Economy and Adaptation

1. Economy and Adaptation • Human diversity understood in terms of environment & technology • Emphasis on: • Constraints: land, technology, population • Systematic, integrative relationships • Adaptation

2. Major Theories & Theorists • 19th century social & cultural evolutionism (L.H. Morgan, E. B. Tylor) • Multilinear evolution & cultural ecology (J. Steward, M. Sahlins) • Neo-evolutionism (L. White, M. Harris) • World systems theory (E. Wallerstein) • Political Ecology

3. Patterns of Subsistence • Food Getting – FORAGING • hunters & gatherers, gatherers & hunters, fishing • Food Production – CULTIVATION • The cultivation continuum • horticulture (ecological agriculture) • Agriculture • Pastoralism • Industrialism • Adaptive strategies & constraints • Environment, technology, population

4. Subsistence • the market as economic organizing principle is very recent in terms of human history • economy oriented toward subsistence (food getting & production) the norm for most of human history • agriculture (cultivation) also recent (10,000 yrs ago) • for 100,000 years of human history - foraging (food getting) was the economy of human life

5. Adaptation and the Anthropology of Subsistence • Long standing disciplinary concern • Basis for materialist theoretical orientations • Theories of social & cultural evolution

6. Cultural Ecology • Julian Steward - relationship between culture and the environment • cultural variation found in adaptation to environmental circumstances • Human ecology is the system & systematic relationships between humans, material life, & environment • environment not determinant -- societies react to their ecology • typology of cultures, patterns, sequences

7. Steward’s cultural ecology • constellation of features which are most closely related to subsistence activities & economic arrangements • social, political, religious patterns as are empirically determined to be closely connected with those arrangements

8. Specific or multi-linear evolution • specific evolution - adaptive processes in a particular society in a particular environment; changes in one society rather than human society in general • Multi-linear evolution - cultures have followed different lines of development (rather than general processes), particular to each environment • Strategies of adaptation - adjustments that individuals make to obtain & use resources and to solve immediate problems

9. Neo-Evolution or General Evolution • Leslie White • Levels of socio-cultural evolution • Technology • Energy inputs-outputs • Social/cultural complexity

10. Leslie White • degree of cultural development varies directly as the amount of energy per capita per year harnessed and put to work • amount of energy per capita harnessed & put to work within the culture • technological means with which this energy is expended • human need-serving product that accrues from the expenditure of energy • E (energy) V T (technology) = P (product)

11. WORLD SYSTEMS (Wallerstein) • Global economic relations between subsistence strategies, regions, nations • Capitalism and common political, social, economic, structure • Core, peripheries, & semi-peripheries • Relationships of dependency • World economy — development and predominance of market trade = capitalism

12. POLITICAL ECOLOGY • Putting cultural ecology in historical motion • Still strongly about human/environment relations • inter-relationships between groups within a world system of political, economic relations • Attention to an international division of labor • Temporal framework is history rather than evolution

13. Levels of Socio-Cultural Integration & Subsistence • From foragers to cultivators • band, tribe, chiefdom, state • Typology of ideal types

14. FORAGING • hunters & gatherers, gatherers & hunters, fishing • food getting is dependent on naturally occurring resources, plants & animals • Naturally occurring? • Little or no human modification

15. modern day foragers • few forgers remaining • San (!Kung) - Africa; Kalahari desert • Mbuti - equatorial forests of west & central Africa • Madagascar and SE Asia • Aborigines of Australia • Inuit - hunters (now using snow mobiles & rifles)

16. Features of Foraging • small communities in sparsely populated areas • few hundred people related by kinship & marriage • mobile lifestyle - no permanent settlements • no individual land rights • size of community may vary from season to season, culture to culture • Band form of social organization

17. Foraging & Social Organization • Egalitarian band societies – little social stratification • social stratification by age & gender (no classes) • division of labor - age & gender

18. Foraging and Gender

19. gender - great deal of diversity • tendency is for men to hunt & women to gather • gathering contributes more to daily diet than hunting • women & men share equal status - more or less, egalitarian society • Where hunting & fishing dominate - the status of women is lower

20. Eleanor Leacock on Foragers and Social Stratification • egalitarian societies do exist where men and women can do different jobs and remain separate but equal • Dual sex societies • Control over exchange of scarce resources is related to social stratification in foraging groups

22. The Problem of Man the Hunter • man the hunter model ignored evidence for modern foragers: women do some of the hunting • female gathered goods account for more than half & at times nearly all of what is eaten • Problem of the archaeological record

24. woman the gatherer • Re-focused model of human evolution • key importance of female gathering • "lost" female tools in arch. record - fiber carrying nets & baskets • food sharing rather than hunting key to human evolution • Food sharing & the need for social relations

25. Conceptualizing Foragers • The gender problem • The “analogy” problem • “living fossils of early humans,” in 19th century unilineal evolutionism • Rousseau and Hobbes • Noble savages or maximizing brutish life • The “affluent society” (Sahlins)

26. Forager Mode of Production • Collective ownership of means of production (land and its resources) • Right to reciprocal access • Little emphasis on accumulation (ethos opposing hoarding) • Total sharing throughout camp • Equal access to tools necessary to acquire food • Individual ownership of tools

27. Professional Primitives • H-G do not exist apart from more complex societies • ecological “symbiosis” • rural proletariat of the political economic (world system) model • “freedom fighters” of indigenous perspectives

29. The Cultivation Continuum • Horticulture or ecological agriculture • Agriculture • Pastoralism

30. Horticulture or Ecological Agriculture • Some human modification of environment • gardens & fields & technology • cultivation method that works in a variety of environments - most common in temperate and tropical forests & savannas • Cultivation that works with, and to varying extents, mimics the natural ecology

31. Horticulture/Ecological Agriculture • growing crops of all kinds with relatively simple tools and methods, in the absence of permanently cultivated fields • break up soil only using hand tools, hoes, spades, sharpened sticks • clear land for planting with simple tools, knives, axes, and fire is used to remove trees and grasses • Little if any use of fertilizers • Little if any effort towards increase supply of water to the fields

32. Horticulture or Ecological Agriculture • cultivation method that works in a variety of environments - most common in temperate and tropical forests & savannas

33. Horticultural Methods • Slash & burn • Associated with poor tropical soils • Initially big trees are cleared • Brush is cut and left to dry • Burned before arrival of rains providing a little fertilisation and clears the plot of weeds • After several years of use must lie fallow • Swidden- a garden cultivated by the slash and burn technique.

34. Kinds of Horticulture or Ecological Agriculture • Slash & burn or • shifting cultivation • Swidden • extensive agriculture • dependence on tree crops • Long term use

35. Slash and Burn