1 Making a Living Adaptive Strategies Foraging Cultivation

1 Making a Living • • Adaptive Strategies Foraging Cultivation Pastoralism Modes of Production Economizing and Maximization Distribution, Exchange Potlatching © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

2 Adaptive Strategies • Advent of food production fueled major changes in human life – Formation of larger social and political systems - eventually states – Yehudi Cohen used term adaptive strategy to describe a group's system of economic production • Developed typology of societies based on correlation between economies and social features. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

3 Adaptive Strategies • Yehudi Cohen included 5 adaptive strategies – Foraging – Horticulture – Agriculture – Pastoralism – Industrialism © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

4 Yehudi Cohen’s Adaptive Strategies (Economic Typology) Summarized © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

5 Foraging • Foraging economies have relied on nature to make their living – All foragers rely on natural resources for subsistence, rather than controlling plant and animal reproduction. – Foraging survived mainly in environments that posed major obstacles to food production © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

6 Foraging • Correlates of Foraging – Correlations – association or covariation between two or more variables – People who subsist by hunting, gathering, and fishing often live in band-organized societies • Band – small group of fewer than 100 people © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

7 Foraging • Typical characteristic of foraging societies is mobility – Fictive Kinship – personal relationships modeled on kinship – All human societies have some kind of division of labor based on gender • Men typically hunt and fish • Women gather and collect – All foragers make social distinctions based on age © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

8 Horticulture • Cultivation that makes intensive use of none of factors of production: land, labor, capital, and machinery – Use simple tools – Field not permanently cultivated • Slash-and-burn cultivation • Shifting cultivation © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

9 Agriculture • Cultivation that requires more labor than horticulture does, because it uses land intensively and continuously • Domesticated animals – Many agriculturalists use animals as means of production © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

10 Cultivation • Terracing – Labor necessary to build and maintain a system of terraces is great • Irrigation – Can cultivate a plot year after year – Capital investment that increases in value © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

11 Cultivation • Costs and Benefits of Agriculture – Long-term yield per area is far greater and more dependable – Agriculture societies tend to be more densely populated than are horticultural ones © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

12 The Cultivation Continuum • Intermediate economies, combining horticulture and agricultural features, exist – Horticulture always uses a fallow period whereas agriculture does not – Until recently, horticulture was main form of cultivation in Africa, Southeast Asia, Pacific islands, Mexico, Central America, and South American tropical forest © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

13 Intensification: People and the Environment • Intensive cultivators are sedentary people • Agricultural economies grow increasingly specialized – focusing on: – One or a few caloric staples, such as rice – Animals that are raised • Agricultural economies also pose a series of regulatory problems – which central governments often have arisen to solve © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

14 Pastoralism • Pastoralists – herders whose activities focus on such domesticated animals as cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and yak – Herders attempt to protect their animals and to ensure their reproduction in return for food and other products – Herders typically make direct use of their herds for food © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

15 Pastoralists • Before the Industrial Revolution, pastoralism almost totally confined to the Old World – Pastoral Nomadism – members of pastoral society follow herd throughout the year – Transhumance – part of group moves with herd, but most stay in the home village © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

16 Modes of Production • Economy – system of production, distribution, and consumption of resources • Mode of production – way of organizing production; “set of social relations through which labor is deployed to wrest energy from nature using tools, skills, organization, and knowledge” (Wolf, 1982) © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

17 Production in Nonindustrial Populations • Division of economic labor related to age and gender a cultural universal, but specific tasks assigned to each sex and age varies – Betsilio of Madagascar have 2 stages of teamwork in rice cultivation © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

18 Means of Production • Means, or Factors, of Production – include land, labor, technology, and capital • Land – Land less permanent among foragers than it is for food producers – Among food producers, rights to means of production also come through kinship and marriage © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

19 Modes of Production • Labor, tools, and specialization – In nonindustrial societies, access to land labor comes through social links • Alienation in Industrial Economies – When factory workers produce for sale and for their employer's profit, rather than for their own use, they may be alienated from the items they make © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

20 Economizing and Maximization • How are production, distribution, and consumption organized in different societies? • What motivates people in different cultures to produce, distribute or exchange, and consume? – Anthropologists view both economic systems and motivations in a cross-cultural perspective © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

21 Economizing and Maximization • Economizing – rational allocation of scarce means (or resources) to alternative ends • Idea that individuals choose to maximize profits basic assumption of classical economist of 19 th century © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

22 Economizing and Maximization • Some economists recognize individuals may be motivated by other goals – Maximize profit – Wealth – Prestige – Pleasure – Comfort – Social Harmony © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

23 Economizing and Maximization • Alternative Ends – People devote some of their time and energy to building up subsistence fund – Citizens of nonindustrial states also allocate scarce resources to a rent fund, resources that people render to an individual or agency that is superior politically or economically © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

24 Economizing and Maximization • Alternative Ends – Peasants – small-scale agriculturalists who live in nonindustrial states and have rent fund obligations • Live in state – organized societies • Produce food without elaborate technology • Pay rent to landlords © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

25 Distribution, Exchange • The Market Principle – “Organizational process of purchase and sale at money price” (Dalton 1967) • Value set by supply and demand • Redistribution – Operates when goods, services, or their equivalent, move from local level to a center © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

26 Distribution, Exchange • Reciprocity – Exchange between social equals, normally related by kinship, marriage, or close personal tie – Dominant in more egalitarian societies © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

27 Distribution, Exchange • Three types of reciprocity – Generalized reciprocity – giving with no specific expectation of exchange – Balanced reciprocity – exchanges between people who are more distantly related than are members of the same band or household – Negative reciprocity – dealing with people outside or on the fringes of their social systems © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

28 Coexistence of Exchange Principles • In North America, market principle governs most exchanges • Also support redistribution and generalized reciprocity – Balanced reciprocity would be out of place in foraging band © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

29 Potlatching • Festive event within a regional exchange system among tribes of the north Pacific Coast of North America – Some tribes still practice the potlatch – Potlatches traditionally gave away food, blankets, pieces of copper, or other items © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

30 Potlatching • If profit motive universal, how does one explain the potlach, in which wealth is given away? – Potlaching also served to prevent the development of socioeconomic stratification, a system of social classes © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.

31 Location of Potlaching Groups © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 The Mc. Graw-Hill Companies, Inc.