Presentation• More attention over the SIP• Covering the important facts of the Chapter

for exam• Based on the Handout• Critical questions

Outline• Introduction• Food Collection• Case study : Forager• Features of Food collection• Food Production• Horticulture• Case study : Horticulturalist• Features of Horticulture

Outline• Intensive Agriculture• Case study : Agriculture• Features of Intensive Agriculture• Commercialization & Mechanization• Pastoralism• Case study : Pastoralists• Features of Pastoralism• Environmental restraints• Origin, Spread & Intensification

Introduction¬ Today's food getting activities¬ Important to survive¬ Take precedence over other activities¬ Food getting strategies¬ Predicts other aspects of a culture¬ Everybody engaged in getting food¬ Obtained food by gathering, hunting or

fishing.¬ Agriculture – recent phenomenon

Introduction¬ Industrial & mechanized Agriculture,

only about two centuries ago.¬ The ways societies get food¬ Variations in food getting strategies¬ Features associated with the different

patterns¬ Restraining effects from physical

environment

Food Collection¬ The way of getting food for most of the

human history¬ Subsistence technology¬ Depend on natural resources - direct

dependence on naturally available plants and animals¬ Food collectors – Foragers / hunter-gatherers¬ In the today world, foragers live in marginal

areas.¬ Where the modern agriculture cannot exploit

easily

Food Collection¬ Observations over contemporary foragers¬ 3 reasons to cautious when drawing inferences

between the past and recent foragers. 1. Early foragers lived in almost all types of

environments.2. Contemporary foragers are not relics of the

past.3. Intersociety relationships in recent may be different from intersociety relationships in the

past.

Food Collection

Case Study: Forager - the Inuit of Alaska (Eskimo)

¬ Recent and contemporary forager¬ In the North-American Artic, plants are too

scarce.¬ Used to depend on almost entirely on sea and

land mammals and fish¬ What collect for is mostly depends on the season¬ Sea mammals, fish, caribou, reindeer¬ Usual technique to hunting sea mammals is to

hurl a toggle harpoon into the sea mammal.¬ Then hunter attach a line to the harpoon and end

of it, a sealskin which floated over the water.

Case Study: Forager - the Inuit of Alaska (Eskimo)

¬ After the mammal get tired, hunter kill it with a lance.

¬ One man can manage alone to hunt a small mammal, but groups are gathered to hunt whales.

¬ When the sea is frozen, different technique is used.

¬ Hunter locates breathing hole and wait until a sea mammal comes up for air.

¬ Fishing is also a much important part and mostly fulfilled larger part of their diet.

¬ Various techniques are used for fishing.

Case Study: Forager - the Inuit of Alaska (Eskimo)

Case Study: Forager - the Inuit of Alaska (Eskimo)

¬ Men do the hunting and fishing.¬ Women do some fishing, make nets, sewing

skin cloths, hunting smaller animals and gathering.

¬ Related families usually live together.¬ Move camp by boat or sled thousands of

miles. ¬ Intercept the migratory animals & fish and

hunt them down.¬ Changes of the present day --

General features of Food Collectors

¬ Live in small communities in sparsely populated territories.

¬ Follow a nomadic life style; forming no permanent settlements.

¬ Who depend heavily on fishing, more likely to have bigger and more permanent communities.

¬ Generally do not have different classes of people.

¬ No specialized or full-time political officials.¬ Division in labor based on age and gender.

General features of Food Collectors

¬ Men do hunting and most of the fishing.¬ Women usually gather wild plant foods.¬ Typically get more food from gathering than

hunting.¬ Survey results

gathering – 30%hunting – 25%fishing – 38%

¬ Men usually contribute more to food getting by doing most of the hunting and fishing.

Food Production

¬ Beginning about 10,000 years ago, people began to cultivate and domesticate plants and animals.

¬ Today, people depend for their food on some combinations of domesticated plants and animals.

¬ By domestication, people acquired to control over certain natural processes.

¬ Such as animal breeding and plant seeding.¬ Generally distinguish three major types of Food

production.

Horticulture

¬ Illustrates growing orchids or flower in green houses in your mind.

¬ In Anthropology, the word meansgrowing of crops of all kinds with

relatively simple tools and methods, in the absence of permanently cultivated fields.

¬ Tools – usually hand tools¬ Methods – no irrigation, no fertilization

Horticulture

¬ Two kinds of horticulture1. Shifting cultivation – the land

worked for short period and then left idle for several years.

use of slash and burn technique to restore nutrients to the soil.

2. Long – growing tree cropsGetting food by cultivating long term harvesting fruit or ground crops.

Horticulture

Horticulture

¬ Do not rely on crops alone for food.¬ Hunting, fishing and raising small domestic

animals.¬ Not large animals as cattle and camels.¬ Smaller ones such as pigs, chickens,

goats, sheep.¬ Few societies are nomadic for part of the

year.¬ Trek through the forest for hunting.

Case Study: Horticulturalist – the Yanomamö of Brazilian-

Venezuelan Amazon

¬ Living middle in the dense tropical forest¬ Getting most of their food from garden

procedure.¬ Use combination of both horticulture

techniques.¬ Using controlled burning to clear a garden spot.¬ Burned fields are easier to plant and organic

matter that is burned provides necessary nutrients for a good yield.

¬ Cultivate various kinds of crops.

Case Study: Horticulturalist – the Yanomamö of Brazilian-

Venezuelan Amazon

¬ Moved about every five years.¬ Due to gardening needs and warfare.¬ If Horticulturalists come back too quickly to a spot

with little plant cover, a garden made there will not produce a satisfactory yield.

¬ Crops do not provide much protein, so hunting and fishing are also important.

¬ Men do the heavy clearing work and women usually plant, weed, and harvest.

General features of Horticulturalists

¬ Simple farming techniques.¬ Try to yield more food from a given area of

ground.¬ Able to support more larger community.¬ More sedentary than food collectors¬ Move after some years to farm a new series of

plots.¬ Some have permanent villages because they

depend on food form trees that keep producing for a long time.

¬ Part-time craft workers and political officials.

Intensive Agriculture¬ More complex than Horticulture.¬ Use techniques that enables to cultivate

fields permanently.¬ Use of fertilizers¬ Use irrigational systems from streams and

rivers to gain water supply.¬ Crop rotation, plant stubble¬ Various ways of restoring nutrients back to

the soil¬ Rely more on mechanization rather than

hand labor.

Intensive Agriculture

Case Study: Agriculture – the Mekong Delta in Vietnam

¬ Tropical climate, with long rainy season¬ Comprise about 600 families¬ Rice cultivation¬ Three interacting components

1. Complex system of irrigation and water control2. A variety of specialized equipments3. A clearly defined set of socioeconomic roles

¬ Procedure of cultivation¬ Using hired labor, machinery and fertilizers

Case Study: Agriculture – the Mekong Delta in Vietnam

¬ Harvest used for the sale or trade purposes mostly

¬ Producing only one crop mainly for living¬ Also cultivate vegetables¬ Raise pigs, chickens and frequently do

fishing¬ Few implement makers¬ Much larger number of carpenters

General features of Intensive Agricultural Societies

¬ Settled in towns and cities permanently¬ Craft specialization¬ Social inequalities¬ Large difference in wealth and power¬ Complex political organization¬ Producing for market¬ Concentrate on one crop¬ Expecting more yield or less capital usage

from cultivating crop.¬ Face food shortages

Commercialization and Mechanization of Agriculture

¬ Produce more and more for a market – commercialization

¬ Increase our dependence on buying and selling

¬ Farm work becoming more and more mechanized

¬ Emergence & spread of Agribusiness¬ Reduce the number of people engaged in

food production

Market Foraging in Industrial Societies

¬ Food comes largely from intensive agriculture

¬ Food specialists are reserved for making food and process the procedure until food appears in the market.

¬ Normal people who collect food from stores are

Market foragers.¬ Knows very little about how to grow crops

or raise animals¬ Totally different from the original kind

Pastoralism

¬ Depend directly or indirectly on domesticated herd of animals for their living.

¬ Get animal protein as form of milk or blood¬ Indirectly provide food by trading animal products

for plant foods and other necessities.¬ A large proportion of their food may

actually come from trade with agricultural groups.

¬ Trading is absolutely necessary for survival.

Pastoralism

Case Study: Pastoralists – the Saami of Scandinavia (Lapps)

¬ Typical Arctic habitat (Finland, Sweden, Norway)

¬ Reindeer herding¬ Intensive system

– more accustomed to human contact– not very large number of reindeers– use as working animal– milk and meat for family usage

Case Study: Pastoralists – the Saami of Scandinavia (Lapps)

¬ Extensive system – larger number of reindeers in a herd – requires little surveillance – allowed to move through their seasonal feeding cycles – migrating over a large area – milk, meat and hides are frequently sold for other food necessities.

¬ Subsidiary activities as hunting and fishing¬ Changes of the present days --

General features of Pastoralism

¬ Mainly in grasslands and semi arid habitats¬ Nomadic and usually small in community¬ Moving camp to find water and new

pasture for their herds¬ Decisions made by whole community¬ Interdependence between pastoral and

agricultural groups¬ Mobility kept the risk of overgrazing to a

minimum¬ Overgrazing in smaller territories has

increased the risk of desertification.

Reference

Variation in Food getting and associated features

Anthropology – a brief introductionFifth editionCarol R. Ember – Melvin EmberPage No 244 Chapter 12 – Getting FoodTable 12-1

Environmental restraints on Food getting

¬ Physical environment affects on food getting strategy

¬ Inuit – cold environment – hardest to cultivate – hunting and fishing – fishing is more localized because no need to travel far

Environmental restraints on Food getting

¬ Typically pastoralism practiced in grassland regions

¬ Pastoralists depend primarily grass as the food for their herds

¬ Grassland habitat favors both hunting and pastoral technologies

¬ Cultivation is possible through some machinery and much technology

Environmental restraints on Food getting

‘We know that food collection has been practiced at one time or another in all areas of the earth. The physical environment does seem to have some effect on what kind of food collection is practiced, that is, on the extent to which food collectors will depend on plants, animals or fish. Farther away from the equator, food collectors depend much less on plants for food and much more on animals and fish.’

Origin, Spread and Intensification of Food production

¬ Why people started to produce food?- Population growth in bountiful areas pushed people to move to marginal areas, where they tried to reproduce their former abundance.- Global population growth filled up most of the world’s habitable regions and forced people to utilize a broader spectrum of wild resources.- Climatic change – hotter, drier summers and cold winters – favored settling near seasonal stands of wild grain.

Origin, Spread and Intensification of Food production

¬ Food Production is generally more productive per unit of land than foraging.

¬ Can support more people in a given territory¬ Competition for land¬ Population growth may lead to intensification

Critical Questions Why foragers has less chance to suffer

from food shortages than intensive agriculturalists?

Compare differences between Horticulture and Agriculture.

Why people began to produce food rather than colleting food?

Thank you

: Pramuka Amarakeerthi