Making a Living

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Chapter 7

• Making a Living

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What We Will Learn

• What are the different ways by which societies
  get their food?
• How do technology and environment influence food
  getting strategies?
• How have humans adapted to their environments
  over the ages?

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Five Major Food Gathering Strategies

• Food collection collecting vegetation, hunting
  animals, and fishing.
• Horticulture plant cultivation with simple tools
  and small plots of land, relying solely on human
  power.
• Pastoralism keeping domesticated animals and
  using their products as a major food source.

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Five Major Food Gathering Strategies

1. Agriculture horticulture using animal or
   mechanical power and some form of irrigation.
2. Industrialization production of food through
   complex machinery.

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Human Adaptation

• Humans adapt to climates in two ways
• Culturally - dietary patterns, levels of
  activities
• Biologically - changes in the body

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Characteristics of Food Collecting Societies

• Low population densities.
• Usually nomadic or semi nomadic rather than
  sedentary.
• Basic social unit is the family or band.
• Contemporary food-collecting peoples occupy the
  remote and marginally useful areas of the earth.

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Neolithic RevolutionFood Producing Societies

• Transition from food collection to food
  production began 10,000 years ago
• Humans began to cultivate crops and keep herds of
  animals.
• Humans were able to produce food rather than rely
  only on what nature produced.

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Changes Resulting From Food Production

• Increased population.
• Populations became more sedentary.
• Stimulated a greater division of labor.
• Decline in overall health reduced the life
  expectancy from 26 to 19 years.

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Why Food Production Led to Declining Health

• Foragers had a more balanced diet (plants and
  animal proteins).
• Farmers ran the risk of malnutrition or
  starvation if the crops failed.
• Increased population brought people into greater
  contact and made everyone more susceptible to
  parasitic and infectious diseases.

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Horticulture

• The simplest type of farming, which involves the
  use of basic hand tools rather than plows or
  machinery driven by animals or engines.
• Horticulturalists produce low yields and
  generally do not have sufficient surpluses to
  develop extensive market systems.
• The land is neither irrigated nor enriched by the
  use of fertilizers.

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Pastoralism

• Involves keeping domesticated herd animals and is
  found in areas of the world that cannot support
  agriculture because of inadequate terrain, soils,
  or rainfall.
• Associated with geographic mobility, because
  herds must be moved periodically to exploit
  seasonal pastures.

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Pastoralism

• Two types of movement patterns
• Transhumance - some of the men in a pastoral
  society move their livestock seasonally to
  different pastures while the women, children, and
  other men remain in permanent settlements.
• Nomadism - there are no permanent villages, and
  the whole social unit of men, women, and children
  moves the livestock to new pastures.

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Agriculture

• Uses technology such as irrigation, fertilizers,
  and mechanized equipment.
• Produces high yields and supports large
  populations.
• Associated with permanent settlements, cities,
  and high levels of labor specialization.

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Agriculture Costs of Greater Productivity

• Can support many times more people per unit of
  land than the horticulturalist.
• Agriculturalists must devote vast numbers of
  hours of hard work prepare the land.
• Intensive agriculture requires a much higher
  investment of capital.

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Industrialized Food Production

• Uses more powerful sources of energy.
• Requires
• High levels of technology (such as tractors and
  combines)
• Mobile labor force
• Complex system of markets

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Features of Four Major Food Procurement Categories
Foragers Horticulturalist
Population Size Small Small/mod.
Permanency of settlement Nomadic (or semi) Generally sedentary
Surpluses Minimal Minimal
Trade Minimal Minimal
Labor specialization None Minimal
Class differences None Minimal
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Features of Four Major Food Procurement Categories
Pastoralist Intensive agriculture
Population Size Small Large
Permanency of settlement Nomadic (or semi) Permanent
Surpluses Moderate Usual
Trade Moderate Very important
Labor specialization Minimal Highest degree
Class differences Moderate Highest degree
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Quick Quiz
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• 1. _______ is a basic form of plant cultivation
  using simple tools, small plots of land, and
  relies on human power.
• Pastoralism
• Horticulture
• Food collection
• Agriculture

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Answer b

• Horticulture is a basic form of plant cultivation
  using simple tools, small plots of land, and
  relies on human power.

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• 2. The gathering of wild vegetation and the
  hunting of small game is the strategy of
• horticulture.
• pastoralism.
• agriculture.
• food collection.

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Answer d

• The gathering of wild vegetation and the hunting
  of small game is the strategy of food collection.

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• 3. It is not until ________, some 10, 000 years
  ago, that human beings began producing food by
  horticulture or animal husbandry.
• the industrial revolution
• the French revolution
• the neolithic revolution
• the aquaculture revolution

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Answer c

• It is not until the neolithic revolution some 10,
  000 years ago, that human beings began producing
  food by horticulture or animal husbandry.

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• 4. Traveling with their animals, ________ do not
  have permanent settlements, and the whole social
  unit moves with their animals.
• agriculturalists
• food collectors
• horticulturalists
• nomads

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Answer d

• Traveling with their animals, nomads do not have
  permanent settlements, and the whole social unit
  moves with their animals.

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• 5. Because of its reliance on animal power and
  technology, ________ differs from horticulture,
  and is a more intensive and efficient system.
• horticulture
• nomadism
• agriculture
• pastoralism

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Answer c

• Because of its reliance on animal power and
  technology, agriculture differs from
  horticulture, and is a more intensive and
  efficient system.