Chapter 7 Flashcards
domestication
Human interference with the reproduction of another species, with the result that specific plants and animals become more useful to people and dependent on them.
ecological niche
Any species’ way of life: what it eats and how it finds mates, raises its young, relates to companions, and protects itself from predators.
**evolutionary niche
Sum of all the natural selection pressures to which a population is exposed.
**niche construction
When an organism actively perturbs the environment or when it actively moves into a different environment.
agriculture
The systematic modification of the environments of plants and animals to increase their productivity and usefulness.
agroecology
The systematically modified environment (or constructed niche) which becomes the only environment within which domesticated plants can flourish.
sedentism
The process of increasingly permanent human habitation in one place.
**broad-spectrum foraging
A subsistence strategy based on collecting a wide range of plants and animals by hunting, fishing, and gathering.
social stratification
A form of social organization in which people have unequal access to wealth, power, and prestige.
Neolithic
The “New Stone Age”, which began with the domestication of plants 10,300 years ago.
**egalitarian social relations
Social relations in which no great differences in wealth, power, or prestige divide members from one another.
**social stratification
A form of social organization in which people have unequal access to wealth, power, and prestige.
**surplus production
The production of amounts of food that exceed the basic subsistence needs of the population.
occupational specialization
Specialization in various occupations (e.g., weaving or pot making) or in new social roles (e.g., king or priest) that is found in socially complex societies.
class
A ranked group within a hierarchically stratified society whose membership is defined primarily in terms of wealth, occupation, or other economic criteria.
