Food Production &
Economics
•Types of Food Collection:
•Hunter-gatherers:
•Horticulture:
•Pastoralism:
•Paleolithic & Mesolithic periods—Stone Age (12,000-8,000 BC):
•Relied on big-game hunting—followed migratory herds (cattle, antelope,
bison, and mammoths)
•Neolithic Revolution (“New Stone Age”): circa 8,000 BC—domestication and
cultivation of plants and animals
•Made possible by new stone tools
•Environmental changes in Europe
•Glacial melt 10,000 year ago—led to rising oceans, opening of more land
(Scandinavia), and increased temperatures
•Rising oceans = more fishing opportunities
•Tundras (treeless plains) would eventually switch over to dense forests
•Mammoths became extinct
•Problem: When your world becomes warmer and your food supply dwindles,
what do you do?
•Domestication:
•Fertile Crescent:
•Wheat, barley, peas, dogs, goats,
sheep, pigs, and cattle all discovered
to have been domesticated in the
crescent beginning around 8000 BC
•Affects on humans caused by food production:
•Population increases
•Establishment of permanent villages
•People more sedentary—fewer nomads
•More elaborate and comfy housing
•Increased size, more floors, furniture, more solid
structures, etc.
•Long-distance trade begins
•Characteristics of hunter-gatherers: less than 0.01% of our
global population—found mostly in world’s marginal areas
(deserts, the Arctic, rain forests)
•Aborigines of western Australia:
•Get less than 8 inches of rain per year with
temperatures nearing 118° in summer
•Watering holes are hundreds of miles apart
•Children get water, women get plants, men
hunt emus and kangaroos
•Use fire to round up game
•Usually return with just small game
(lizards and rabbits)
•Nomadic people
•Camps range from only several people to
80 people
•Rarely camp near water—WHY?

Copper Eskimos of the Canadian Arctic
– Lived in groups of about 50 people
• Lived on the ice off the shore because of seal
hunting and on shore during summer
• Lived in family groups
– Live off seals and occasional polar bear in winter
• Seal provides meat, cooking and lighting oil,
and sealskin used to make boots, kayaks,
buckets, etc.
• Maupok
– During summer they move onto the shore
• Split into smaller groups
• Dry and store fish and caribou for winter
months
• When hunting caribou, the intestines are
removed and emptied for undigested
vegetables—eaten by hunters on the spot
•Characteristics of Horticulturalists:
•The Jivaro of the Andes
•Live in small villages in tropical rain forests
•Rely mainly on manioc roots to make flour and
beer
•Men clear a vegetable plot with slash-and-burn
method
•1st: cut away undergrowth
•2nd: cut down trees and let them sit for
several months during dry season
•3rd: set fire to trees and brush on ground
•4th: clear land and cultivate plants
•Women take care of cultivation
•Men do limited hunting of monkeys and birds
with blowguns and poison darts

Samoans of the South Pacific
–
–
–
Islands receive upwards of 200 inches of
rain per year
Temperatures remain between 70° and
88°
Rely on tree crops (breadfruit, coconut,
and bananas)
•
–
–
–
–
Constantly provide new crops of fruit
Also practice “shifting cultivation” of
taro (root crop)
Cannot weed crops often b/c it will cause
erosion of loose volcanic soil
This type of horticulture requires little
work—Europeans first viewed them as
being lazy
Also raise chickens and pigs and catch
fish
– General features of horticulturalists:
• Able to support larger populations b/c they have more food than
hunting-gathering societies
• Societies are more sedentary
• Still rely on some hunting
• Creation of social differentiation
– Some people have part-time jobs
– Some families have more “status” than other families


Characteristics of Pastoralists
Lapps of northwestern Scandinavia
(Finland, Sweden, & Norway)
–
–
–
–
Cold and arctic environment
Herd reindeer in enclosed fenced areas
Milk female reindeer and use males for
working purposes
Only eat the male reindeer and keep all
females alive for mating purposes
– General features of pastoralists:
• Practiced mainly in grassland
areas
• Usually nomadic or semi-nomadic
• Communities are small and
consist of mainly related families
• Migratory decisions are made by
the community and never
individuals
• Reliance on animals for more than
food (milk, hides, and some drink
their blood for protein)
Forced Labor

Simple societies have no way to coerce or force “lazy” people to
work
– They may be fed, but may become joke or outcast

Complex societies have methods to force people to work
– Not simply slave labor
– Must have a central authority figure (president, king, chief, etc.)
– Taxation—requires people to put in certain amounts of work to pay
off taxes
• Taxes can be in forms of money or work
Corvée


System of required labor that is owed to
central government/authority figure
Incan Empire—Andes mountain range (Peru)
– Each commoner assigned 3 plots of land to
work
• State
• Temple plot
• Individual plot
– Overabundance of workers meant
reassignment to menial tasks
• Story of a ruler requiring workers to move
a hill to stay busy
• Military draft
Machu Picchu
Corvée—continued

Ancient Egypt
– June-September: Inundation of
the Nile River
• Belief that the fertility god
Hapi was making farm
lands more fertile
• Floods made the lands
temporarily unworkable
– Pharaohs usually would require
all able-bodied citizens to
spend the inundation time to
work for him on various projects
• Most famous projects: Giza
Pyramids
Corvée—continued


Post-Civil War United States (Southern states)
Sharecropping—perpetual slavery
– Blacks given land they can work
– In return for land and shelter, the worker owed
the land owner a portion of the harvest
• Manipulated prices
• Gave loans at high interest rates
• Required them to purchase goods at their
store at exorbitant prices
– If sharecropper tried to leave w/o paying
debts, land owner used state to force farmer
to stay and continue farming
Georgia farm—1941
Distribution of goods & services


Reciprocate:
Generalized reciprocity:
– Nature operates on generalized
reciprocity—berry bushes & birds give
and take from one another
– Gift-giving tends to equalize by end
– Parent-child relationship: parents feed
children b/c they want to, not b/c they
HAVE to or expect anything in return
• X-mas example
• Child may eventually feed parent near
end of parent’s life
!Kung of the Kalahari

“Far-hearted”:
– Openly show disapproval, anger, or hostility to those that don’t give gifts
– To reduce tensions, one MUST give gifts to maintain “friendships”

Examples of reciprocity:
– Hunter shoots antelope; by custom he gives meat to fellow hunters, wives’
parents, parents, siblings
• Every time an antelope is shot, this occurs—guarantees that all band
members will have meat at various occasions

Not altruistic—learned idea that all !Kung must rely on one another

Balanced reciprocity:

Semang’s “Silent Trade”:
– Live in Thailand on Malay Peninsula
– Hunter-gatherers
– Actively trade killed game with horticulturalist
tribes
– Believe it is wrong to have contact with
foreigners so they do not meet with
horticulturalists—MUST ADAPT OR DIE
• Leave their goods/meat at agreed location
• Come back at later time to pick up their
fruits/vegetables in return
• What may happen if the Semang are taken
advantage of in a trade with farmers?
Kula Ring






Ceremonial trade circle between islanders of the Trobriand Islands near
Papua New Guinea
Each island specializes in different goods
White shell armbands and red shell necklaces are traded first amongst
the islanders—possessing an ornament allows you to organize an
expedition to trading partner’s island
High point of expedition is the trading of the kula ornaments between
partners
Expedition remains on island for 2-3 more days, more gift-giving of food
and goods occurs—bartering often occurs
At end of expedition, both sides have accomplished a years’ worth of
trading while not appearing to do anything
Kula Ring (continued)

Kula Ring trades require mutual trust
–
–
–
–
Reduces hostilities between islands
Expedition takes on a feeling of adventure—brings a sense of enjoyment to life
Maintains the spread of island myths, rituals, and history
Allows each trading partner to possess valuable shell (kula) ornaments at various
times of their life
United States “Kula Ring”

1970s meetings between Richard
Nixon and Communist China’s
Mao Zedong
– China gave US Pandas and we
gave them oxen—practically
useless animals to trade
• Meant to be ceremonial
trades to “break the ice”
• Real trading of goods
occurred after the
ceremonies were over

Negative reciprocity:
– Can even resort to dishonesty and theft
– !Kung man told anthropologist of a time when he was forced by
another tribe member to give him his shirt and pants in return for a
small pan and cup
– Goal of reciprocity is often to maintain peace between peoples—
negative reciprocity is often performed against strangers or
enemies
Another Balanced Reciprocation

Melanesian Potlatches—performed by Melanesian tribes on Papua
New Guinea
– Enormous pig feasts (as many as 2000 pigs slaughtered) given in honor of
other tribes, chiefs, and “big men”
• Dancing & speeches also present
– “Big Man”: male with “prestige”; has no real political authority—can only
persuade people to work hard to get a pig feast in order
– Moka:
– Seen by our culture as highly wasteful
• Some Northwestern Canadian and American Indian tribes use
potlatches
– Both countries banned them in the late 1800s largely b/c of pressure from
Catholic Church
– Catholic Church--“worse than useless custom” & “demonic”
• Maintains food supply over a period of years
• Surplus vegetables and roots are fed to pigs—seen as a store of food
value for later use
• Helps to build up “social credit”
• “Big Man” competition between tribal chiefs
– Will also give away blankets, canoes, fur, etc. to guest tribes
– Helps Big Man to gain prestige and respect from other tribes
Ongka’s Big Moka

Main players:
– Ongka: local big man
– Peroa: Another big man from a neighboring tribe who will be guests at Ongka's big
moka
– Rumbicole: Ongka's favorite wife
– Riemer: Ongka's rival, an aspiring big man in the Kawelka tribe
Questions:
1. What skills/attributes must you have to be a successful big man?
2. Why does Ongka desire so strongly to hold this big moka?
3. How do Kawelkans feel about their pigs?
4. What determines when a moka will occur?
5. How is a "big man" able to get together the massive amount of wealth necessary for a
successful moka?
6. Why can't Ongka's supporters just deliver their pigs when they are ready, instead of holding
the series of small mokas?
7. How does Ongka rally his reluctant supporters?
8. What forces/difficulties threaten to derail Ongka's plans?
9. How does Ongka attempt to defuse this explosive situation?
10. Why was the big moka delayed?