subsistence strategies: – Food Collection (also called foragers or hunter- gatherers) – Food Production (three sub-categories) Horticulture Pastoralism Intensive agriculture A culture’s primary subsistence strategy is strongly linked to political organization, economic system and other aspects of social life