And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to
hunger, and fed thee with manna, which
thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers
know; that he might make thee know that
man doth not live by bread only, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of the Lord doth man live.
Christian holy scriptures (Bible, King James Version): Deuteronomy 8: 2-3
A FIFTH
Subsistence Strategies

Industrialization
Subsistence Strategies
Foraging (Gathering / Hunting)
Horticulture
Pastoralism
Agriculture
Foraging / Gathering-Hunting

Basic mode of exploiting environment for 99%
human history - found everywhere



Nomadic / semi-nomadic / transhumance
Wild plant & animal resources


Recent times: relegated to marginal areas
Intimate knowledge life-cycles of plants/animals
Diet

Nutritionally superior to traditional agriculturalist &
modern industrial societies
Foraging / Gathering-Hunting
Socio-cultural characteristics

Division of labor by sex & age



Arose within last 50,000 - 100,000 years
Usually limited material stuff
Land / resources available to all group members

Exceptions (Calif., Pacific NW): resource areas
exploited by members of particular kinship group
Foraging / Gathering-Hunting
Socio-cultural characteristics
 Small
group size
 Flexible group composition
 Bilaterial descent and kinship
structure
 Sharing ethos
 Egalitarian
Foraging / Gathering-Hunting
Recent (last 150 years) Representatives
•
San (Ju/'hoansi): Botswana; S. Africa
•
Innu: Canada (also Siberia, Alaska, Greenland)
•
Paiute: Great Basin of N. America
•
Pygmies (e.g., Baka; Mbuti): Central Africa
•
Jarawa and Sentinelese: Andaman Islands
•
Pila Nguru (The Spinifex People): Great Victoria
Desert, Western Australia
Baka
Pastoralism
The care, tending, and use of domesticated animals (camels, llamas, cattle, reindeer,
sheep, goats, yaks, etc.). Modern pastoralists found in every part of the world.
Yoruk sheep herders, Turkey
Sami reindeer herders, Norway
Nuer cattle herders, Sudan
Tuareg camel herders, Chad
Pastoralism - Basic Features

Reliance upon domesticated animal herds



Diet



Heavily dependent on milk, animals seldom eaten
Natural pastures (no cultivation of fodder)
Nomadic as well as Transhumance systems


Main forms: cattle, sheep, goats (a few systems: camels, reindeer)
Sometime herd more than one species
Herds moved from pasture to pasture as they exhaust grasses or
seasons change
Animal resources sometimes supplemented by
agriculture

Complementary farming or trade with farming communities
Pastoralism: Sociocultural Traits







Population size: a few thousand to tens of thousands
Small herd-management units (extended patrilocal
households)
Stock used for bride wealth payments / other social
exchanges
Parallel cousin marriage
Wealth differences based on differential stock
ownership
Decentralized political organization
Complex relationships with settled agricultural
communities

Trade/other exchange; sometimes political subjugation (e.g. modern States)
Mongolian Pastoralists
Mongolian Pastoralists
The Basseri: Iranian Pastoralists
Territory & Location




Inhabit province of Fars
Migrate along steppes and
mountains near the town of
Shiraz (transhumance)
Clearly delineated group defined by political rather
than ethnic or geographical
criteria.
Late 1950s: 16,000±
Basseri Subsistence

Sheep &
goats: food,
hides, wool




Every
family has
a herd of
about 100
animals
Donkeys: pack animals; women, children sometime ride
Horses: ridden by men, sometime by women
Camels: beasts of burden
Wealth Is In One’s Herd


Wealth shown by
amount of animals in
one’s herd
As herd grows, so
does one’s wealth
Horticulture (Extensive Cultivation)





Farmers not make heavy labor commitments or
expenditures to create capital items (e.g irrigation)
Cultivation strategies designed to maximize use of
unmodified natural resources
Basic plot patterns designed to replicate rather than
restructure natural environment; involve techniques of
intercropping of complementary plants
After short periods of cultivation: lengthy fallow
periods imposed to re-establish soil fertility
Yields per acre: relatively low
Horticulture: Socio-cultural Traits





Moderate population densitie (100 to 300/sq. mile)
Sedentary: settle in (semi-) permanent villages)
Localized unilineal descent groups that allocate land
use and assume other corporate functions
Intergroup integration through the development of
pan-tribal sodalities, such as age grades
Absence of



Occupational specialization
Wealth stratification
Political centralization
Cameroon Highlands
Unmodified Rainforest

Phase I



Phase II

Phase I

Phase II
Forest cleared, planted w/mix maize,
cocoyam, raffia palm, coffee
Some tree cover retained: protect crops &
allow for forest regeneration
After 3 years: annual food crops of maize
& cocoyam have been harvested off
Tree crops (plantain, raffia palm, coffee)
remain, replacing traditional fallow regime
of natural woodland succession
Agriculture (Intensive Cultivation)
Pre-Industrial

Labor intensive


Wide variety of systems recorded


Concentrate human labor input on a given acre of farmland
Most depend on irrigation, animal-drawn plowing, or both
Main features






Modification of natural environment to increase land productivity
Creation of capital works and capital goods
Use of fertilizers
Monoculture
Permanent cultivation of farm plots
High yields per acre