Chapter 7, Subsistence Patterns

In my readings of chapter seven through twelve I learned how anthropologists views such topics as: subsistence patterns, economics, marriage and the family, kinship and descent, sex and gender, and social stratification. In chapter seven, Subsistence Patterns, I learned there are five major food-procurement categories: food foraging, horticulture, pastoralism, intensive agriculture, and industrial agriculture. I had heard of some of these terms, but not all of them. It was quite interesting reading about humans adapting to their environment and how archaeological evidence suggested the Incas practiced agroforestry. I enjoyed reading (and grossing out my wife) about how cultures around the world enjoy eating grubs, termites, grass-hoppers, fly larvae and various other insects.
Turkish explorers brought tulip bulbs from western china to Europe where Dutch horticulturists had created over a thousand varieties in dozens of colors. Bulb speculation and alcohol quickly drove up the price of tulip bulbs; raising 11 fold in in six weeks. Many of the buyers didn’t have cash and provided IOUs to one another. Suddenly the bottom dropped out of the market, confidence collapsed which led to the world’s first financial bubble. Chapter nine, Marriage and Family, had the most upsetting section dealing with Indian dowries. It is hard to imagine that a culture practices such a brutal and violent tradition. Blackmailing women and their families for financial gain was quite disturbing to me, but then I read about dowry deaths and bride burning; a bride burned every ninety minutes in 2010. What kind of person/culture would think this was ok? I read the practice was banned in 1961, but it sounds like the tradition