Subsistence Strategies From Four Discrete Categories : Hunting And Gathering Essay

“In some cases the hunter gatherers adopted the neighboring system of food production…” (Page 108)

The emergence of agriculture was a major stepping stone in human history. During this birth of agriculture, also known as the Neolithic revolution, humans began inhabiting permanent settlements, grow their own crops, and domesticate both plants and animals for food (Weisdorf, 2005). Considering humans have been hunter-gatherers for the majority of their approximately 7 million years of existence, the emergence of agriculture in the Old World only occurring 10,000-5,000 years ago, marks a significant transformation in food sustenance techniques (Weisdorf, 2005). However, this turning point in history is associated with both positive and negative implications. There is much controversy over whether or not the introduction of

Diamond claims that hunters and gathers received more protein and a better nutrient balance than what farmers received. He gives an example of a hunter gather group such as the Kalahari Bushmen to enforce this argument. This group lives off the hunters gathers methods in the twentieth century. Even by being hunters and gatherers, they can still provide for themselves. In the article, a study shows that hunters and gathers are self sufficient and get the food they need. A Bushmen takes in 2,140 calories and 93 grams of protein. Diamond says this is more than the recommended allowance for people of their size. Hunters and gatherers eat variety as they live off what the Earth has to offer while on the other hand, farmers live off the non diversified plants they grow. He then also indirectly mentions risk of agriculture by mentioning the potato famine which was a time of starvation for the Irish.

From the early prehistoric society until now, we often heard the word “adaptation”, which means the process of changing something or changing our behavior to deal with new situations. The ways people adjust their natural environment varies according to time, place, and tribe. Foraging is common way of adaptation that people uses for most of human history; however because of the population pressure, some people adopt agriculture to fulfill their need. This essay, will discuss the positive and negative aspects of life in hunting and gathering societies compared to the agricultural societies based on Martin Harris’ article “Murders in Eden” and Jared Diamond’s article “The Worst Mistake in the History of Human Race.”

Some of the American Cultures have different methods they that use in order to be able to find food. Foraging is a mode of livelihood base on obtaining food that is available in nature methods such as gathering, hunting, fishing or scavenging (Miller, 2013). Sometimes they do not have difficulties with finding food so a lot of times they will just have to hunt for food. Fr example, they will collect different things from a nearby river such as fish or and small species that they see that they can eat. The men are the ones that do most of the hunting of the big animals because the big animals go a long way. In order for the American Cultures they have to be prepared. They have to rely on a diverse set of tools used for gathering, transporting and processing wild food (Miller, 2013). They need tools in order to be able to catch food so that they are able to eat and so that they are able to plant things in the ground such as corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and different kinds of fruits.

* At first, early settlers of America formed small nomadic groups, hunting and fishing to obtain food.

In a period of complete change beknownst to us as the Neolithic Revolution, some groups of nomads deserted their “normal” way of life and began to settle down in villages and use agrarian methods to make a living for themselves. Two examples would be the Chumash of Southern California and the San of South Africa. Although the Chumash and the San both led a gathering and hunting way of life, they are ultimately two completely different civilizations, embodying unique political organizations, social structures and hierarchies, distinct economic foundations and individual sets of differing values.

In order to fully understand and appreciate a subsistence strategy, one must subsist from it, if only for a brief period. She might have considered a more interactive participant observation model to more fully experience their culture.

Subsistence strategies are patterns of production, distribution, and consumption that members of a society employ to ensure the satisfaction of the basic material survival needs of humans. There are many forms these strategies can take. These groups fall into two main categories, food collectors and food producers. Food collectors are those who gather, hunt, or fish for food. Examples of this would be pastoralism, and horticulture. An example of pastoralism can be seen in the savannas, pastoralists and their animals gather when rain water is abundant and the pasture is rich, then scatter during the drying of the savanna. Horticulture can be seen in ancient Mayan culture, in the cornfields, multiple crops were grown such as beans (using cornstalks as supports), squash, pumpkins and chili peppers. Food producers on the other

I choose to analyze the Copper Inuit of the Arctic who are a modern foraging group who reside within North America. This was a large band of hunters and gathers who sought to not just survive but thrive within North America's harsh climate in the North where most enemy tribes dared not to go. With little vegetation growth in their region, the Inuit relied heavily on hunting and fishing animals such as seals, beluga whales, oxen, fox, and bear. With such an abundance of land and sea life. The Inuit were able to grow quiet vastly in numbers, reaching to it's highest population size in the 1990's. This also meant they didn't need to travel as far or as much to collect food due to how abundant the supply had already been. Families would spread

In Richard B. Lee’s article, “What Hunters do for a Living” he takes readers into the world of the ! Kung Bushmen who lived in the Kalahari desert. He then documents their gathering and food practices. Many decades ago, humans were entirely dependent on gathering and hunting their own food. Vegetables were 60-80% of the !

Today I will be exploring a currently debated topic in history, foraging or farming? Which one provided a better quality of life? Many people have expressed their different opinions in this debate, and today I will be doing the same.

Hunter-gatherers consume less energy per capita per year than any other group of human beings. Yet when you come to examine it the original affluent society was none other than the hunter's - in which all the people's material wants were easily satisfied. To accept that hunters are affluent is therefore to recognise that the present human condition of man slaving to bridge the gap between his unlimited wants and his insufficient means is a tragedy of modern times.

No matter how extreme Anthropocentrism becomes in our society, we are still primates that require food, shelter, and social interaction to sustain ourselves. In humanity we can find five different approaches to ensuring our success in this regard, called subsistence strategies. There is the original affluent society of hunter-gatherers, of which all homo sapiens and our hominin ancestors practiced until 10,000 years ago. This is practiced by bands of up to fifty people, foraging the local environment for edible plants and hunting animals. For larger groups of up to 250 you may find horticulturalists, who commonly burn areas of land and create gardens in the ashes. Large nomadic camps with strong group identities have pastoralism, the herding of domesticated animals. For socially complex societies settled in a permanent spot, there is the intense cultivation of the land, called agriculture. Finally, for enormous societies, there is the newest strategy of Industrialism, which puts a massive amount of importance on the market economics of comparative advantage trading. All five strategies are valid paths for subsistence success. Unilineal theories and their proclaimed supremacy of industrialized societies hold no weight in the light of anthropological research. Studies of the !Kung Bushmen, Alaskan Natives, and Guarani Indians prove that the "primitive" hunter-gatherer and horticultural societies are well-nourished, intelligent, and appropriate for the modern world.

The gender division in the food preparation has an atavistic stigma. Men hunted and acquired meat; women were preparing meat at home and served it to the family. All primitive communities are characterised by the subordinate role of woman.