Chapter 5 Making A Living

Chapter Outline Where Have All the Icebergs Gone? Human Adaptation and the Environment Major Types of Subsistence Strategies Bringing It Back Home: Globalization and Food Choice

Subsistence Patterns The ways societies transform the material resources of the environment into food, clothing, and shelter They develop in response to: seasonal variation in the environment. environmental variations such as drought, flood, or animal diseases.

Subsistence Strategies Factors: Population density: the number of people inhabiting an area of land Productivity: the yield per person per unit of land Efficiency: the yield per person per hour of labor invested

Major Subsistence Strategies Foraging Pastoralism Horticulture Agriculture Industrialism

Subsistence Strategies Until about 10,000 years ago, humans lived by foraging. As tools improved, foragers spread out and developed diverse cultures, arriving in the Americas and Australia about 25,000 years ago.

Subsistence Strategies About 10,000 years ago, human groups in the Old World, and 4,000 years later in the New World, began to domesticate plants and animals. The domestication of plants and animals supported increased populations and sedentary village life became widespread.

Subsistence Strategies The Industrial Revolution involved the replacement of human and animal energy by machines. In a typical nonindustrial society, more than 80% of the population is involved in food production; in a highly industrialized society, 10% of the people produce food for the other 90%.

Subsistence Strategy Each subsistence strategy: supports a characteristic level of population density. has a different level of productivity. has a different level of efficiency.

Foraging Relies on food naturally available in the environment Strategy for 99% of the time humans have been on earth Limits population growth and complexity of social organization

Pastoralism Caring for domesticated animals which produce meat and milk Involves a complex interaction among animals, land, and people Found along with cultivation or trading relations with food cultivators

Transhumant Pastoralism Found mostly in East Africa Men and boys move the animals throughout the year as pastures become available at different altitudes or in different climatic zones. Women and children and some men remain at a permanent village site.

Nomadic Pastoralism The whole population moves with the herds throughout the year There are no permanent villages.

Maasai With Cattle Here, East African Maasai are “bloodletting” on this calf. What kind of relationships would you expect between pastoralists and their animals?

Horticultural Production of plants using non- mechanized technology Typically a tropical forest adaptation that requires cutting and burning the jungle to clear fields Swidden (slash and burn): Clearing fields by felling trees and burning the brush

Agriculture Production of plants using plows, animals, and soil and water control Associated with: Sedentary villages Occupational diversity Social stratification

Peasants Food-producing populations that are incorporated politically, economically, and culturally into nation-states

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. The result has been great movement of resources, capital, and population, as the whole world has gradually been drawn into the global economy.

Bringing it Back Home: Globalization and Food Choice In the past most of the food choices on our tables were locally grown. Today, some 80% of the fruit consumed in the U.S. is produced in only two states – Washington and California. In the fiscal year 2007, the U.S. imported 70 billion dollars’ worth of food.

Bringing it Back Home: Globalization and Food Choice Fruits and vegetables are available year- round from places as far away as India. This global food network exerts a high price and a high carbon footprint. The average tomato produces three times as much carbon dioxide than a locally- grown one.

Bringing it Back Home: Globalization and Food Choice You decide: What cultural, social, personal, and other obstacles do you see as standing in the way of or opening possibilities for changes in America’s food habits? What are some of the changes in American culture and society that might result from changes in America’s food practices?

Quick Quiz

1. According to archaeologists, the subsistence pattern engaged in for the longest time of human existence is a) horticulture. b) fishing and farming. c) animal herding. d) foraging. e) village agriculture.

Answer: d According to archaeologists, the subsistence pattern engaged in for the longest time of human existence is foraging.

2. Subsistence practices of most world societies are a) geared to environmental circumstances in the immediate present. b) designed to take into account "extremes" that may occur only occasionally over time, e.g., drought, flooding, temperature changes. c) are so varied between cultures that they cannot be categorized. d) are so specialized that most cultures have been unable to adapt to industrialism.

Answer: b Subsistence practices of most world societies are designed to take into account the "extremes" that may occur only occasionally over time, e.g., drought, flooding, temperature changes.

3. Perhaps the greatest concern of many experts as a global economy develops is that of a) fewer opportunities to achieve satisfying ways of making a living. b) the participation of women in the workplace. c) environmental degradation. d) increased mobility.

Answer: c Perhaps the greatest concern of many experts as a global economy develops is that of environmental degradation.

4. Agriculture is generally associated with all except which one of the following? a) sedentary villages b) the rise of cities and the state c) increase in social equality across the society d) draft animals, plows, and control of water and soil

Answer: c Agriculture is generally not associated with an increase in social equality across the society.