ANTH 1105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Pastoralism, Oligomenorrhea
2 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
Complex hunter gatherers: pastoralism, horticulture (extensive agriculture, intensive agriculture. Earlier h-gs lived in almost all types of environments. Contemporary h-gs are not relics of the past. Recent h-gs have been interacting with many kinds of societies that did not exist until after 10 000 years ago. Characteristics of food foragers (typical hunter gatherer model) Live in small groups and move around a lot. All typical h-gs share one characteristic; mobility: they map themselves onto the distribution of wild plants and animals. Mobility affects demographics, placing limits on population growth resulting in low population densities for h-gs and small group size: 30-50 people per band. Ju women have low body weights (90 lbs) as a result of high energy expenditure from foraging activities combined with low caloric diet, delayed menstruation. Prolonged breast feeding also contributes to low fertility rates, breastfeed to 4-5 years: mobility also affects technology in foraging societies.
