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Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

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Page 1: Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

Patterns of SubsistenceEconomic Anthropology

Culture and Survival

Page 2: Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

“Adaptation is about obsession: for an orchid, for writing, for finding something or someone to obsess about. As Donald tells Charlie, "You are what you love, not what loves you." Few scripts toss more challenging balls in the air, and Jonze juggles them all with artful, light-stepping ease. It's magic” (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone).

Page 3: Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

Adaptation Adaptation - “to adjust to new or

changed circumstances” key concept in ecology and evolution

Cultural Ecology important application Julian Steward – developed theories of Cultural

Ecology, stressed relationship between technology and other aspects of culture and social structure.

Garrett Hardin – “Tragedy of the Commons” (1968)

The tragedy of the commons is a metaphor used to illustrate the conflict between individual interests and the common good. Hardin uses the example of English Commons, shared plots of grassland used in the past by all farmers in a village. Each farmer keeps adding more livestock to graze on the Commons, because it costs him nothing to do so. In a few years, the soil is depleted by overgrazing, the Commons becomes unusable, and the village perishes. Hardin actually misunderstood how commons were managed in England and elsewhere, but this may not affect the greater significance of his argument, which pertains primarily to truly open access commons such as the sea and the atmosphere.

Page 4: Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

Adaptation Patterns of Subsistence - all

cultural and social factors related to obtaining and distributing food.

Economic Systems - all cultural and social factors related to

the production and distribution of wealth.

Page 5: Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

Patterns of Subsistence Food Foraging (Hunting and

Gathering) Food Production (Domestication)

Pastoralism (Animal Herding) Horticulture (Gardening) Intensive Agriculture

Labor Intensive (Chinampas)

Energy Intensive (Industrialized)

Page 6: Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

Patterns of Subsistence Food Foraging (Hunting and

Gathering)

Important to understand….We were all living in food foraging societies until about 10,000 years ago….before the Neolithic Revolution. Since then everyone depends on domesticated species.

We depend on imperfect studies of ethnographies of societies largely dependent on food foraging and on interpretations of archeological evidence.

Often cited societies include the “Bushmen” of Southern Africa, Aborigines of Australia, and “Eskimo” of the Arctic.

The basic idea in modern psychological anthropology is that we are essentially hunters and gatherers in a post-industrial world.

An approach to understanding ourselves is to understand food foragers.

Page 7: Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

Patterns of Subsistence Food Foraging (Hunting and

Gathering) Semi Nomadic (Tethered Nomads)

Occupy Distinct Area (Domain)

Population Size Stabilizes near the Maximum Long Term Carrying Capacity of Domain

Carrying Capacity - number of individuals who can be supported at a given level of technology.

Page 8: Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

Patterns of Subsistence

Factors that lend population stability: Infanticide and Geronticide Birth Spacing Human Physiology

Hunting and gathering, collecting, trapping, fishing, etc.Domain (territory) must supply all subsistence

resources.

People lived in small, local, patrilineal bands.Basic division of labor: Men hunt; Women gather.

If we assume:

Women have average of 5 children who live to weaning;

Children are often suckled until the age of 5;

Women walk an average of 7 miles per day;

There are ca. 365 Days per year, therefore:

5 X 5 X 7 X 365 = ca. 63,875 miles a woman in a foraging society walks carrying a child.

The Basic Problem in Hunting and Gathering Societies:

What Do Men Do?

They Go Hunting!

Page 9: Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

Patterns of Subsistence Food Production (Domestication)

Changes associated with food production:

Increased population size

Greater population density

Greater specialization in division of labor

Less nomadic, more sedentary settlements

Page 10: Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

Patterns of Subsistence Pastoralism

Transhumance

Animal Herding

Semi Nomadic

Nuer

Animals major source food

Page 11: Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

Patterns of Subsistence

The Bakhtiari In western Iran the Bakhtiari tribe must make

an annual 8-week, 200 mile trip to the mountain summer pastures. In this hazardous test of human endurance, we embark on an outstanding migration that takes 50,000 men, women, and children, their livestock (500,000 animals) and all their possessions across the Zagros Mountains, a range which is as high as the Alps and as broad as Switzerland.Grass

"Grass" was produced in 1924 by filmmakers Marian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack (creators of "King Kong"). They were accompanied by journalist-cum-spy Marguerite Harrison.

Page 12: Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

Patterns of Subsistence Horticulture

Gardening major source of food. Swidden farming (aka slash and burn, milpa ) Mekranoti (Brazil), Maya (Chiapas), Dani (New

Guinea)

Page 13: Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

Intensive Agriculture Labor Intensive

Chinampa System (Valley of Mexico)

Energy Intensive Modern Industrial Agriculture

Patterns of Subsistence

Page 14: Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

Economic AnthropologyEconomic Systems - all cultural and social

factors related to the production and distribution of wealth.

Division of Labor Cooperative Work Groups

Craft Specialization

Technology

Leveling Mechanisms

generalized reciprocity

balanced reciprocity

negative reciprocity

Conspicuous Consumption

Potlatch

Age and Gender

Kula ring Trobriand Islands

Page 15: Patterns of Subsistence Economic Anthropology Culture and Survival

Economic Psychology Economic Psychology is a newly emerging

field that draws on a variety of disciplines such as economics, anthropology, sociology, as well as various areas of psychology.

Economic Psychologists tend to focus on a new model of economics that refutes the “neoclassical” school that assumes people are rational economic agents.

Daniel Kahneman won the 2002 Nobel prize in economics for his theory of “bounded rationality.”