UC Irvine UC Irvine Previously Published Works Title A Cross‐Cultural Historical Analysis of Subsistence Change Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5pb182x1 Journal American Anthropologist, 92(2) ISSN 0002-7294 Authors Bradley, C Moore, CC Burton, ML et al. Publication Date 1990 DOI 10.1525/aa.1990.92.2.02a00120 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 4.0 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California A Cross-Cultural Historical Analysis of Subsistence Change Author(s): Candice Bradley, Carmella C. Moore, Michael L. Burton and Douglas R. White Source: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 92, No. 2 (Jun., 1990), pp. 447-457 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/680155 Accessed: 15-02-2017 22:12 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms American Anthropological Association, Wiley are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Anthropologist This content downloaded from 128.200.102.71 on Wed, 15 Feb 2017 22:12:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Research Reports A Cross-Cultural Historical was designed to explore the political, eco- Analysis of Subsistence nomic, social, and ecological impact of the world economic system on small-scale Change societies, as well as to describe trade net- CANDICE BRADLEY works and political and economic rela- tionships between small- and large-scale University of Nairobi and societies. Department of Anthropology University of California, Irvine Subsistence Economy in CARMELLA C. MOORE Anthropological Research MICHAEL L. BURTON DOUGLAS R. WHITE Subsistence economy has formed the Department of Anthropology cornerstone of much anthropological re- University of California, Irvine search, particularly in studies using holo- cultural methods. Anthropological theo- This paper reports on a comparative ries about the relationship between sub- study of changes in subsistence patterns sistence and other aspects of culture tend in small-scale communities resulting to have one of two emphases. They focus from contact with global economic forces. either on the adaptations of individual so- The local communities are represented cieties to their environments, or on the by 87 Standard Cross-Cultural Sample constraints that subsistence economies Societies ("Standard Sample") (Mur- place on other elements of society or cul- dock and White 1969) distributed across ture. four major world geographic areas. This Subsistence economy has been shown study describes the patterns and general to have good predictive power in studies characteristics of the societies on a new of socialization (Barry, Child, and Bacon set of coded variables representing 1959), the sexual division of labor (Bose- change processes. The variable set in- rup 1970; Bradley 1987; Burton and cludes agricultural and nonagricultural White 1984; Ember 1983; Martin and intensification, the addition of new crops Voorhies 1975; Nerlove 1974; Sanday and animals, changes in settlement pat- 1973), and features of social structure terns and expansion, catastrophic loss, (Goody 1976). Psychological anthropol- changes in trade and wage labor, and the ogists, such as Whiting and Whiting date of ethnographic observation. The (1975) for example, formulate a model for findings of the study are both method- psychological research that begins with ological and substantive. The method- the culture's "maintenance systems." ological results focus on sampling prob- Cultural materialists and traditional lems for comparative studies as well as Marxists include subsistence within in- the dates of observation set for sample so- frastructure. In the cultural-materialist cieties. The substantive findings indicate perspective, infrastructure "probabilisti- that variables are regionally clustered, cally determines" other aspects of the with two basic patterns emerging for the economy as well as behavior and mental- way subsistence systems are affected and ity (Harris 1979:55). Because of the im- changed in different world regions. portance of subsistence to materialist the- The research reported here is part of a ory, types of food-getting activities con- larger project, the University of Califor- stitute a major organizing principle nia-Irvine "World-Systems and Ethno- within anthropology texts (e.g., Martin logical Theory" project. The larger study and Voorhies 1975). 447 This content downloaded from 128.200.102.71 on Wed, 15 Feb 2017 22:12:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 448 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [92, 1990] Some comparativists have ory" project,used a studysubsis- of societies from the tence economy as a part Standardof social Sample. evolu-The Standard Sample tionary theory building, particularly consists of 186 societies for and includes creating scales with which many to predictof the best-documented cul- and widely tural complexity or cultural known cultures evolution. in the anthropological lit- Subsistence economy was erature. a popular Each Standard in- Sample society dex of cultural evolution around has a locational the turn pinpoint focusing on a of the century (e.g., Steinmetz particular 1899; society Nie-or unit within a society. boer 1910; and Hobhouse, Each Wheeler, culture also has aand focal date. These Ginsberg 1915). More recently, range from 2,000Lomax years ago to 20 years and Arensberg (1977) used ago.type of subsis- tence economy as a measure The 87of societies cultural included in the current evolution. However, comparativists study were selected gen-from the larger group erally do not consider subsistence of 186 via stratified type random to sampling and be an especially precise measure have pinpoint ofdates cul- of ethnographic ob- tural evolution (Levinson servation and rangingMalone from 1750 to 1965.' 1980:33; Naroll 1978:421). The Most geographic recent distribution of the sam- cross-cultural investigations ple includesinto cultural38 societies from Africa and evolution do not rely on subsistence Eurasia, 17 from Oceania,types 18 from North- (e.g., Carneiro 1970) or use east them Asia and only North pe-America, and 14 ripherally (Freeman 1957; from Tatje Central and South Na- America. roll 1970). In economic anthropology, subsistence Coding economy is often distinguished from mar- Coding of the subsistence variables be- ket-oriented activity. In contrast, most cross-culturalists tend to include market- gan as part of the larger project, then de- veloped into a separate study as it became oriented food production under the sub- sistence rubric. Barry, Child, and Bacon apparent that changes in subsistence sys- (1959:53) defined subsistence as "what tems due to world-system contact were widespread. A separate codebook was de- general types of food-getting are predom- inant." This broad definition includes veloped by Moore and Bradley (1986), both production for use and production which focused specifically on changes in for exchange. Murdock and Morrow's subsistence systems. Ethnographers' (1970) definition of subsistence economy statements about the nature of change in includes not only the acquisition (or "der- indigenous forms of subsistence, as well ivation") of food, but also its transport, as the causes and consequences of such preservation, and storage. Subsistence changes, were recorded in narrative form. economy is defined in this report as the A codebook was then developed that en- acquisition, transport, and storage of all compassed a majority of the categories products of agriculture, herding, hunting, that had emerged through the reading. fishing, and gathering, for use or ex- Variable Definitions and Frequencies change, and also includes wage labor and trade. Fourteen variables were coded as indi- Past analyses have tended to empha- cators of change processes. They are dis- size change in subsistence through local cussed here along with their frequencies. evolutionary adaptation. In contrast, the The sample, the codebook for the varia- current study looks at changes in subsis- bles, and the codes for societies are pre- tence economy as a consequence of larger sented in the Appendix. systems of trade and political economy. Whether change had occurred within 100 years prior to the designated date ofethnographic Description of the Project observation. The most important piece of information coded is whether or not The Sample changes in subsistence patterns occurred The data were collected as part of the in the society within 100 years before the "World-Systems and Ethnological The- date of observation. Changes earlier than This content downloaded from 128.200.102.71 on Wed, 15 Feb 2017 22:12:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms RESEARCH REPORTS 449 100 years were noted New animals includes but the introduction not coded for the present study. of new domesticatedIf change animals or the intro-occurred, it was noted whether it was due to world- duction of herding. New animals were in- system contact. Seventy-three societies, troduced in 15 of 73 societies. or 84%, had experienced