PATTERNS OF SUBSISTENCE
Chapter 7
Cultural Adaptation
A complex of ideas, activities, and technologies that enable people to survive and even thrive
It is important to note that present-day people who subsist
by hunting, fishing, and wild plant collection are not
following an ancient way of life because they do not
know any better
 Different human groups have managed to adapt to a
very diverse range of natural environments --from
Arctic snowfields to Polynesian coral islands, from the
Sahara Desert to the Amazon rainforest.
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:
Tuareg farmers in Mali. Proud traditions as
nomads, but environmental conditions forced them to
take up farming:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/places/countriesplaces/mali/mali_tuaregfarmer.html
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:
Formation of the ancient Egyptian state
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:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player
/places/regions-places/asiasouthern/myanmar_moken.html
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 Evolution: Culture change over time

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

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/places/countriesplaces/south-africa/southafrica_sanpeople.html
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 warrior-type 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 Foraging Societies


Food Producing Societies


Hunting, fishing, and gathering of wild plant foods
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
Characterized by…


Mobility
Small Group Size
Carrying capacity: The number of people that the
available resources can support at a given level of foodgetting 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!!!
Characterized by…

Horticulture
 Cultivation
of crops carried out with simple
hand tools such as digging sticks or hoes


Ex: Rice farming in Tanzania:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/places/countriesplaces/tanzania/tanzania_ricefarmer.html
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 Farming
 Crop
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):
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/places/countriesplaces/mali/mali_fulani.html
Ex: The Sami (reindeer herders):
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/places/cultureplaces/local-life/sweden_sami.html
*Both of these are examples of Nomadic pastoralists
Food-Producing Societies
Characterized by…

Intensive Agriculture (Non-Industrial 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…
 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
Chapter 8
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

Ex: Trobriand Islanders views of yams


“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
Customs and rules govern the kinds of work done, who does the work, attitudes toward the work, how it is accomplished,
and who produces the resources necessary to produce the desired goods, knowledge and services.

Control of Land and Water Resources
Food foraging societies: Who will hunt game and gather plants
in their home range?
 Food-producing societies: Who will carry out which tasks on
which stretch of water or land?



Farmers: Who will have title to the land and access to water supplies for
irrigation?
Pastoralists: Who gets rights to watering places and grazing land, as well as
the right of access to land where herds are moved?
Production and its Resources
Customs and rules govern the kinds of work done, who does the work, attitudes toward the work, how it is accomplished,
and who produces the resources necessary to produce the desired goods, knowledge and services.

Technology Resources




Technology: Tools and other material equipment, together with the knowledge
of how to make and use them.
Food foragers: a variety tools are created but also shared if requested.
Egalitarianism is stressed in these societies.
Horticulturalists: Axe, digging stick and hoe are primary tools and are also
generally shared if requested. Similar values to food foragers.
Permanently settled agricultural communities: Tools and equipment more
complex, expensive and harder to obtain/maintain so automatic sharing is
not expected. The owner of the equipment has more social control over the
technology.
Production and its Resources
Customs and rules govern the kinds of work done, who does the work, attitudes toward the work, how it is
accomplished, and who produces the resources necessary to produce the desired goods, knowledge and services.

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.
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.
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
Customs and rules govern the kinds of work done, who does the work, attitudes toward the work, how it is
accomplished, and who produces the resources necessary to produce the desired goods, knowledge and services.

Labor Resources and Patterns
 Division
of Labor by Age
 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
Even in societies without a formal medium of exchange, such as money, some distribution of
goods will still take place.

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
Even in societies without a formal medium of exchange, such as money, some distribution of
goods will still take place.

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
Even in societies without a formal medium of exchange, such as money, some distribution of
goods will still take place.

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 breakup, with the knowledge that the person may want their
belongings returned.
Distribution and Exchange
Even in societies without a formal medium of exchange, such as money, some distribution of
goods will still take place.

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
 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
Even in societies without a formal medium of exchange, such as money, some distribution of
goods will still take place.

Redistribution: A form of exchange in which goods
flow into a central place, where they are sorted,
counted and reallocated.

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
Even in societies without a formal medium of exchange, such as money, some distribution of
goods will still take place.

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.