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Adaptations to Environments

Adaptations to Environments. Biological Body shape Hair form Skin color Other physical adaptations Cultural Technology Behavior Belief systems Sustainable vs. unsustainable E.g. Incas of Peru Globalization Resource export E.g. minerals, oil, hardwood

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Adaptations to Environments

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  1. Adaptations to Environments • Biological • Body shape • Hair form • Skin color • Other physical adaptations • Cultural • Technology • Behavior • Belief systems • Sustainable vs. unsustainable • E.g. Incas of Peru • Globalization • Resource export • E.g. minerals, oil, hardwood • Indigenous subsistence vs. cash crops • E.g. Coffee, cotton, soy beans, GM seeds • Small farmer lose land • Food shortages, poverty increase • Farmer suicides in India

  2. Subsistence Strategies • Foraging/hunting-gathering • Horticulture • Shifting cultivation/swidden/slash & burn • Pastoralism • Transhumance • Nomadism • Intensive Agriculture • Peasant/Family farming • Industrialism/Industrial Agriculture

  3. Environment • Sets broad limits • Carrying capacity: • The number of people that a particular environment can sustain • Different environments  different subsistence strategies

  4. Foraging/Hunting-gathering • Wild game and plants • Small nomadic bands • Sparse population • Evolutionary past • 98% of human existence • Universal before Neolithic revolution (10-12,000 years ago)

  5. Foraging Societies Inuit Chukchi Subarctic groups Agta Amazonian groups Hadza Baka, Aka - Ju/’hoansi • Fewer than 300,000, mostly in marginal areas • Deserts & temperate forests – Ju/’hoansi (San) of Kalahari; Hadza of East Africa, Aborigines of Australia • Circumpolar region – Inuit of Canada, Alaska, Greenland; Chukchi of Siberia • Tropical forests – MbutiBaka of Zaire; Aka of Central African Republic; • Amazonian groups; Philippines; Borneo

  6. Foraging Strategies • Optimal foraging • Simple technology • Extensive strategy – Large areas • Temporary use • Mobility • Low population density • Nomadic/seminomadic • Seasonal movements • Small family groups • Coordinated with plant growth, water, animal movements • No individual land rights • Use rights • Socially recognized priority of access

  7. Foraging Groups • Primary social unit: family or band • Band = ~10-20 related people • Low level of social & political complexity • Egalitarian, acephalous, decentralized • Division of labor (how work is allocated) minimal: • Age and gender, no occupational specialization • Temperate foragers • Most food is gathered • Minimal gender division of labor • Circumpolar foragers • Most food hunted and fished • Greater gender division of labor

  8. ‘Man the Hunter’ • Resource-limited environments • ‘Woman the Gatherer’ • Ju/’hoansi diet 70% vegetable gathered by women • Sahlins: ‘Affluent society’ • More leisure, good health • But depends upon environment • Ju/’hoansi 12-19 hours/week • Some only 5 hours/week • Some others 7-8 hours/day • In marginal areas, and cold climates

  9. Foraging vs. Industrialism ForagingIndustrialism Reason for Production Production for use Production for profit Consumption Low level High level Minimalism, basic, finite needs Consumerism, infinite needs • Exchange • Sharing-based, reciprocity Market-based, cash, supply & demand • Division of Labor Family-based, age & gender Class-based • Low degree of specialization High degree of occupational specialization • Overlapping gender roles Greater gender division of labor Social Organization Egalitarian Stratified Property Relations: Collective, use rights Private, ownership Resource Use: Extensive & temporary Intensive, continuous, & expanding Sustainability High degree Low degree Health & nutrition Good diet and health Health and diet vary by class Work and Leisure Less work, more leisure More work, less leisure

  10. The Ju/’hoansi • !Kung • San • (Bushmen) 1963: 466 Ju/’hoansi 3000 square miles 340 Tswana & Herero (“Blacks”)

  11. Ju/’hoansi Foraging • Dobe area • 4000 feet • Northern edge of Kalahari • Semi-desert, temperate forest • Abundant plant foods • Game scarce & unpredictable • 70% of diet vegetable

  12. Ju/’hoansi Traditional Social Organization • Egalitarian - no headman • Leveling mechanisms • Insulting the meat • Sharing arrows, food • Resources pooled • Disadvantage of acephalous system • No higher authority for dispute resolution • Leave or fight • Kinship-based • Bilateral – trace descent through both fathers and mothers • Flexible population distribution

  13. Ju/’hoansi Camps • Traditional social unit • Nuclear & extended families, ~10-30 people • Flexible group of related people • - Live together and move together at least part of the year • Seasonal movements • Economically self-sufficient

  14. Ju/'hoansi Camp Organization Core = ‘owners’, k’ausi

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