Final Review Flashcards
Positionality
The social and political context that creates your identity AND/OR how your identity influences and biases your perception of and outlook on the world
Human ecology
Represents the interactions between humans and the natural environment. This includes forms of subsistence or the means by which people exploit natural resources to provide for human needs
What is important to note about human ecology?
The type of resource base and corresponding subsistence system will influence the social organization and cultural institutions
Examples of human ecology
hunting, fishing, herding, agriculture
Who are the indigenous peoples?
the first inhabitants of Canada
There are aproximately (blank) Indigenous peoples in (blank) countries?
476 million
90
How many million Canadians self-identify as Indigenous
1.67 million
Internationally, Indigenous peoples are those groups that?
Have a specific set of rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory and their cultural or historical distinctiveness from other populations
When did the Medieval Warming Period occur?
600-1400 AD
Medieval Warming period
Temperatures rose a few degrees above average and this rise in temperature has been connected to improve crop yields
Plausible explanations for the MWP (Part 1)
Weakening Gulf stream due to large input of freshwater during the MWP (warmer climates and an increase in discharge of freshwater from continents in the ocean basins can affect oceanic circulation)
Plausible explanations for MWP (part 2)
Volcanic eruptions in the Southern Hemisphere (sulphate aerosols in stratosphere)
Plausible explanations for MPW (part 3)
Natural climate variation (precession cycle)
Plausible explanations for MWP (part 4)
In North American, the first contact with Europeans, massive depopulation and reforestation (contributes to cooling and only need a few degrees of change to spark global cooling)
When did the Little Ice Age occur?
14th-19th century
Little Ice age
A period of cooling after the MWP
What did Lewis Henry Morgan propose?
Advancements in social organizations arose primarily from changes in food production
Lewis Henry Morgan’s hierarchy
Hunter-gathere—>savagery—->barbarism—->civilization
Hunter-gatherer/savagery stage
Did not utilize technologies but instead were using “less sophisticated” methods of agriculture
ex) using their hands
Barbarism stage
Immediately follows hunter-gatherer/savagery. It is a stage of settled agriculture
ex) using plows
Civilization
An urban society that possessed more advanced agricultural technologies
Modern biases that stem from the Lewis Henry Morgan hierarchy
The civilization stage (agriculture technologies) is still more sophisticated or desirable than that of the hunter-gatherer stage
Contributions of Ester Boserup
The digging stick was the most primitive of agricultural tools and those who used a digging stick were the most primitive. Those who used a plow reached the highest level of civilization.
Milankovitch Theory (orbital eccentricity)
90,000- 100,000 year cycle. Variation in the shape of Earth’s orbit influences amounts of insolation
Milankovitch Theory (tilt obliquity)
40,000 year cycle
Variations in Earth’s axial tilt increases or decreases seasonal contrasts in isolation (when we are tilted towards the sun we receive more energy)
Milankovitch Theory (Orbital precession)
23,000 year cycle.
Cyclical change in the wobble of the Earth of its axis influences seasonal extremes at perihelion and aphelion in winter (sometimes we get perihelion in winter and have a mild winter. this means we get a cool summer when aphelion happens in summer)
Natural ecology of ancient crops
original crops were large seeded, annual grasses. Annual plants produce large seeds to survive the hot dry summers.
Theorized locations of first crops
Middle east- parts of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Iraq
Mediterranean climate regions
Long, dry, hot summers with terminal droughts (poor growing conditions in the summer).
Relatively cool, wet winters (made winter a good growing season)
Characteristics of domesticated crops
1- Elimination or reduction in natural seed dispersals
2- Elimination of seed dormancy
3- Larger seed size
4- Uniform maturity
5- Self fertility
Elimination or reduction in natural seed dispersal
Domesticated cereals have tough rachis that prevent natural seed dispersal
Elimination of seed dormancy
Pulses have thich, impermeable seed coats where wild grasses have physiological mechanisms that detect heat and light (allows seeds to germinate in seasons most favourable for growth)
Larger seed size
domesticated plants have larger seeds
Uniform maturity
Domesticated plants tend to mature more evenly
Theories of plant domestication
1- Unintentional domestication (possible in cereals)
2- Intentional domestication (most probable in pulses)
3- Rate of domestication (could have occurred rapidly)
Rate of domestication
Changes are often genetically dominant traits. Suggested that foraging for wild grasses occurred in parallel with crop production
Centres of agricultural origin
Agriculture first appeared in western Asia (Fertile Crescent) however, it evolved independently in several places later
Partial list of the centres of agricultural origins
1- Rice and soybean in china
2- Corn, bean and squash in Mexico
3- Potato and quinoa in South America
4- Sorghum and yams in Africa
5- Sunflowers in North America
6- Sugar cane and taro in New Guinea
Clam gardens
Ancient aquaculture innovation of ancestral First Nations peoples to cultivate clams, but also barnacles, crabs, sea cucumbers, kelp and fish
What did clam gardens consist of?
Rock walls constructed in the intertidal zone to help catch and contain sediment and to cause water to pool, providing suitable habitat for clams
How many more times productive were clam gardens than unaltered beaches?
2 to 4 times
Red and yellow cedar
The distribution of stripped cedar suggests regular revisiting, multiple sequential harvesting and forest management
Estuarine root gardens
Some of the most compelling evidence of the northwest coast cultivation may be found in the traditional management of native plants with edible root gardens
Which roots were included in the gardens?
True roots, rhizomes, tubers and bulbs
The roots found in the estuarine root gardens were the foremost dietary source of (blank) for central and northern coast peoples prior to the introduction to the potato, augmenting a diet rich in (blank).
Carbohydrates, marine protein
Orchard and forest gardens
Represent a complex plant assemblage that were managed for nutritional, economic, medicinal and spiritual needs
How does an orchard/forest garden work?
The dark, closed canopy of the conifer forest opens up and is replaced by sunny, orchard-like spread of food producing trees and shrubs
What types of trees and shrubs are found in orchard/forest gardens?
Crabapple, hazelnut, cranberry, wild plum, wild cherry
Cultural keystone resources
Have exceptional significance to a culture of a people and can be identified by their prevalence in language, cultural practices, ceremonies, traditions, diet, medicine, material items and histories
Examples of cultural keystone resources
Sockeye salmon, caribou, bison
The Ojibwe and Cree considered there two things a cultural keystone resource
Wild rice and acorns
Stages of wild rice processing
Binding -> knocking -> drying ->parching ->winnowing ->storage
Binding was an (blank) of (blank).
Indication, property ownership
Binding
Indigenous peoples go through rivers binding the rice which creates corridors so that the canoes do not run over the rice
What was used to bind the rice?
push poles
Knocking
When the canoe goes down the river the knockers reaches out and gently taps the rice, making it fall into the canoe
What is unique about the knocking process?
The rice that falls back into the water will regerminate and restart the cycle
It is estimated a canoe can hold about (blank) pounds of rice
200
Drying
Spread the rice out of blankets or bark to dry out. It may take several days for the rice to dry out depending on the conditions
Who did majority of the labour when drying?
Young boys and girls
Parching
Burning off the outside of the rice by heating it up in a big kettles and stirring it
Hulling
The outside shell comes off the rice seed
Winnowing
lift the rice, the shucks of the rice would come off
Where would Indigenous peoples take the rice to winnow it? Why this location?
By the lakeshore to winnow in the wind
Storage
It would store for years in animal skins or bark under the ground
What was the most critical part in the harvesting of wild rice?
Storage
Domesticated landscapes
Describes/refers to Indigenous cultivation in an integrated process
Continuum of production
Three sisters- BC plant management- wild rice
What factors influence the social organization and cultural institutions
The type of resources available and the corresponding production system
Growing Degree Days
There was a decline of mean summer temperatures which lead to a shortened growing season. There was greater variability in rain and frost conditions and a high risk of consecutive crop failures.
Socio-ecology adaptations to the LIA
1- Minimize the frequency of crop failure
2- Minimize the consequences of crop failure
3- Abandon agriculture as a subsistence activity altogether
How did Indigenous groups minimize the frequency of crop failure?
Micro-climate adaptation and changes in settlement patterns
Iroquois movement from (blank) bottoms to fortified (blank) minimized agricultural risk
River, hilltops
Planting on (blank) that are well draining allowed for early planting (micro-climate adaptation)
Slopes
Planting on south facing hillsides that maximized solar radiation did what? (micro-climate adaptation)
Extended growing seasons
Planting in areas with a southerly or southeasterly exposure is a method employed to minimize the (blank) of crop failure
Frequency
A micro-climate adaptation method was to plant near lakes and water bodies. Why?
Protects against frost
How did the Iroquois extend their growing season? (micro-climate adaptation)
Grew seeds inside, in soil filled bark containers and then they were transported to the fields
How did Indigenous groups minimize the consequences of crop failure?
Diversified subsistence systems and had a dietary transition/diversification from plants to meat
What were the three key points of diversifying subsistence systems?
1- Strategies
2- Species
3- Settlement patterns
Virgin Soil Hypothesis
Lack of defenses against new diseases (the magnitude of population declines remain in dispute)
Ideology of domintation
On the basis of colonial prejudices, the European settlers created a distorted perception of Indigenous peoples that depicted them as dangerous savages and un-Christian
European settlers practiced an (blank) of (blank) based on exaggerated perception of risk posed by Indigenous peoples
Ideology, domination
Indigenous peoples were believed to be incapable of (blank) into Euro-Canadian society and the presence of Indigenous people were considered intolerable and therefore be (blank).
Assimilation, eliminated
Manifest destiny
The idea that the United States is destined by God to expand its dominion across North America
Canadas efforts to push west to settle the prairie provinces was a response to the threat of (blank) expansionism. This is proved to be (blank) expansionism.
American, Canadian
Soldier Settlement Act
In the three prairie provinces every eligible soldier was entitled to a grant of 160 acres and also the right to homestead an additional 160 acres
True or False: First Nations veterans were given the same benefits afforded to non-First Nations veterans
False
Where did the land for the Soldier Settlement Act come from?
The land was reallocated reserve lands
Certificates of Possession
A documentary piece of evidence of a First Nations members lawful possession of a reserve lands pursuant to the Indian Act
Is the certificate of possession holder eligible to get a mortgage or use the land as collateral?
No, because the Canadian government retains legal title of the land
Social Engineering
The use of centralized planning in an attempt to manage social change and regulate the future development and behaviour of society
CIRNAC lease
The federal government has statutory responsibility for land management activities on reserves stemming from the Indian Agent. This includes review, approval and issuing of payments to the First Nations government
Buckshee lease
Refers to a lease that has not been granted in accordance with the Indian Act (handshake lease)
Which lease type has greater security? (Buckshee or CIRNAC)
CIRNAC
Severalty policy
Divided reserve land into small 40 acre plots
True or False: A First Nation farmer was not allowed to hold more than four plots or 160 acres
True
What were the three purposes of the severalty policy?
1- The continuation of an overall government policy to subvert First Nations people from a tribal system of individualism and private property.
2- To assist in determining the amount of agricultural land available to the federal government.
3- Unused or unallocated lands should be open for sale to the European settlers
Greater Production Campaign
Launched in 1971 to increase food production to aid in the war effort
What were the three goals of the Greater Production Campaign?
1- Create a network of government run farms on First Nations reserves
2- Lease or make available as much reserve land as possible to non-First Nations farmers
3- Stimulate interest in farming among First Nations members
Terra Nullius
Vacant land- it belongs to no one
Kin-centric
If you treat plants like family and with respect, they will reciprocate that
European views of pre-contact wilderness
The landscape that Europeans discovered was natural and pristine. Native Americans did not play a role in shaping or managing vegetation
The Three Sisters
Maize, bean, squash and sometimes sunflower is considered a fourth sister
Maize
Provides support for beans trailing vine. Originated and domesticated in Southwestern mexico 5000 years ago
Beans
Fixes nitrogen and shows few changes through its 9000 years of domestication. The changes are mainly in seed size and seed coat impermeability to water
Where and when did beans originate and become domesticated?
As early as 6000 years ago in Mexico
Squash
Provides ground cover to hold moisture, maintain healthy soil environment and deter animals
There are two possible origins of squash. What are these places?
Central American and Eastern North America
Squash a part of the diet of Indigenous peoples living in what is now (blank) state
New York
On-reserve land ownership
Lands are held in trust for First Nations peoples and the Minister of CIRNAC retains the ultimate authority for reserve lands (Indian Act)
Farming heritage
Includes the day-to-day activities of farm management but also the beliefs, traditions, habits, knowledge and norms associated with farming/ranching enterprises
Permit System
Required all First Nations farmers to obtain a permit from the Indian Agent before they could legally sell their products off reserve
Pass System
Required all First Nations acquire a pass before being allowed to leave the reserve for any reason
Home Farm Experiment
Located on or near reserves, instructors were to raise large quantities of provisions to support themselves, their families and neighbouring First Nations
Home Farms were a (blank) approach to agricultural adoption
Model Farm
What was the goal of Metis Rehabilitation Farm Colonies?
To establish a series of segregated Metis rehabilitation farms in the province of Saskatchewan, where eventually, after learning to farm, they could better integrate into the larger Canadian society
Today, the (blank) Alberta Metis settlements are the only (blank) recognized Metis land bases
eight, government
What was the goal of the File Hills Farm Colony?
The plan of the colony was for graduates of the Indian residential school to take up land on the File Hills Colony and begin farming
What did the government wish to demonstrate from the File Hills Farm Colony?
Graduates of the colony could become cultural replicas of Euro-Canadians
Why was File Hills Farm Colony established?
As a strategy of indoctrination of First Nations peoples
Agricultural treaty provisions
Treaties 1 and 2 allocated 160 acres per family of five. While treaties 3-11 allocated 640 acres per family of 5. However, reserve lands are held in trust by the government.
Agricultural provisions
Each family was allotted the following:
4 hoes, 2 spades, 1 plow, 2 scythes, 1 whetstone, 2 hay forks, 2 reaping hooks.
Each reserve was allotted the following:
4 oxen, 1 bull, 6 cows, 1 boar, 2 sows, 1 hand-mill, enough wheat, barley and oats to seed the land
Coping strategies of BSE (for non-First Nations producers)
Refinancing existing loans, extending loan payments, borrowing more money, finding off-farm employment, selling land, keeping cattle on grass for longer periods, accepting reduced receipts in the short run to minimize loss
BSE impact on First Nations ranchers
Accelerated farm exit; greater stress leading to suicide, depression and abuse; limited the long term viability of First Nations involvement in the livestock industry in Canada; estimated decline in herd size from 7500 to 1600 head; potential loss of $1.7 million in income support
Reasons for First Nations exclusion from BSE support programs
Unaware and/or ineligible
Beneficial outcomes from One Earth Farm
Reserve lands were surveyed and legal land locations, farmable acres and other details were recorded; INAC secured leases; new farm enterprises established; fair market lease rates; lessons learned for future corporate partnerships
Reasons for One Earth Farm failure
Low margins; management structure; difficulty overcoming initial entry investment; First Nations quickly became landlords, not owners; as a venture capital firm SRC had short investment timelines
Food Security
Physical, social, and economic access to food that is safe and meets preferences and dietary need
Food Sovereignty
Tends to focus on the need for a democratic food system and the rights of consumers and producers
Indigenous food sovereignty
The right to own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired
Indigenous food system attributes and values
Cultural values of Indigenous food (respect and reciprocity); need for productive terrestrial, aquatic and marine ecosystems and habitats, with natural processes intact
Colonial impacts on Indigenous food systems
Systemic racism, dispossession of land, residential schools, predominance of the wage economy, banning of cultural food ceremonies and practices, outlawing Indigenous stewardship and tending practices, dietary transition, food contamination
Indigenous foodways
A term that is used to capture the complex significance of food within Indigenous cultures
What is the common thread in Indigenous foodways?
The linking of food, culture, health, environmental, and the economy in Indigenous societies
Indigenizing food sovereignty (Cote 2016 quote)
“Moves beyond a rights-based discourse by emphasizing the cultural responsibilities and relationships Indigenous peoples have with their environment and the efforts being made by Indigenous communities to restore these relationships through the revitalization of Indigenous foods and ecological knowledge systems as they assert control over their own foods and practices”
Constraints to securing traditional foods
Loss of land and resource, cost, generational loss of knowledge and food safety
Constraints to securing commercial/store-bought foods
Highly processed, poor quality, high costs, culturally incompatible and few food options
Major challenges for Indigenous agri-businesses
Financing; government policies, programs and services; access to land; business experience, mentorship, professional associations; high rates of economic leakage
Policy constraints
First Nations operating on reserve encounter challenges when trying to obtain licensing and certifications needed to compete with larger, commercialized brands or in the international market. As a result, many businesses are unable to pursue distribution opportunities for their value-added products within
Indigenous branding
Product branding establishes an identity in the marketplace; components includes logos, design, packaging, messaging; Indigenous branding also establishes an emotional connection with customers
Market advantage
Competitive edge gained through unique products and effective production
Willingness to pay
Defined as the most a consumer will spend on a product or service. Research has shown that consumers are willing to pay a premium for products with unique features or places of origin. Indigenous food products often have high willingness to pay thresholds
Consumer attitudes towards Indigenous foods
The uniqueness of geographical origin, pristine environment, cultural connection with Indigenous peoples, as well as the potential to promote community economic development are strong motivations for buying Indigenous foods
Indigenous food tourism
7 million or 1 in 3 tourists seeking Indigenous related experience; 33,100 direct employment; $1.4 million in GDP
What makes Indigenous agri-businesses different?
1- Many view agri-business as a way of preserving culture, tradition, and reestablishing healthy and sustainable food systems
2- Motivation for business development isn’t driven by profit only, but also to address social problems within communities.
Indigenous agri-business aim for stability, rather than growth and expansion, perhaps due to their focus on objectives not related to standard measures of success