MAKING A LIVING
Subsistence and Economy
CULTURAL ADAPTATION
A COMPLEX OF IDEAS, ACTIVITIES, AND
TECHNOLOGIES THAT ENABLE PEOPLE TO
SURVIVE AND EVEN THRIVE
 Adaptation
occurs when humans
change the natural environment,
and when the natural
environment changes human
biology

Ex: Moken people of Southeast Asia
(off coast of Myanmar).
Hunter/Gatherers of the Sea. Can
see twice as clearly underwater as
normal, dive up to 75 feet, and hold
their breath for extended periods of
time
THE ADAPTIVE RELATIONSHIP
ORGANISMS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTS
 Environments
present certain
possibilities and limitations that
Organisms (including humans) must
adapt to. This relationship is
referred to as an…

Ecosystem: A system, or a functioning
whole, composed of both the natural
environment and all the organisms living
within it.
THE ADAPTIVE RELATIONSHIP
ORGANISMS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTS
 Cultural
over time

Evolution: Culture change
Populations evolve when individual
organisms within the population are born
with certain genetic mutations that are
better adapted to their environment, and
which enable them to thrive and
reproduce.
THE ADAPTIVE RELATIONSHIP
ORGANISMS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTS
 Cultures
evolve when faced
with environmental or other
stressors.

Example issue: San bushmen
culture must adapt to a changing
world
THE ADAPTIVE RELATIONSHIP
ORGANISMS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTS
 Cultures
evolve when faced with
environmental or other stressors.

Convergent evolution: In cultural
evolution, the development of similar
cultural adaptations to similar
environmental conditions by different
peoples with different ancestral
cultures

Ex: Horses introduced to disparate Native
American cultures (I.e. nomads like the
Comanche, and horticulturalists like the
Cheyenne), change both groups to warriortype cultures based on horse-raiding.
THE ADAPTIVE RELATIONSHIP
ORGANISMS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTS
 Cultures
evolve when faced with
environmental or other stressors.

Parallel evolution: In cultural
evolution, the development of similar
cultural adaptations to similar
environmental conditions by people
whose ancestral cultures were
already somewhat alike.

Ex: Development of large-scale
agriculture and food distribution
networks in the early state cultures of
Mesoamerica and Egypt due to shrinking
resources and an abundance of people in
the area needing those resources.
MODES OF SUBSISTENCE
 Food

Hunting, fishing, and gathering of wild
plant foods
 Food

Foraging Societies
Producing Societies
Domestication of plants (cultivation) and
animals (breeding/raising)
 Industrial

Societies
Machines and tools instead of human
labor. Technological inventions utilizing
steam, water, air, oil, electricity, and
nuclear energy.
FOOD FORAGING SOCIETIES
Hunting, Fishing and Gathering of wild
plant food
 i.e. “Hunter/Gatherers”

FOOD FORAGING SOCIETIES
CHARACTERIZED BY…
 Mobility
 Small


Group Size
Carrying capacity: The number of
people that the available resources can
support at a given level of food-getting
techniques
Density of Social relations: The
number and intensity of interactions
among the members of a camp.
FOOD FORAGING SOCIETIES
CHARACTERIZED BY…
 Flexible
Division of Labor by
Gender: Meaning that men and
women can take on each others’ tasks
without any social stigmas (i.e. no
one will make fun of them).
FOOD FORAGING SOCIETIES
CHARACTERIZED BY…
 Food
Sharing Egalitarian
Social Relations
Food is shared, not hoarded. Wealth
(lots of food) is considered socially
inappropriate.
 Whoever finds food first, has first dibs.
Afterward, everyone takes a share.
 Since food foragers have no “rank”
or hierarchies, there is no giving the
“worst parts” of the food to people who
would be considered “lower-ranking”
like the Fore culture (cannibalism
example) discussed in chapter 1.

FOOD FORAGING SOCIETIES
~10,000 years ago in the fertile crescent
(ancient Mesopotamia), we have
something called the “Neolithic
Transition”. This “New Stone Age” was
characterized by a sudden boom in the
adoption of agricultural instruments
such as the plow, yoke and hoe, and the
large-scale domestication of wild plants
such as wheat, maize, rice, beans,
potatoes, and squash, and animals like
goats, sheep, pigs, and cattle.
Leading some cultures to evolve
into…
FOOD PRODUCING SOCIETIES!!!
 Domestication
of plants
(cultivation) and animals
(breeding/raising)
 Horticulture
 Agriculture
 Mixed Farming
 Pastoralism
 Intensive Agriculture
FOOD-PRODUCING SOCIETIES
CHARACTERIZED BY…
 Horticulture

Cultivation of crops carried out with
simple hand tools such as digging
sticks or hoes
Ex: Rice farming in Tanzania
 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.

FOOD-PRODUCING SOCIETIES
CHARACTERIZED BY…
 Agriculture

The cultivation of food plants in soil
prepared and maintained for crop
production. Involves using
technologies other than hand tools,
such as irrigation, fertilizers, and
the wooden or metal plow pulled by
harnessed draft animals.
FOOD-PRODUCING SOCIETIES
CHARACTERIZED BY…
Mixed
 Crop
Farming
growing and animal
breeding
FOOD-PRODUCING SOCIETIES
CHARACTERIZED BY…
Pastoralism
 Breeding
and managing large
herds of domesticated grazing
animals, such as goats, sheep,
cattle, horses, llamas, or
camels.
Ex: Fulani group in Mali (sahara desert)
(cattle herders)
 Ex: The Sami (reindeer herders):
 *Both of these are examples of Nomadic
pastoralists

FOOD-PRODUCING SOCIETIES
CHARACTERIZED BY…
 Intensive
Agriculture (NonIndustrial cities)

In support of towns/cities. Allowed
cultures to specialize: Jobs such as
blacksmith, musician, scribe, are
created. Not everyone has to
produce food. Food production is
instead regulated to…
FOOD-PRODUCING SOCIETIES
CHARACTERIZED BY…

Peasants: Rural cultivators whose
surpluses are transferred to a
dominant group of rulers that uses
the surpluses both to underwrite its
own standard of living and to
distribute the remainder to groups in
society that do not farm but must be
fed for their specific goods and
servies in turn.
ECONOMIC SYSTEMS AND ECONOMIC
ANTHROPOLOGY
 Like
the study of language,
politics, gender or any other
category pertaining to humans,
the study of human economic
systems (I.e. organized
arrangements for producing,
distributing and consuming
goods), must be considered via
the holistic perspective
ECONOMIC SYSTEMS AND ECONOMIC
ANTHROPOLOGY

Ethnographic Example

Ex: Trobriand Islanders
views of yams
 Studied by Bronislaw
Malinowski


“Like people the world
over, the Trobriand
Islanders assign
meanings to objects that
make those objects worth
far more than either cost
in labor or materials.”
Yams = status. The more
yams a man has, the more
$$ and power.
PRODUCTION AND ITS RESOURCES
Labor
Resources and Patterns
 Division
of Labor by Gender
Flexible/integrated pattern:
Seen most often among food
foragers. Men and women perform
equal amount of activities. “Men’s
work and “Women’s work” may be
undertaken by either task without
any social stigmas.

PRODUCTION AND ITS RESOURCES
Labor
Resources and Patterns
 Division
of Labor by Gender
Dual sex configuration: Seen
often in many Native American
groups (also in ancient Egypt!).
Men and women have their own
tasks that are deemed
complimentary. Men’s work is not
better than women’s and vice
versa.

PRODUCTION AND ITS RESOURCES
Labor
Resources and Patterns
 Division
of Labor by Gender
Segregated pattern: Seen most
often in pastoral
nomadic,intensive agricultural,
and industrial societies. All work
as either masculine or feminine.
Men and women rarely engage in
joint efforts, and doing work of the
opposite gender would be
inconceivable.

PRODUCTION AND ITS RESOURCES
 Labor

Division of Labor by Age


Resources and Patterns
Both the young and the old play
significant roles across the economic
spectrum, with the young helping out
with food production and the elderly as
repositories of economic knowledge.
Craft Specialization

Typically characteristic of industrial and
post-industrial societies that can support
individuals who do not grow/produce
their own food.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXCHANGE
 Reciprocity:
The exchange of
goods and services, of
approximately equal value, between
two parties.

Generalized Reciprocity: A mode of
exchange in which the value of what is
given is not calculated, nor is the time
of repayment specified. Usually
amongst family and friends.

Ex: Stopping to help up someone who
trips, needs to use your phone for an
emergency, asks for a french fry, etc.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXCHANGE
 Reciprocity:
The exchange of
goods and services, of
approximately equal value,
between two parties.

Balanced Reciprocity: A mode of
exchange in which the giving and
receiving are specific as to the value
of the goods and the time of their
delivery.

Ex: Gifts at a B-day party/wedding/baby
shower, buying drinks/being the DD for
inebriated friends if it is your “turn” to
do so.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXCHANGE
 Reciprocity:
The exchange of
goods and services, of
approximately equal value,
between two parties.

Negative Reciprocity: A form of
exchange in which the aim is to get
something for as little as possible.
Neither fair not balanced it may
involve hard bargaining, and
outright cheating.

Ex: Keeping a significant other’s things
after a break-up, with the knowledge
that the person may want their
belongings returned.
Distribution and Exchange
 Redistribution:
A form of
exchange in which goods flow into
a central place, where they are
sorted, counted and reallocated.

Ex: Ancient Egyptian temple
donations
Distribution and Exchange
 Redistribution

Spending Wealth to Gain Prestige
Conspicuous Consumption: (What we
do in most Euroamerican culture). A
showy display of wealth for social prestige.
 Potlatch: Comes from “patshatl meaning
“gift” from Chinook Native American
language. A ceremonial event in which a
village chief publicly gives away stockpiled
food and other goods that signify wealth.
 Prestige Ceremony: Creation of a
surplus for the express purpose of gaining
prestige through a public display of weath
that is given away as gifts.

Distribution and Exchange
 Redistribution

Leveling Mechanisms: Opposite of
the the above. A cultural obligation
compelling prosperous members of a
community to give away goods, host
public feasts, provide free service, or
otherwise demonstrate generosity so
that no one permanently
accumulates significantly more
wealth than anyone else.
Distribution and Exchange
 Market
Exchange: Euroamerican
system. The buying and selling of
goods and services with prices set by
rules of supply and demand.
 Informal Economy: A network of
producing and circulating
marketable commodities, labor, and
services that for various reasons
escape government control.

Ex: Babysitting, house cleaning,
begging, prostitution, drug dealing,
gambling…etc.