Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Making a Living
I. Adaptive Strategies
Yehudi Cohen (1974) argued that similar economic causes have similar sociocultural effects
Ex. There are clear similarities among societies that have a foraging strategy
Cohen developed a typology of five adaptive strategies:
Foraging
Horticulture
Agriculture
Pastoralism
Industrialism
A. Foraging
Although there are different types of foragers, they all share one essential feature: people rely on nature to make their living.
Animal domestication and plant cultivation began around 10,000 years ago in the Middle East. However, many did not adopt this method and continued to forage. This was because many areas were not fit for cultivation or because many groups were perfectly fine with their foraging way of life.
B. Correlates of Foraging
Correlation = association or co-variation between two or more variables
Correlated variables are factors that are linked and interrelated, such as food intake, such that when one increases or decreases, the other changes too.
Band – small group of fewer than a hundred people, all related by kinship or marriage.
One typical characteristic of the foraging life was mobility.
Smaller communities, marginal lands (lands people don’t want)
Bands were exogamous, meaning people could join any band to which they had kin or marital links.
All human societies have some kind of division of labor based on gender.
Among foragers, men typically hunt and fish while women gather and collect
Most foraging societies are egalitarian, meaning that contrasts in prestige are minor and are based on age and gender.
II. Cultivation
A. Horticulture
Horticulture (extensive agriculture) is cultivation that makes intensive use of none of the factors of production: land, labor, capital, and machinery
Makes use of simple tools such as hoes and digging sticks to grow crops
Slash-and-burn techniques
Intercropping – growing different species of plants in the same garden
Shifting Cultivation – Abandoning a plot
I. Adaptive Strategies
Yehudi Cohen (1974) argued that similar economic causes have similar sociocultural effects
Ex. There are clear similarities among societies that have a foraging strategy
Cohen developed a typology of five adaptive strategies:
Foraging
Horticulture
Agriculture
Pastoralism
Industrialism
A. Foraging
Although there are different types of foragers, they all share one essential feature: people rely on nature to make their living.
Animal domestication and plant cultivation began around 10,000 years ago in the Middle East. However, many did not adopt this method and continued to forage. This was because many areas were not fit for cultivation or because many groups were perfectly fine with their foraging way of life.
B. Correlates of Foraging
Correlation = association or co-variation between two or more variables
Correlated variables are factors that are linked and interrelated, such as food intake, such that when one increases or decreases, the other changes too.
Band – small group of fewer than a hundred people, all related by kinship or marriage.
One typical characteristic of the foraging life was mobility.
Smaller communities, marginal lands (lands people don’t want)
Bands were exogamous, meaning people could join any band to which they had kin or marital links.
All human societies have some kind of division of labor based on gender.
Among foragers, men typically hunt and fish while women gather and collect
Most foraging societies are egalitarian, meaning that contrasts in prestige are minor and are based on age and gender.
II. Cultivation
A. Horticulture
Horticulture (extensive agriculture) is cultivation that makes intensive use of none of the factors of production: land, labor, capital, and machinery
Makes use of simple tools such as hoes and digging sticks to grow crops
Slash-and-burn techniques
Intercropping – growing different species of plants in the same garden
Shifting Cultivation – Abandoning a plot