Transcript Horticulturalists, Agriculturalists & Industrialists

Patterns of Subsistence
• The ways in which a society uses its
resources to meet basic human needs
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Food foragers
Pastoralists
Horticulturalists
Agriculturalists
Industrialists
Adaptation
• The process by which humans develop
ways of doing things that are compatible
with the resources they have available to
them and within the limitations of the
environment in which they live
Cultural Adaptation:
Technology
• The knowledge, practices & tools a group
has developed to help them adapt to the
physical environment
a.
b.
c.
d.
Producing food & goods
Constructing shelter, clothes, tools
Distributing resources
Transporting people & goods
Division of Labor
• Assignment of specific productive tasks to
particular individuals within a society
• Exists in all societies
• Always based on gender & age
• Efficient way to get things done
Gender Division of Labor
• Not always as fixed as it may appear
• Men & women may do opposite gender
activities at certain times
• Restrictions on gendered labor may be
ignored in practice (real vs. ideal)
• Conditions originally creating it may
change
• Complex combination of biological &
cultural factors
Age Division of Labor
• Age specific tasks/activities
• Varies cross-culturally
• Culture determines age appropriate
work & expectations
Subsistence Strategies
• Understanding of the variations in human societies as they adapt in
different ways to different environments
• is both biological & cultural
• Carrying capacity – max # of people a particular society can support
given available resources
• Strategy depends on environment, technology & way of life
Subsistence Groups: Foragers
• Aka “Hunting & Gathering” societies – based on hunting, fishing &
gathering of edible plants, nuts, roots
• Gathered foods make up 70-80% of diet
• Meat highly valued
• Wide variety of environments: semi-desert, tropical forests, polar
regions
• Characterized by flexibility & mobility
Foragers, Cont.
1.
Low population densities
a.
b.
c.
2.
Nomadic or semi-nomadic
a.
3.
Must live below carrying capacity
Are spread out
Least impact on environment
Limited technology & material possessions
Social organization based on family or bands (groups of
families/kin)
a.
b.
May have headman or headwoman who serves as
leader/coordinator; but no real power
No formal political structure
Foragers, Cont.
c.
4.
Division of Labor – occupational specialization but gender
complementarity
a.
5.
Egalitarian – resources, decision making is shared equally (through
leveling mechanisms)
Men hunt, women gather – but is fluid & activities overlap (may be
rigid, may be loose)
Gender relations – gender equality
a.
Men/Women equally valued, have equal rights
Foragers, Cont.
6.
Changes – modern technology, wage work (mostly for men),
attempts to settle & incorporate into state, contact with other
cultural groups
a.
Major effect on gender relations
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Men contribute more labor & food
More rigidly defined work activities
Women’s decision making power declined
Men/women occupy separate spheres
Men acquire more social prestige
Less egalitarian (within & between families & bands)
Subsistence Groups:
Pastoralists
• Aka Animal Husbandry – based on herding, breeding & consuming
domesticated herd animals (camels, sheep, goats, horses, llamas, yaks
& reindeer)
• Herds extremely valuable (economically & for social reasons)
• Diet based on animal foods (blood, milk, some meat)
• Dung for fuel, bones for tools, skin for clothing & shelter
• Tend to keep small gardens & trade important
• Wide variation in types of animals kept & how herded (tend to
specialize)
Pastoralists, cont.
• Usually ecologically sound – must sustain pasture lands & intensive
use of animals means little waste
1. Geographic mobility
a.
b.
c.
d.
Transhumance – seasonal movement between upland & lowland
pastures
Nomadism – migration & relocation of whole villages
Small, dispersed camps
Technology & material possessions limited
Pastoralists, Cont.
2.
Division of Labor – occupational specialization
a.
b.
3.
Boys & men tend herds
Women & young girls tend household & make products from dairy of
herds
Social Organization – gender segregation due to Div. of Labor
a.
b.
Men/boys in herding camps – may be away from home for days
Women/girls in huts
Pastoralists, Cont.
c.
Large herds sign of wealth
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4.
Needed for bride price, used as sacrifice to gods/ancestors, used
to solidify social bonds (between men & families)
Gender Relations – tend to be male dominant (patrilineal,
patrilocal)
a.
Greater social/economic value linked to men due to
association with herd animals
Pastoralists, Cont.
• Changes – due to colonization, settlement
• Wage work for men has led to:
• Increased economic power & decision making for men with
devaluation of women’s roles/tasks
• Very restrictive of women
• Contact with other cultures – cultural tourism
Food producing societies
• Transition from food collection to food production around 10,000 ya
• Earliest known plant & animal domestication in the “Fertile
Crescent” in Middle East
• Led to population explosion
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Children become valuable source of labor; family size increases
Property rights; more formalized systems of organization
Development of specialists
Increased social inequality
Horticulturalists
• Aka Subsistence agriculture – based on cultivation of crops for
self-consumption
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Small scale, low intensity farming on small plots
Basic hand tools (hoe, digging sticks)
Limited, if any, surplus
Rely heavily on natural variables (sunlight, water, soil)
Small domesticated animals for food
Horticulturalists, Cont.
1.
Slash & burn (Swidden) cultivation
a.
b.
c.
d.
Manual clearing of land – cutting down growth, burning it, ash
serves as fertilizer
Management of soil fertility through field rotation, fallowing (not
planting & allowing natural vegetation to be restored)
Eventual movement to other fields
Control over/alteration of environment, but generally not damaging
or permanent
Horticulturalists, Cont.
2.
Cultivate a variety of crops
a.
b.
3.
Continuous food supply
Mirrors natural bio-diversity
Division of Labor – tends to be sharper, but contributions of both
genders & the young valued
a.
Men & boys clear & prep fields; Women plant & harvest; children
help harvest
Horticulturalists, cont.
4.
More sedentary lifestyle
a.
b.
c.
5.
More time/energy devoted to construction of dwellings
Accumulation of material goods increases
Population density increases
Social Organization – more complex (related to ownership of land,
crops, animals)
a.
b.
More formalized system for regulating, protecting & resolving issues
Status differences emerge – ownership/control over land
Horticulturalists, cont.
5.
Social Org. – Cont.
c.
Kinship based
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Multi-family kin groups (clans or lineages)
Revolve around inheritance of land
Patrilineal or Matrilineal
Cooperation & coordination of cultivation activities
Agriculturalists
• Aka Intensive agriculture – based on large scale production
practices using irrigation, fertilization, draft animals &
machinery
• Most prevalent subsistence pattern
• Archaeological evidence for first intensive ag societies in Egypt,
Mesopotamia (Iraq, Syria), India, Pakistan, northern China,
Mesoamerica & western S. America (world’s first great
civilizations)
Agriculturalists, cont.
• Characterized by specialization in one or a few crops
• Production of surplus
1. Specialization & Diversification of Labor
a.
b.
c.
Requires organized labor for construction & maintenance of
irrigation systems
Not everyone engaged in subsistence activities
Skilled tasks such as engineering, tool making & repair, other
technological innovations appear
Agriculturalists, cont.
2.
Increase in population = development of non-industrial cities
a.
3.
Centralized & formal political systems
a.
b.
4.
More settled communities
Protect rights to land, resources; resolve conflicts
Chiefdoms or state society
Social organization – differential access to land & resources create
more stratified society
Agriculturalists, cont.
a.
b.
c.
Social classes develop (nobles vs. commoners)
Elite class may rise to power (owners of means of production)
Kinship very strictly defined
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5.
Inheritance
Cooperation, coordination, increase wealth & status
Tend to be patrilineal (limits women’s access to & ownership of land)
Division of Labor – men prep land, maintain equipment, harvest;
women plant, weed, harvest & do food prep & processing
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Industrialized society
Characterized by increases in:
1.
Control over & alteration of environment
a.
2.
Mechanization of labor & production
a.
b.
3.
Reliance on non-renewable resources for industrialization &
increasingly mobile population
Mass production of food & material goods
Density of urban life
a.
4.
Technological extraction of resources (mining, deforestation, dams,
“fracking”
Rural to urban migration
Social & geographical mobility
a.
Movement from place to place in search of shifting resources (i.e. jobs)
Industrialized society
b.
c.
5.
Specialization of labor
a.
b.
6.
More individualized
Gender division of labor less, but increase in occupational specialization
Integration of supply & service networks (communication,
transportation, processing)
a.
7.
Opportunities for socio-economic mobility increase
Ties to family (kin) & place weakening
Infrastructure
“Portable religion” – linkage to one of major religious traditions
(providing sense of continuity, community, identity)
Industrial agriculture
• Production relies on technological sources of energy (rather than
human/animal energy)
• Machinery & technology needed are expensive; fuel costs high
• Rise of agri-business
• Mono-culture specialization: large-scale single commodity production
• Commercialization: processing, transporting, marketing
INDUSTRIALIZED
PRODUCTION
Advantages: Is very productive (both food & non food items), standard of
living improved, opportunities for socio-economic mobility increased
Disadvantages: very high cost
•Displacement of small family farmers
•Toxic runoff/pollution from manufacturing & industrial ag production
•Environmental degradation
•Wealth, power VERY concentrated (1%)