ANTHROP 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Silk Road, Carrying Capacity, Pastoralism
16 Dec 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Anthro Week 7
Lecture 8.1
The different ways humans acquire food
• Most of us now removed from food production
• Supplied by intermediaries
The Globalised Farming Network that lays behind our daily food experience
The Historical, Cultural & Global Processes that lay behind Ontario farming
Many/most people- now & historically- aquire(d) food through different processes
• Foraging
• Pastoralism
• Horticulture
• Agriculture
Key term: subsistence patterns
• Different ways a cultural group can feed itself
• Influences/constrains other cultural traits
• Organisation of labour, size/ type of settlement
• Social organisation
• Different kinds of households
• Ideas about property& ownership
• How people think about themselves& others
2 basic modes of subsistence
• Finding food
o Foraging, hunting, gathering, fishing
• Growing food
o Horticulture, pastoralism, agriculture
Foraging vs food production
• Dominant mode in world (pre)history
• Hunt wild animals, collect wild plants, fishing
• Species/diet will be ecologically influenced
Food producers vs foraging
• Recent phenomenon- last 12,000 years globally
• Transform & manage plants/ animals
• Species / diet can be ecologically influenced
• But also introduce foreign plant/ animals
3 main types of food producers
Pastoralism
• Large herds of animals
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Horticulture
• Small-scale/ simple farming
Agriculture
• More intense farming, mix (agro-pastoral) economies
Todays agriculture: industrialized & globalized
• Industrial scale (techno), less human labour
• Organized for supra-regional consumption
• Globalization making old modes peripheral
Key term: globalization
• process of cultural change in context of forces&reactions dense and rapid
links of trade, communication, population movement, and other forms of
international and trans-national contact
• process of interaction and integration (homogenization) among people,
companies, and governments of different nations…process driven by trade,
investment and information technology
key term: globalization
• recent term (1970s) but ancient interactions
• IMF (2000) 4 Definitions:
• 1. Trade/ transactions
• 2. Capital movements
• 3. Population movements
• 4. Knowledge dissemination
trade & capital movement
• global markets (capital)
• transport technology
• bulk movement
Population movement
• global job markets
• mass migrant labour
• forced movement
information mobilization & the global village
• IT advances
• Telephone/ telegraphy: 1870s
• World Wide Web- 1989
Earlier forms of globalization
silk road/ route 200BC- 1450s AD)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Key term: ecosystem, adaptation & carrying capacity
Ecosystem
• Climate (hot or cold, wet or dry)
• Resources (water, soil, timber, stone, wildlife/plants)
• Topography desert, mountain, valleys, coast, plains…
Adaptation
• Food (animals/plants/fish)
• Clothing (skins, hair, fibres)
• Shelter (timber, stone, mud)
Carrying capacity
• # of people who can be sustained in the region/ecosystem
• depends on many factors
• subsistence mode, labour expenditure, technology
Carrying Capacity: influence of subsistence
Foragers
• depend on wild resources
• wide distribution/ moves
• need large area access for annual survival
Farmers
• control domestic resources
• focused/ fixed resources
• need smaller area for annual survival
Carrying capacity: influence of technology
Horticulturalists
• basic tools (hoes/ards)
• labour/ time intensive
• smaller yields
Agriculturalists
• plough, irrigation
• less intensive
• large yields
Carrying capacity: influence of tastes
• cultural influence
• how many of those plants, birds, insects do you eat?
Subsistence and settlement patterns
Cross cultural perspectives
• close relationship with how people live/reside
• foragers- mobile
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The different ways humans acquire food: most of us now removed from food production, supplied by intermediaries. The globalised farming network that lays behind our daily food experience. The historical, cultural & global processes that lay behind ontario farming. Many/most people- now & historically- aquire(d) food through different processes: foraging, pastoralism, horticulture, agriculture. Influences/constrains other cultural traits: different ways a cultural group can feed itself, organisation of labour, size/ type of settlement, social organisation, different kinds of households, how people think about themselves& others. 2 basic modes of subsistence: finding food, foraging, hunting, gathering, fishing, growing food, horticulture, pastoralism, agriculture. Foraging vs food production: dominant mode in world (pre)history, hunt wild animals, collect wild plants, fishing, species/diet will be ecologically influenced. Food producers vs foraging: recent phenomenon- last 12,000 years globally, transform & manage plants/ animals, species / diet can be ecologically influenced, but also introduce foreign plant/ animals. Agriculture: more intense farming, mix (agro-pastoral) economies.
