Kimberly Martin, Ph.D.
ANTH 250: Issues in Anthropology
A subsistence technique is a strategy for making a
living that is characterized by population size,
tools used, settlement pattern, and ways of
obtaining food.
There are four general subsistence techniques
named after the four food acquisition strategies.
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Hunting and Gathering/Foraging
Pastoralism
Horticulture
Agriculture
Hunting and gathering (sometimes called foraging)
means using naturally occurring plant and
animal resources without caring for or replacing
them.
These groups are usually characterized by:
 Live in foraging groups average 30 individuals
(all kin to one another)
 Usually mobile - Nomadic or semi-nomadic
 Hand tools and carrying containers only
 Includes gathering plant and insect resources,
hunting animals and/or fishing
 No surplus – surplus left in nature to grow and
increase natural food supplies
Pastoralism means making your living primarily from raising
herd animals. Pastoralists live their lives according to the
needs of their animals, and trade their animal products
(milk, meat, hides) for other things they need.
These societies are usually characterized by:
 Camps with numbers in the 100’s
 Usually mobile - Nomadic or semi-nomadic
 Pack animals carry their possessions as they move their
animals to better pasture.
 Breed herd animals for milk, meat, butter, yoghurt, hides
and blood.
 No surplus – surplus is kept alive and breeding in the
form of the herd.
Horticulture means raising plant crops as a main food source
using hand tools like digging sticks, machetes, axes and
hoes. The most common form is “slash and burn” or
“swidden” horticulture, where brush is cut, fields are
burned off and seeds or cuttings are planted by hand.
These societies are usually characterized by:
 Live in villages with 100’s to 1000’s of individuals, size
depending on whether they produce a surplus.
 Usually sedentary - Dispersed homesteads, or villages
 Hand tools only
 Domesticated plants are raised, with the specific plants
depending on the area of the world – sweet potato, yam,
taro, bananas, corn, etc.
 Sometimes surplus, but if so, everyone produces the same
things in surplus (e.g. all surplus is corn)
Agriculture means raising plants using anything more
sophistocated than hand tools. This includes plows, draft
animals, irrigation, chemical fertilizers, mechanization and
industrialization.
These societies are usually characterized by:
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Live in towns/cities of 10,000 individuals and up
Usually sedentary – towns and cities
Plows, draft animals, irrigation, mechanization,
industrialization
Domesticated plants are raised in huge quantities by a
small segment of the society.
Large surplus – used to allow economic specialists to do
things other than produce food.
Anthropologists divide societies into five
different levels of sociocultural integration
based on political characteristics.
These are:
Bands
Tribes
Chiefdoms
States
Empires
A Band usually has the following characteristics:
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Social organization based on personal kinship
relationships
Small group (30 individuals)
Consensus or situational leadership authority
Persuasive power is delegated
Frequently mobile (nomadic or semi-nomadic)
Hunting and Gathering/Foraging Subsistence
Use reciprocity as primary distribution system
No surplus is produced
Tribes usually have the following characteristics:
 Social organization based on lineage kinship
relationships, with lineages not ranked with
regard to one another.
 Villages/camps of 50-100’s
 Mediation/Negotiation Leadership
(Persuasive
power through a Headman)
 Leadership by Personal Qualifications
 May be mobile or sedentary
 Pastoralist, Horticulturalist or Hunting and
Gathering/Foraging Subsistence
 Use reciprocity as primary distribution system
 No surplus is produced
A Chiefdom usually has the following characteristics:
 Social organization based on membership in ranked
lineages.
 Villages/towns in the 100’s-1000’s
 Mediation/Negotiation or Decide and Enforce
(Persuasive (leader called Big Man) or coercive power
(leader called Chief)
 Leadership selected from members of a high ranking
lineage
 May be mobile or sedentary
 Pastoralist or Horticulturalist Subsistence
 Use redistribution as primary distribution
system
 Some surplus is produced, but all surplus is in the same
product or products)
A State usually has the following characteristics:
 Social organization based on non-kin relationships
based on special interest groups.
 Towns and cities of 10,000’s and up
 Authority to decide and enforce (coercive power)
 Leadership selected by personal qualification election,
hereditary succession or force.
 Sedentary (cities)
 Agricultural Subsistence
 Use market system as primary distribution system
 Large surplus is produced in a wide variety of
products)
 Full-time economic specialization
An Empire is a state that has
conquered and rules by force
one or more other societies.