Hadza Forager Women, Tanzania

Subsistence Patterns:Food Collectors

Subsistence

• Subsistence Strategy:– Also called “Mode of Production”– The dominant way a culture gets its food– In practice, many cultures use mixed

strategies

Major Strategies

• Food Collecting:– Foraging (also called Hunting-Gathering)

• Food Production:– Domesticated Plants (Agriculture),

Domesticated Animals (Pastoralism)

Adaptation

• Humans adapt to their environments• Cultural Ecology

– Adapt through culture (learned behaviors, invented tools)

– Adapt through biology (long-term physical changes reflecting environmental conditions, e.g. more or less melanin in skin based on amount of ultra-violet rays from the sun)

Environment and Subsistence

• Subsistence:– Practices are affected by environment, culture

and technology• Carrying Capacity:

– The capacity of a given region to support a society of people, given a particular subsistence practice

– Increasing investments in environment (e.g. planting crops, use of fertilizer, technology) leads to a rise in carrying capacity

Environment and Subsistence

• Optimal Foraging Theory:– States that foragers (food collectors) maximize

caloric intake versus energy output– Based on presumption of rational decision-

making• Environment limits possibilities, but does

not dictate practices– Variation in practices seen in similar

environments– Variation in what is considered “food”

Foragers

• Subsistence strategy using food occurring in nature– “Hunting and gathering”– Main strategy for most of human history– Shift away from foraging occurred during the

Neolithic Revolution• c. 10,000 years ago• Emergence of domesticated foods

– Less than 1/4 million foragers today

Foragers: Characteristics

• Low population densities, live in small groups– Live in balance with resources– Necessary for strategy to be sustainable

• Often nomadic/semi-nomadic– Must travel to where resources are available– No formal property ownership

• Basic social institution is the family or band– Group formation is dynamic, fluid– Groups can break apart and reform if necessary

• Now live in marginalized environments– Resource-rich environments now used by other people

Historically Known Foragers

Foragers: The Ju/’hoansi• Live in Kalahari desert of Africa• Frequent nomads, must move

many times a year to access resources

• Environmental knowledge and access to land is key to survival

• In temperate regions like this, women’s work (plant-based calories) contributes more to overall diet

• Now becoming sedentary due to government policies

Foragers: The Inuit

• Circumpolar regions: Arctic and sub arctic

• Semi-nomadic, move less frequently based on harsh landscape

• Rely heavily on hunting and fishing to make a living

• Few plants available

Foragers: Summary

• Today’s foragers live in sub-optimal environments for their lifestyle; optimal environments now occupied by others

• Temperate region foragers (like Ju/’hoansi) have less division of labor overall– men and women can each do most tasks on their own,

except men responsible for large game hunting• Circumpolar region foragers (like Inuit) have

sharper division of labor between males and females– males hunt/fish, women process all of the food back at

camp