Cultural Adaptations and Subsistence Patterns: A Historical Perspective

1. CHAPTER 18 Patterns of Subsistence

2. Chapter Preview What Is Adaptation? How Do Humans Adapt Culturally? What Sorts of Cultural Adaptations Have Humans Achieved Through the Ages?

3. How Humans Meet Basic Needs. Throughout human antiquity it is known that humans must have the ability to constantly make cultural adaptations to better survive and thrive in their natural environments or ecosystems. Meeting humans most basic needs are finding efficient methods to obtain food, shelter, and fresh water. Ecosystem- functioning system that comprised of both the natural environment and the organism that inhabit it.

4. Cultural Adaptations Through the Ages. Food foraging is the oldest and most universal type of human adaptation and typically involves geographic mobility. Adaptations involving domestication of plants and animals, began to develop in some parts of the world about 10,000 years ago. Horticulture led to more permanent settlements while pastoralism required mobility to seek out pasture and water. Cities began to develop as early as 5,000 years ago in some world regions.

5. Adaptation in Cultural Evolution The most common way for a group of people to adapt to their ecosystem is through their culture. Cultural Evolution is the process of cultures changing over time. It is important to note that the idea of cultural evolution is not always in a positive light. Although this concept can often be confused with the idea of “progress” as if humans are progressing as a culture towards something better.

6. Not all changes turn out to be positive, nor do they improve conditions for every member of a society even in the short term. To better understand these there are two historical accounts of cultural evolution. • Case Study on: The Native American Comanche & Cheyenne

7. Convergent Evolution The Native American Comanche were from the highlands of southern Idaho. They had traditionally subsisted on wild grains, small animals and the occasional large game that roamed the region. The possessed simple technology and equipment that was limited to what dogs could carry on their backs. They considered their shaman (spiritual and medicinal healer) as holding the highest social power.

8. Eventually the Comanche made a move towards the Great Plains region where they encountered a larger food supply such as free roaming bison Trade for horses and guns began with nearby European settlers. Over time Comanche traders began to hold a higher power within the group, one above the shaman, as they would go on raids to steal horses. The society that started small and powerless, converged into a powerful and wealthy tribe.

9. The history of the Comanche is similar to the historical accounts of the Native American Cheyenne Indians. These peoples moved from the woodlands of the Great Lakes regions also into the Great Plains. Unlike the Comanche they took up farming which they later ceased to focus on hunting and gathering. Both tribes developed similar solutions to living in the new environment

10. Convergent Evolution Convergent Evolution as outlined by the Native America Comanche and Cheyenne is best described as the development of similar cultural adaptations to similar environmental conditions by different peoples with different ancestral cultures.

11. Parallel Evolution Parallel Evolution as outlines by the development of farming in Mesoamerican & SW Asia is best defined by the development of similar adaptations to similar environmental conditions by peoples whose ancestral cultures were similar.

12. Parallel Evolution The other type of cultural evolution apart from convergent evolution is parallel evolution. The development of farming took place simultaneously in Southwest Asia and Mesoamerica. People in both regions already had similar life ways. They both became dependent on a narrow range of plant foods. Both developed intensive forms of agriculture, built large cities, and created complex social and political organizations.

13. Cultural Areas Anthropologists have long identified that ethnic groups that co-habitat within the same geographical region many times share cultural traits that have been borrow from one culture to the next. These groups have been classified as “cultural areas”, which are geographic regions in which a number of societies follow a similar pattern of life.

14. Many times these areas are defined by natural environmental conditions. The following is a list of some such regions in North American such as: • Arctic • Plains • Southwest • Prairies • East

15. What determines Subsistence Patterns? Although technological advancements and environmental factors play a significant role in a culture’s subsistence patterns it is not the only defining trait. Political and social organization will also play a large role in the technology that will be invented and used-thus directly influencing what subsistence pattern a culture will use. These features are known as the culture core.

16. Culture Core • The culture core is defined as the cultural features that are fundamental in the societies way of making its living. This can include: • Food producing techniques • Knowledge of available resources • Work arrangements involved in applying those techniques to the local environment.

17. Culture Core and Food Ways • The culture core also influences other aspects of culture including the production and distribution of food. Religious views can define and prohibit certain cultural foods. • Muslims and Jews must abstain from eating pork because it is prohibited by their religion. • Hindus do not eat beef because their religion considers these animals to be sacred.

18. Modes of Subsistence • There are three main modes of subsistence patterns. Each mode will involve not only natural resources but also the developed technology to effectively utilize those resources. 1.) Food Foraging Societies 2.) Food Producing Societies 3.) Industrialized Societies

19. Characteristics of Food Foraging Societies Nomadic Occupy marginal environments (desert, arctic, tropical) Small size of local groups (less that 100 members) limited by carrying capacity Populations stabilize at numbers well below the carrying capacity of their land. Egalitarian, populations have few possessions and share what they have.

20. Food Foraging: Organization Four elements of food foraging organization: Mobility Division of labor by gender. Food sharing Egalitarian Social Relations

21. Mobility Mobility of food foragers is strongly limited by their difficult living environments which they occupy. For instance the distance between their food supply and fresh water must not be so great that more energy is required to obtain fresh water than can be obtained from food.

22. It is necessary for food foraging groups to limit their population size due to the carrying capacity of the land which is defined by the amount of people the land and support with it’s available resources. Often this can create what is called a density of social relations; meaning that the limited availability for resources forces larger groups to live together. More people can create more social conflicts.

23. How do Food Foraging Groups Limit Population One way that these groups limit population growth is by the prolonged nursing of infants. The longer the mother nurses the less likely she is to ovulate. The other factor is their low percentage of body fat. Lower body fat leads to a later onset of ovulation and the onset of menstruation.

24. Labor by Gender All societies have some type of division of labor by genders. Foraging Groups follow these two patterns: Men: hunting, butchering, process of hard or tough materials, and overall more dangerous activities Women: collecting food, domestic chores

25. Food Sharing Men and Women will both share the fruits of their labor. Considering they each provide a different food resource that they continue to share with one another. Food sharing among members and other nearing groups can also provide the basis for creating and maintain social allies and networks.

26. Egalitarianism Among many food foraging societies egalitarianism is an important characteristic. To be egalitarian means to have no status differences among members of a group. Generally the only status differences are with age and sex. No one member will accumulate more goods than another, thus eliminating jealously and potential conflict.

27. Food Producers The New Stone Age or Neolithic; the prehistoric period beginning about 10,000 years ago in which peoples possessed stone-based technologies and depended on domesticated plants and/or animals. This time period marks the emergence of a transition to food producing.

28. Transition to Food Production The Neolithic revolution (transition) began about 11,000 to 9,000 years ago. It was a time of significant culture change associated with the early domestication of plants and animals with settlement of permanent villages. Probably the result of increased management of wild food resources. Begin the development of simple hand tools for working the land.

29. Types of Food Producing • There are three main forms of food producing subsistence patterns: 1.) Horticulture 2.) Agriculture 3.) Pastoralism

30. Horticulture • The cultivation of crops using simple hand tools such as digging sticks or hoes. • Slash-and-burn cultivation (swidden farming). • An extensive form of horticulture in which the natural vegetation is cut, the slash is subsequently burned, and crops are then planted among the ashes.

31. Agriculture Agriculture is defined as the cultivation of food plants in soil prepared and maintained for crop production. It involves using technologies other than hand tools, such as irrigation, fertilizers, and the wooden or metal plow pulled by harnessed draft animals.

32. Characteristics of Agricultural Societies Similar to food foragers who stay nearby their food resources, food producers reside together near their cultivated fields in fixed settlements. Historically, social relations would have been egalitarian and similar to those of food foragers. However, as settlements grew larger in population size people had to share important resources such as land and water, society became more elaborately organized.

33. Pastoralism Pastoralism or animal husbandry is the subsistence pattern of raising and maintaining herds of domesticated animals, such as cattle, sheep, and goats. Pastoralists are usually nomadic. They share the similar concern of food foragers for finding fresh resources not only for their group but their herds as well.

34. Intensive Agriculture • As agriculture grows some farming communities will turn from small villages into larger cities including large centers of market exchange. This allows other members of the community to engage in other activities. • Carpenters, blacksmiths, sculptures, basket makers, stonecutters. • Carpenters, blacksmiths, sculptures, basket makers, stonecutters. • Eventually this creates an urbanization.

35. Peasants As urbanization including new life ways and complex culture these dwellers must rely on farmers in rural areas for most of their food supplies. Over time it becomes increasingly important for urban dwellers to seek control over rural areas. Farmers eventually turn into peasants.

36. Peasants A rural cultivator whose surpluses are transferred to a dominant group of rulers that uses the surpluses both to underwrite its own standard of living and to distribute the remainder to groups in society that do not farm but must be fed for their specific goods and services in turn.

37. Industrialization After the invention of the steam engine about 200 years ago in England (which replaces human labor by machine labor) subsistence patterns changed in some regions. North America, Europe, Asia will become centers of industrialization among areas of intensified agriculture. This has led to a multitude of technological inventions that utilize; oil, electricity, and nuclear energy.