Patterns of subsistence

Sociohistorical Anthropology

1. Patterns of SubsistencePatterns of Subsistence

2. Topic Questions:Topic Questions:
o How do human cultures impact their
environments?
o In what ways do different societies make a
living?
o What are some of the relationships between
subsistence strategies and other aspects of
culture and social life?
o How can anthropology make a difference in
increasing food production?

3. Subsistence Patterns
Ways in which societies transform material
resources of the environment into food,
clothing and shelter.
Develop in response to:
Seasonal variation in the environment.
Environmental variations over the long run
such as drought, flood, or animal diseases.

4. Human Adaptation
Impact of modern science and technology.
Nonindustrial societies rely on their
knowledge & simple technologies.
Lacandones & Amish people

5. How Humans Meet Basic Needs.
Throughout human antiquity it is known that humans
must have the ability to constantly make cultural
adaptations to better survive and thrive in their
natural environments or ecosystems. Meeting
humans most basic needs are finding efficient
methods to obtain food, shelter, and fresh water.
Ecosystem- functioning system that comprised of
both the natural environment and the organism that
inhabit it.

6. Adaptation in Cultural Evolution
The most common way for a group of people to adapt
to their ecosystem is through their culture. Cultural
Evolution is the process of cultures changing over
time.
It is important to note that the idea of cultural
evolution is not always in a positive light. Although
this concept can often be confused with the idea of
“progress” as if humans are progressing as a culture
towards something better.

7. Convergent Evolution
The Native American Comanche were from
the highlands of southern Idaho. They had
traditionally subsisted on wild grains, small
animals and the occasional large game that
roamed the region. The possessed simple
technology and equipment that was limited to
what dogs could carry on their backs. They
considered their shaman (spiritual and
medicinal healer) as holding the highest
social power.

8. Eventually the Comanche made a move towards the
Great Plains region where they encountered a larger
food supply such as free roaming bison
Trade for horses and guns began with nearby
European settlers.
Over time Comanche traders began to hold a higher
power within the group, one above the shaman, as they
would go on raids to steal horses.
The society that started small and powerless,
converged into a powerful and wealthy tribe.

9. The history of the Comanche is similar
to the historical accounts of the Native
American Cheyenne Indians. These
peoples moved from the woodlands of
the Great Lakes regions also into the
Great Plains. Unlike the Comanche
they took up farming which they later
ceased to focus on hunting and
gathering.
Both tribes developed similar solutions
to living in the new environment

10. Convergent Evolution
Convergent Evolution as outlined by the
Native America Comanche and Cheyenne
is best described as the development of
similar cultural adaptations to similar
environmental conditions by different
peoples with different ancestral cultures.

11. Parallel Evolution
The other type of cultural evolution apart from
convergent evolution is parallel evolution. The
development of farming took place simultaneously in
Southwest Asia and Mesoamerica. People in both
regions already had similar life ways. They both
became dependent on a narrow range of plant foods.
Both developed intensive forms of agriculture, built
large cities, and created complex social and political
organizations.

12. Parallel Evolution
Parallel Evolution as outlines by the
development of farming in Mesoamerican &
SW Asia is best defined by the
development of similar adaptations to
similar environmental conditions by peoples
whose ancestral cultures were similar.

13. Cultural Areas
Anthropologists have long identified that
ethnic groups that co-habitat within the same
geographical region many times share cultural
traits.
These groups have been classified as
“cultural areas”, which are geographic
regions in which a number of societies follow a
similar pattern of life.

14. Many times these
cultural areas are
defined by natural
environmental
conditions.

17. What determines Subsistence
Patterns?
Although technological advancements and
environmental factors play a significant role in
a culture’s subsistence patterns it is not the
only defining trait. Political and social
organization will also play a large role in the
technology that will be invented and used-thus
directly influencing what subsistence pattern a
culture will use.
These features are known as the culture
core.

18. Culture Core
The culture core is defined as the cultural
features that are fundamental in the societies
way of making its living. This can include:
Food producing techniques
Knowledge of available resources
Work arrangements involved in applying
those techniques to the local environment.

19. Culture Core and Food Ways
The culture core also influences other aspects of
culture including the production and distribution of
food. Religious views can define and prohibit
certain cultural foods.
Muslims and Jews must abstain from eating
pork because it is prohibited by their religion.
Hindus do not eat beef because their religion
considers these animals to be sacred.

20. Modes of Subsistence
There are three main modes of subsistence
patterns. Each mode will involve not only natural
resources but also the developed technology to
effectively utilize those resources.
1.) Food Foraging Societies
2.) Food Producing Societies
3.) Industrialized Societies

21. Forager Subsistence
Anthropologists have identified
three major variations of the
foraging subsistence pattern:
Pedestrian: diversified hunting
and gathering on foot
Equestrian: concentrating on
hunting large mammals from
horseback
Aquatic: concentrating on fish
and/or marine mammal hunting
usually from boats

25. Population Levels
Foraging population densities are very low.
In harsh, relatively unproductive environments,
densities of foragers have been as low as one
person per 10-50 square miles.
In rich environments, the densities have been
as high as 10-30 people per square mile.
The optimal community size usually is about
25-30 people, depending on the availability of
food and water
Thus high degree of stability
Most of human history as Foragers

26. Food Foraging: Organization
Four elements of food foraging organization:
Mobility
Division of labor by gender.
Food sharing
Egalitarian Social Relations

27. Mobility
Mobility of food foragers is strongly limited
by their difficult living environments which
they occupy. For instance the distance
between their food supply and fresh water
must not be so great that more energy is
required to obtain fresh water than can be
obtained from food.

28. It is necessary for food foraging groups to limit their
population size due to the carrying capacity of the
land which is defined by the amount of people the
land and support with it’s available resources.
Often this can create what is called a density of
social relations; meaning that the limited availability
for resources forces larger groups to live together.
More people can create more social conflicts.

29. How do Food Foraging Groups Limit
Population
One way that these groups limit population
growth is by the prolonged nursing of infants. The
longer the mother nurses the less likely she is to
ovulate.
The other factor is their low percentage of body
fat. Lower body fat leads to a later onset of
ovulation and the onset of menstruation.

30. Labor by Gender
All societies have some type of division of
labor by genders. Foraging Groups follow
these two patterns:
Men: hunting, butchering, process of hard
or tough materials, and overall more
dangerous activities
Women: collecting food, domestic chores

31. Food Sharing
Men and Women will both share the fruits
of their labor. Considering they each
provide a different food resource that they
continue to share with one another.
Food sharing among members and other
nearing groups can also provide the basis
for creating and maintain social allies and
networks.

32. Egalitarianism
Among many food foraging societies
egalitarianism is an important characteristic.
To be egalitarian means to have no status
differences among members of a group.
Generally the only status differences are with
age and sex.
No one member will accumulate more goods
than another, thus eliminating jealously and
potential conflict.

33. Ethnographic Examples
•Foragers
–Very few such groups
remain
–Eskimos/Inuit Eskimos/Inuit
(Alaska/Canada) (Alaska/Canada)
–!Kung (Africa) !Kung (Africa)
–Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians

36. TODAY almost completely TODAY almost completely
exterminated exterminated

37. Food Producers
The New Stone Age or Neolithic; the prehistoric
period beginning about 10,000 years ago in which
peoples possessed stone-based technologies
and depended on domesticated plants and/or
animals.
This time period marks the emergence of a
transition to food producing.

38. Transition to Food Production
The Neolithic revolution (transition) began about
11,000 to 9,000 years ago. It was a time of significant
culture change associated with the early
domestication of plants and animals with settlement
of permanent villages.
Probably the result of increased management of wild
food resources.
Begin the development of simple hand tools for
working the land.

39. Types of Food Producing
There are three main forms of food
producing subsistence patterns:
1.) Pastoralism
2.) Agriculture
3.) Horticulture

40. Pastoralism
Pastoralism or animal husbandry is the
subsistence pattern of raising and maintaining
herds of domesticated animals, such as cattle,
sheep, and goats.
Pastoralists are usually nomadic. They share
the similar concern of food foragers for finding
fresh resources not only for their group but
their herds as well.

42. Horticulture
The cultivation of crops using simple hand tools
such as digging sticks or hoes.
Slash-and-burn cultivation (swidden farming).
•An extensive form of horticulture in which
the natural vegetation is cut, the slash is
subsequently burned, and crops are then
planted among the ashes.

43. Ethnographic Examples
Horiculturalists
Tribal peoples living a
ethnohistorical lifeway
in the present?
Few such groups
remain
•Yanomami
•Ashaninka
•Kuikuru

46. Agriculture
Agriculture is defined as the cultivation of
food plants in soil prepared and maintained
for crop production.
It involves using technologies other than
hand tools, such as irrigation, fertilizers,
and the wooden or metal plow pulled by
harnessed draft animals.

47. Characteristics of Agricultural
Societies
Similar to food foragers who stay nearby their food
resources, food producers reside together near their
cultivated fields in fixed settlements.
Historically, social relations would have been
egalitarian and similar to those of food foragers.
However, as settlements grew larger in population
size people had to share important resources such
as land and water, society became more elaborately
organized.

49. Intensive Agriculture
As agriculture grows some farming communities
will turn from small villages into larger cities
including large centers of market exchange. This
allows other members of the community to engage
in other activities.
Carpenters, blacksmiths, sculptures, basket
makers, stonecutters.
Carpenters, blacksmiths, sculptures, basket
makers, stonecutters.
Eventually this creates an urbanization.

50. Peasants
As urbanization including new life ways and
complex culture these dwellers must rely
on farmers in rural areas for most of their
food supplies.
Over time it becomes increasingly
important for urban dwellers to seek control
over rural areas. Farmers eventually turn
into peasants.

51. Transitions to Industrial Economy
Had an effect on many aspects of society:
Population growth
Expanded consumption of resources
International expansion
Occupational specialization
Shift from subsistence strategies to wage
labor

52. Industrialization
After the invention of the steam engine about 200
years ago in England (which replaces human labor by
machine labor) subsistence patterns changed in
some regions.
North America, Europe, Asia will become centers of
industrialization among areas of intensified
agriculture.
This has led to a multitude of technological inventions
that utilize; oil, electricity, and nuclear energy.

53. Effects of Global Exchange
Resulted in worldwide inequities:
Cultivation oriented primarily toward the
market
Predominance of wage labor
Control over culture and social institutions

54. •More leisure time