Making a Living Chapter 5

Adaptive Strategies Adaptive Strategies - Means of making a living Factors: Population density - number of people inhabiting an Productivity - yield per person per unit of land Efficiency - yield per person per hour of labor invested Five adaptive types: Foraging Horticulture Agriculture Pastoralism Industrialism

Foraging Foragers (Hunter-Gatherers) Only subsistence until 12,000 years ago Different environments allow for different methodologies Cold - Large game hunting Tropical - Great plant diversity Survives today in certain climates Most modern foragers do some food production All foragers live in nation-states Interact with and depend on governments Use of modern technology Modern Example: the San Environmental barriers to cultivation Area (Botswana, Southern Africa) surrounded by a waterless belt No food producers prior to 20th century 100,000 San living today on the fringes of society Relocation by government lead to dependency Lawsuit Allowed to return Permits for hunting

Correlates of Foraging Correlations - When one variable changes, so does another Food intake and body weight Foragers usually demonstrate correlated social features Egalitarian societies Often band-organized society Band - small social unit, usually less than 100 people Related by kinship or marriage Stay or split for seasons Ceremony, dry season, etc. Affiliation is mobile Exogamous, parents come from two separate bands Attachment through fictive kinship - relationships that mimic kinship Ex: Godparents Division of labor Men hunt and fish, women gather and collect Specific work varies by culture Age grades Respect for elderly Elders as guardians of myth and tradition Younger members value elders for spiritual; and practical guidance

Horticulture First of two types of nonindustrial cultivation Makes use of none of the factors of production Uses simple tools - hoes, digging sticks Non-permanent field use Fallow - left unsown in order to restore fertility Slash-and-burn technique (Swidden) Clear land Burning bush and grass Break down vegetation Kill off pests Ashes used as fertilizer Soil will be exhausted New land will be cleared Old land fallowed over many years New land exhausted, return to old land Can support large two types of villages Sedentary Walking farther is easier than building new villages Semi-nomadic Rudimentary houses that are easily rebuilt

Agriculture Second type of nonindustrial cultivation Using land and labor continuously and intensively Greater labor demands Domesticated animals Used for production, transport, and for fertilizer Ex: animals attached to plows and carts Irrigation Horticulturalists must wait for rain, agriculturalists control water Capital investment that increases land value Environment will determine long-term use Terracing Planting into steep hillsides Stage after stage supplied by water above Difficult to maintain and often crumble Pros and Cons Requires human labor Lower yield to labor ratio Does not initially produce more yield Much greater long-term yield No need to maintain/defend unused land

Pastoralism Pastoralists are herders of domesticated animals Usually cattle, sheep, goat, camels, and yak Often live in symbiosis with the herd Beneficial obligatory interaction Herds provide Food, leather, dairy, and blood Killed throughout the year for regular availability Diet is supplemented through foraging, hunting, fishing or trade Confined historically to the Old World Only exception are llama/alpaca pastoralists of the Andes Two types Pastoral Nomadism - annual movement of the group with the herd Transhumance - part of the group follows the herd while the others stay behind Villages are located in best watered areas Allows for group unity majority of the year Grow some crops

Industrialization Industrialization - large scale production of goods through manufacturing, industrialized agriculture and other use of other advanced technologies in economic activities Economy - a system of production, distribution, and consumption of resources Economic anthropology studies economic systems comparatively Mode of production - a set of social relations through which labor is organized Industrial Capital Money buys labor Social gap of employees and employers Non-industrial Labor through social obligation Means of production - productive resources such as land, labor, and technology More intimate in nonindustrial societies Land Less permanent relationship among foragers Food producers claim right through marriage and descent Pastoralists also claim herd right Labor, Tools, and Specialization Nonindustrial society Manufacturing is tied to gender and age Craft specialization is often social and promotes trade

Transitions to Industrial Economy Affected many aspects of society: Population growth Expanded consumption of resources International expansion Occupational specialization Shift from subsistence strategies to wage labor Globalization Industrialism today has outgrown national boundaries Resulted in movement of resources, capital, and population, as the whole world has gradually been drawn into the global economy

Economizing and Maximization Economizing - allocation of scarce means among alternative ends Profit motive Not an anthropological universal, but a capitalist one Economists assume a goal of maximization Economic Ends Subsistence fund work to eat to replace calories lost working Replacement fund Maintaining items essential to production Social fund Helping friends and family Ceremonial fund Expenditures on rituals Rent fund Resources that people must render to the economically superior Not just property for living Tenant farmers, peasants

Distribution and Exchange In anthropology, economic exchange is defined by three principles: The Market Principle - buying, selling, and valuation based on supply and demand Dominating concept of capitalist society Governs the distribution of production: land, labor, natural resource, technology, and capital Characterized by bargaining Both buyer and seller are seeking to maximize Redistribution - Flow of goods into the center, and the back out Characteristic of a Chiefdom Portions of production are set aside for the chief Goods are often siphoned off along the way Redistributed during feasts Reciprocity - an exchange between social equals Dominant in more egalitarian societies (foragers, pastoralists, horticulturalists) Three degrees

Types of Reciprocal Exchange Generalized - exchanges amongst closely related individuals Nothing concrete is expected immediately in return Parental giving in Western culture Balanced - an exchange where something is expected in return, but not necessarily immediately Relationship will be strained without reciprocation Often done outside the household Negative - Potentially hostile exchanges between strangers Purely an economic exchange Trying to get the most for as little as possible