Patterns of Subsistence

1. Patterns of Subsistence Part I

2. Cultural Adaptation • A people’s cultural adaptation consists of a complex of ideas, activities, and technologies that enable them to survive and even thrive and that, in turn, impact their environment. • Cultural adaptation occurs both as a process and as the resulting cultural changes.

3. Dani of Western New Guinea • The pig features very strongly in their local culture, being the most important tool used in bartering, especially in dowries. • Because pigs are scavengers, they can use the food wastes of humans, while dirty and smelly; pig feces are also an excellent fertilizer.

4. The Unit of Adaptation • Ecosystem: a system, or a functioning whole, composed of both the natural environment and all the organisms living within it.

5. Adaptation in Cultural Evolution • Cultural evolution describes how cultures and societies have developed over time. • Throughout most of the 19th century and some of the 20th century, theoretical approaches argued that different societies are at different stages of social development. • Most 20th-century approaches focus on changes specific to individual societies and reject the idea of directional change, or social progress.

6. Adaptation in Cultural Evolution (cont) • Convergent evolution is the development of similar cultural adaptations to similar environmental condition by different people with different ancestral cultures. • Agriculture: • Developed at least 10,000 years ago • Independent development of agriculture occurred in northern and southern China, Africa, New Guinea and several regions of the Americas

7. Adaptation in Cultural Evolution (cont) • Parallel evolution is the development of similar cultural adaptations to similar environmental conditions by peoples whose ancestral cultures were already somewhat alike.

8. Adaptation in Cultural Evolution (cont) • Culture area is a geographic region in which a number of societies follow similar patterns of life. • Examples: • Vikings, Plains Indians, Nuer and Australian Aborigines Cultural areas of North American people at the time of European contact.

9. Adaptation in Cultural Evolution (cont) • Culture core: cultural features that are fundamental in the society’s way of making its living, including food-producing techniques, knowledge of available resources, and the work arrangements involved in applying those techniques to the local environment. • Food taboos: • Beef among some Hindu groups • Pork among some Muslim and Jewish groups • Insects among some Western groups