Anth - Chap 3 & 4 Flashcards
Pastoralism
Small number of societies depend mostly for their living on domesticated herds of animals that feed on natural pasture; herding large domesticated animals
Cash crops
Crops raised for sale (I.e. Cotton, tobacco)
Commercialization
May occur in any area of life & which involves increasing dependence on buying & selling, usually with money as the medium of exchange
Horticulture
Growing of crops of all kinds with relatively simple tools & methods; small-scale, low intensity farming
Slash-and-burn
Slash the undergrowth & using a controlled burning to clear a garden spot; Swidden agriculture
Extensive or shifting cultivation
The land is worked for short periods & then left idle for some years; they are later cleared by slash-and- burn
Intensive agriculture
Use techniques that enable them to cultivate fields permanently; fertilizers, irrigation & plows used; larger scale, intensive farming
Foraging
Food-getting strategy that obtains wild plant & animal resources thru gathering, hunting, scavenging, or fishing; aka hunter-gatherers
Transhumance
Moving from ecosystem to another, depending on the season. Specifically, a blended form of nomadism, where part of the family stays in one place, while the animals & generally the males of the family move with the animals from ecosystem to ecosystem
Nomadism
Everyone moves to obtain essential resources
Carrying capacity
The amount of people/population an ecosystem can support
Peasants
People who are tied to the land that often work for the elite. The presence of a peasant class suggests a class system has developed. They can be found where intensive agriculture is practiced.
“Neolithic Revolution”
About 10,000 years ago, humans began to cultivate & ultimately domesticate plants & animals
Subsistence economies
Almost all able-bodied adults were largely engaged in getting food for themselves & their families
Negative reciprocity
Taking with no intention of return. This can occur during periods of war or between strangers.
Potlatch
Native American groups of Pacific Northwest where a chief might attempt to enhance his status; a chief & his group would give away blankets, pieces of copper, canoes, large quantities of food
Generalized reciprocity
When goods or services are given to another, w/out any apparent expectation of a return gift
Balanced reciprocity
Involves either an immediate exchange of goods or services or an agreed upon exchange over a limited period of time.
Barter
Nonmonetary exchange of goods & services
Redistribution
The accumulation of goods or labor by a particular person, or in a particular place, for the purpose of subsequent distribution.
Subsistence patterns
Sources & methods a society uses to obtain its food & other necessities
Anthropologist divided cultures of world into 4 basic subsistence types:
- Foraging
- Pastoralism
- Horticulture
- Intensive agriculture
Production
how food and other necessities are created in a society.
Market economy
an impersonal but highly efficient system of production, distribution, and exchange that is principally characterized by: 1) the use of money as a means of exchange, 2) having the ability to accumulate vast amounts of capital (i.e., wealth that can be used to fund further production), and 3) having highly complex economic interactions that are ultimately international in the scale of their inter-relatedness.
Potlatch
a complex redistributive system that existed among some of the Indian cultures of the Northwest Coast of North America. This was a complex system of competitive feasting, speechmaking, and gift giving intended in part to enhance the status of the giver. For the Kwakiutl society, potlatches were important social gatherings held to celebrate major life events such as a son’s marriage, the birth of a child, a daughter’s first menses, and the initiation of a sister’s son into a secret society. They also were used to assert or transfer ownership of economic and ceremonial privileges. It sometimes took years to accumulate the things needed for a big potlatch. Loans (with interest) had to be called in from relatives for this purpose. When all was ready, high ranking, influential people from the local and other communities were invited for several days of feasting and entertaining. Guests were seated according to their relative status. The host made speeches and dramatically gave gifts of food, Hudson Bay Company blankets, canoes, slaves, rare copper artifacts, and other valuable items to the guests. Those of higher status received more. The host was likely to also destroy money, waste fish oil by throwing it on a fire, and do other things to show that he was willing to economically bankrupt himself in order to increase his social status. The acceptance of the gifts was an affirmation of the host’s generosity and subsequently of his increased status. The feast and the gifts essentially placed the guests in debt to their host until they could at some future time invite him to their own potlatch and give him more than he gave them–in essence a return on an investment. The potlatch served as a tool for one-upmanship for important Kwakiutl men.
Slash-and-burn
the method used by horticulturalists to clear fields of heavy vegetation in preparation for planting new crops. Brush and small trees are cut down and allowed to dry out in place. They are then burned. This simultaneously clears the field of all but large trees and adds ash to the soil surface. The ash acts as a fertilizer. No other fertilizer is applied to the field. As a result, soil productivity lasts only for a few years.
Food production
The cultivation & raising of plants & animals
