Subsistence
Learning Objectives:
Subsistence Unit

1. Identify the subsistence patterns found in human
societies

2. Identify the cultural characteristics of a society that
might be inferred from knowing the society’s subsistence
patterns

3. Identify the changes brought about by the transition to
food production.
Adaptive Strategies

Means of making a living
 1)
Foraging
 2)
Horticulture
 3)
Agriculture
 4)
Pastoralism
Foraging
 Until
10,000 years ago this was the strategy
of all humans
 Rely
on available natural resources
 1.
 2.
 Variation
among world’s foragers
Foraging: Hunting

Typically a male
domain though
___________________

Influence of the
Environment
Foraging: Gathering

Typically a female
domain
 1.
 2.

Provides most of the
nutritional
requirements for the
group (60-70%)
Foraging:
Inuit

Alaska &
Canada

________
Foraging: San
(Bushmen)

1997-2002: 3,000 of the 10,000 known San
people were relocated
 ___________________________________

2006 court ruling -- ___________________
 Global
political action for indigenous peoples
 Conditions
 Access
were imposed
to area, water, hunting, permits
Horticulture


The _____________________________________
 Hoes
and digging sticks
 Fields
are not continually planted
Does not produce ____________________
 Supplement
diet by _______________________
Horticultural
Techniques

Slash and Burn
 1.
 2.

Polyculture:
Horticultural Groups

Low population densities
 Lack

of surplus maintains __________________
Some nomadic populations
 Continuously
exploit new soil when old plots have
lost their usefulness

Some permanent settlements
 Move
horticultural plots ___________________
Horticulturalists of Today
 Yanomamo
 Kayapo
 Hopi
of Brazil,
of Brazil,
of the Southwestern U.S.,
 Peoples
Egypt,
of the Nile River Valley in
 Common
in Indonesia and the
Philippines.
 Populations
in Madagascar
Agriculture

Cultivation using land and labor
continuously and intensively

Focus of our discussion:
 1.
2
 3.
Agriculture: Domesticated
Animals

Means of production
 1.
 2.
 3.
 4.
Agriculture:
Irrigation

Benefits
 Cultivate
around
a plot year
 Enrichment
of soil
 Considered
a capital
investment
 Example:
Fields
Ifugao Rice
Agriculture:
Irrigation &
Terracing
Cultivation Continuum
__________________________________________________
Horticulture:
______________________
Agriculture:
____________
Key Difference between H & A:
_________________vs. _________________
Pastoralism

Subsistence strategy
relying on
domesticated
animals

Adaptation to one’s
environment
 Areas
 Only
where _________
in ____________
Pastoralism

Degree of sedentism depends on animals
 Camels,
 Pigs:

cows, goats: ______________
_______________________
Types of Mobility
 ________________:
Annual movement of the
entire pastoral group with herds
 _________________:
Part of the group moves
with seasonally with herd