Subsistence Patterns Overview

Overview

Chapter 10 examines subsistence patterns and economics from a cultural anthropology perspective, exploring how food-getting strategies shape other societal aspects like religion and family structure. This chapter contrasts food foragers (hunter-gatherers) with food producers (horticulturalists, pastoralists, agriculturalists).

Main Subsistence Patterns

Foraging Societies

• All humans practiced foraging for approximately 99% of cultural history.
• Foragers live in small face-to-face groups with strong reciprocal relationships.
• Gender division: men typically hunt/fish; women gather plants (though roles flexible).
• Women's gathering often provides majority of calories despite cultural focus on hunting.
• Nomadic lifestyle prevents accumulation of goods; no permanent housing or storage.
• Egalitarian structure with no formal status differences among adults.
• Cooperation essential due to limited food preservation technology (smoking, drying).
• Modern human psychology and physical adaptations evolved for foraging lifestyle.
• Bodies adapted for high activity levels (walking several miles daily).
• Sedentary modern lifestyle causes health problems (obesity, high blood pressure).

Economic Exchange Systems

• Reciprocity: sharing goods without immediate expectation of return; common among foragers.
• Redistribution: collection and reallocation of goods (e.g., taxes, chiefdom distribution).
• Market exchange: prices set by supply and demand.

Types of Reciprocity

• Generalized reciprocity: ongoing relationships without specified value or timeframe (e.g., parent-child relationships).
• Balanced reciprocity: equal value gifts exchanged within specified period (e.g., birthday gifts of similar value).
• Negative reciprocity: one party attempts exploitation during exchange (viewed as bad practice).
• Example: supermarkets paying farmers less than production costs for agricultural products.

Horticulture

• Emerges when foraging population exceeds land carrying capacity.
• Small-scale farming using slash-and-burn (swidden cultivation) techniques.
• Sedentary lifestyle required for planting, weeding, watering crops.
• Villages relocate when soil exhausted (no access to fertilizers).
• Leveling mechanisms prevent social class formation (e.g., chiefs giving away possessions).
• Balanced reciprocity through specific trading partners (e.g., Kula Ring exchange system).
• Trobryan Islanders traded shell armbands and necklaces in circular patterns.
• Typically rely on one or two domesticated plants and animals.
• Example: Dani people of West Papua depend on sweet potatoes and pigs.

Pastoralism

• Way of life centered on herding, breeding, caring for pasture animals (animal husbandry).
• Adopted in areas unsuitable for crop cultivation (e.g., deserts).
• Animals consume resources humans cannot (e.g., grass); provide milk, cheese, yogurt, blood, leather.
• Semi-nomadic pattern with home base; animals moved between fields.
• Transhumance encourages biodiversity as different plants replace consumed vegetation.
• Gender division: often men care for livestock, women handle domestic tasks (varies cross-culturally).
• Maasai example: cattle owned by men but cared for by women.
• Economics: reciprocity within community (low social distance); market economy for outsiders (high social distance).
• Example: Tuareg people of North Africa herd camels, goats, cattle.

Agriculture

• Year-round cultivation producing surplus beyond community consumption.
• Not everyone involved in food production; specialization emerges (blacksmiths, religious leaders, nobles).
• Large settled populations with both domesticated plants and animals.
• Cities develop with class divisions (nobles own land, peasants work it).
• Market economy central; farmers sell produce rather than consuming it.
• Distinction: subsistence farming (grow for family needs) vs. capitalist farming (specialize, sell on market).
• Capitalist farmers vulnerable to market price fluctuations (e.g., Iowa corn farmers).
• Northern Ireland example: family farms passed generationally as lifestyle, not just livelihood.
• Beef and sheep production in mountainous terrain unsuitable for crops.
• European Union subsidies supported farmers facing negative reciprocity from supermarkets.

Industrialism

• Specific agriculture type focused on low-cost food production using mechanized technology.
• Monoculture practices: single crop type exhausts soil faster than mixed farming.
• Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) designed for pest/drought resistance, reduced fertilizer needs.
• GMOs controversial; genes inserted from different organisms with unknown long-term safety.
• Heavy environmental and health costs despite technological advances.
• Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) keep large animal numbers in small spaces.
• Requires antibiotics to prevent disease spread in confined conditions.
• Ethical concerns: animals cannot engage in species-normal behavior.
• Health concerns: human overexposure to antibiotics through food consumption reduces effectiveness.
• Hierarchical social organization: landowners on top, "unskilled" workers at bottom.
• Migrant laborers often undocumented; labeled unskilled despite requiring significant skill.
• Example: strawberry harvesting requires sustained crouching, speed, fruit discrimination skills.
• "Unskilled" label potentially justifies lower pay and documentation denial.
• Industrial farming produces cheap food but creates ethical and environmental problems.

Money and Economic Systems

• Money: medium for buying/selling goods and labor (forms include teeth, shells, beads, metals).
• Special-purpose money: measures marketplace value only (e.g., modern paper/coin currency backed by government gold reserves).
• Multi-purpose money: items with intrinsic value/usefulness (e.g., cacao for chocolate production).

Nutrition Transition

• Variety of diets can maintain human health across subsistence patterns.
• Major nutrition transition occurs shifting from traditional to industrial foods.
• Industrial farming reduces food quality to achieve lower costs.
• Intensive production uses antibiotics, GMOs, potentially unsafe/unethical practices.
• Focus on local whole foods can restore and maintain health.
• Fresh fruits, vegetables, minimally processed meats healthier than highly processed foods.
• Indigenous groups (e.g., caribou camp people in Canada) maintain culturally meaningful foraging practices.