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Chapter 7 Making a Living Culture Counts A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Serena Nanda Richard L. Warms © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Chapter 5 Making A Living © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Chapter Outline • Where Have All the Icebergs Gone? • Human Adaptation and the Environment • Major Types of Subsistence Strategies • Bringing It Back Home: Globalization and Food Choice © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Where have all the icebergs gone? • Gwich’in People: • Approximately 8000 population; live in small villages spread across the arctic and subarctic tundra and forest • Subsistence • Main source is caribou • Also hunt small animals for their pelts, which they sell for cash • For thousands of years, Gwich’in, Inuit, and peoples of the Arctic hunted large land and sea animals (caribou, polar bear, seal, walrus, and whales) • Cultural and Social organization • Adapted to their environment and foraging strategy • Values emphasize cooperation and mutual aid • Religious rituals provide effective outlets for the isolation and tension of the long, dark, winters • Flexible kinship organization © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Where have all the icebergs gone? Ningiqtuq (sharing) – Inuit of Baffin Island • Set of economic practices • Orders the flow of goods and food across individuals, families, and entire communities • No one need go without food or shelter • Subsistence isn’t only about food; it is also about practices that provide individuals security Global Warming • Decreased number of caribou / decreased health of the caribou • Early river thawing causes many calves to drown crossing the rushing rivers • Glacial and snow pockets are disappearing, so caribou must move further north, out of their usual territory; this makes it harder for hunters to find them, and hunting has to begin later in the season than normal • Sea ice that is used as a highway is for dog sleds and snowmobiles is melting • Walruses have tried to climb on white boats, mistaking them for ice floats • Pelts of fox, marten, and other game are thinning, and even seasoned hunters are failing into water that used to be ice © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Where have all the icebergs gone? 20th Century (and global warning) • Brought significant changes to Arctic subsistence strategies • Combination of cash income and foraging • Other sources of income • Handicrafts/artwork • Tourism • Work for oil corporations • Government subsidies/for some, payments from Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Use modern technology in many ways • Snowmobiles, gasoline, fishing nets, sleeping bags • Many households have modern conveniences that they must have income for © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Where have all the icebergs gone? • Problems are being caused from drilling for oil in the Arctic • Many actively fighting the exploitation and destruction of their environment • “The next generation is not going to experience what we did. We can’t pass the traditions on as our ancestors passed on to us.” • Arctic peoples have shown great flexibility and adaptability • Many important changes may come not only from environment but from increased presence of government and global corporations – has destructive cultural impact © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Where have all the icebergs gone? Subsistence Strategies • The ways societies transform the material resources of the environment into food, clothing, and shelter • They develop in response to: • Seasonal variation in the environment • Environmental variations such as drought, flood, or animal diseases © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Human Adaptation to the Environment Subsistence strategies (ways of transforming material resources of the environment into food): • Allow societies to use the physical environment to provide for basic material requirements of life (food, clothing, shelter) • Productivity of any environment is related to the type of technology used to exploit it • Technology enables humans to transform a wide range of materials into sources of usable energy, allowing humans to adapt to many environments; cultural adaptations have resulted in increased populations that have altered the environment (often in unintentional ways) © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Human adaptations to the environment FORAGING • Fishing, hunting, and collecting vegetable food • Until about 10,000 years ago, humans lived exclusively by foraging. • As tools improved, foragers spread out and developed diverse cultures, arriving to all continents worldwide except Antarctica by 16,000 to 12,500 years ago. • Sets significant limits on population growth and density (the number of people inhabiting an area of land) © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Human adaptation to the environment • Human groups began to domesticate plants and animals about 10,000 years ago in the Old World, and 1,000 years later in the New World. • Agricultural Revolution • The domestication of plants and animals supported increased populations and sedentary village life became widespread. • Settled and living in one place. • This is also usually accompanied by a rise in population. • Led to establishment of more complex forms of social organization. • Some groups, however, never made the transition from foraging to agriculture (for a variety of reasons; largely due to environment) © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Human Adaptation and the Environment • The Industrial Revolution involved the replacement of human and animal energy by machines. • In a typical nonindustrial society, more than 80 percent of the population is involved in food production; in a highly industrialized society, 10 percent of the people produce food for the other 90 percent. • Has accelerated the environmental degredation and global warming • Societies beginning to appreciate and respect modern- day foragers © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Major Subsistence Strategies • Foraging: Fishing, hunting, and collecting vegetable food • Pastoralism: Food-getting strategy that depends on the care of domesticated herd animals • Horticulture: Production of plants using simple, non-mechanized production • Agriculture: Form of food production in which fields are in continual cultivation using plows, animals, and techniques of soil and water control • Industrialism: The use of machine technology and chemical processes for the production of foods and other goods © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Major Types of Subsistence Strategies Each subsistence strategy: • Supports Population density: The number of people inhabiting an area of land • Has different levels of Productivity: The yield per person per unit of land • Has different levels of Efficiency: The yield per person per hour of labor invested • These criteria lead to characteristic forms of social organization and cultural patterns. • Groups can extend resource base by exchange and trade © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Foraging • Relies on food naturally available in the environment (hunting, fishing, and gathering) • Does not involve any direct or indirect food production. • Strategy for 99 percent of the time humans have been on earth • Limits population growth, population density, and complexity of social organization (communities of 20-50 individuals) • Requires independence and mobility (seasonal movement to get resources) • Very small proportion of today’s populations are foragers © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. The Pintupi, A Foraging Society in Australia • Pintupi, of the Gibson Desert of Australia • More typical of foraging than the Inuit • Key to adaptation was use of wide variety of seasonally available plants and animals and their detailed knowledge of the environment • Foraging is reliable but difficult in certain seasons • Diet also includes tubers, fruits, nectars, sap, and edible insects as well as birds, bird eggs, and small mammals • Main constraint is scarcity of water during driest and hottest months © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. The Pintupi • Climatic changes are extreme • “Hungry Time” is harshest time of year • November, when temperatures continue to rise, sometimes up to 120 degrees • Water and food become less available • If rain has not come by December, foraging stops entirely; people conserve food and water • Heat, stress, and shortage of water prevent entire group from moving to areas where resources may be more available; women, children, and elderly stay at camps while men search for food • Under conditions of starvation, weak individuals may be fed blood from healthier people to get them through the worst weeks © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Pastoralism • Involves the care and use of domesticated herd animals and their products. • Is a specialized adaptation to an environment that cannot be used by agriculturalists. • Hilly, dry climate, unsuitable soil; semiarid natural grasslands • Cannot support large human population through agriculture but can support enough native vegetation for animals if they are allowed to range over a large area • Does not require direct competition with other groups for the same resources bc animals are not fed grain that could be used to feed humans • Cattle, sheep, goats, yaks, or camels – all produce meat and milk © 2015. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Pastoralism Transhumant Pastoralism • Found mostly in East Africa • Men and boys move the animals throughout
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