Pre Midterm Flashcards
Positionality
Is the social and political context that creates your identity and
how your identity influences and biases your perception of and outlook on the world
In canada the indigenous population is
approximately 1.8 million
5% of the Canadian population
who are indigenous people
the first inhabitants of Canada
Internationally indigenous people are
those groups recognized and protected in international or national legislation as having a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory, and their cultural or historical distinctiveness from other populations
flawed social theory
Lewis henry morgan (1877) proposed that advances in social organization arose primarily from changes in food production
Three universal stages of human/social evolution
Savagery
Barbarism
civilization
Savagery
Characterized by the economy of hunting and gathering
barbarism
Characterized by ‘food-producing’ economies of agriculturalists and pastoralists
Civilization
Characterized by advanced agricultural technologies, the rise of urban settlements and non-food producing specialists (merchants and artisans)
Process of shifting cultivation
Cut down trees and bush
Remainder is bruned and ashes add nutrients to soil
Swidden (cleared area)
Land is hoed and planted
Crops grow for 3 years, then nutrients are depleted and fields are left fallow for 6-20 years
Earliest stage of human development
Indigenous farmers
Shifting cultivation represents
primitive stages of human development
All farmers start as
shifting cultivators and advance to more complex and sophisticated forms of agriculture
Plows
Eurocentric bias
The digging stick is the most primitive of the main agricultural tools and the people who use digging sticks are the most primitive among the primitive agricultural tribes living today.
Denying indigenous farming practices enabled Settler States
to reject Indigenous peoples’ rights to land, thereby advancing their own territorial claims
The Doctorine of Discovery provided
a framework for Christian explorers, in the name of their respective governments to lay claim to territories uninhabited by other christians. If the lands were vacant then they could be defined as “discovered” and sovereignty over those lands could be claimed
Land was considered terra nullius (vacant land)
if it had not yet been ‘put to good use’ by those Christian values. Such vacant land could be defined as “discovered” and as a result sovereignty, title and jurisdiction could be claimed.
Terra nullius refers to
“territory without a master”. Used in international law to describe land that may be inhabited but not owned and can therefore be claimed by others.
In canada terra nullius was used
to justify and legitimise the territorial dispossession of Indigenous peoples (as late as 1996)
Europeans have advanced a notion that
The landscape that Europeans discovered was ‘natural’, ‘pristine’ and devoid of ‘productive’ uses.
Indigenous peoples did not play a role in shaping or managing vegetation
‘Ecological Indian’
John Muir 1880s said
Indians walk softly and hurt the landscape hardly more than birds or squirrels
False narrative
to convey a story that isn’t accurate but to characterize it as if it is by creating a false story behind the situation in order to make it factual.
They can linger in the public discourse for a long time
Example of a false narrative
that Indigenous peoples aren’t farmers they are hunters
Myths of indigenous agricultural systems
Racially motivated
politically motivated
false narrative
The peopling of North America
15,000 years ago via the Bering land bridge
Coastal route and ice free corridor
Took long
Reached the Great plains around 13,000 years ago
Human ecology
Represents the interactions between humans and the environment
Culture area
is a geographic region in which societies share many traits
Shared traits
reflect the relationship between culture and the physical environment
Groups in the same culture area
develop similar traits over time as they adapt to their shared environment
Culture is
Adaptive
Repellors
Cultural inertia and maladaptive behavior
Adoptors
Resilience and adaptive to change
Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK)
is a cumulative body of knowledge, practice, and belief based on observation and experience and handed down through generations by cultural transmission.
Domesticating landscapes
indigenous cultivation is an integrated process
A continuum of influence
Subtle manipulation
agronomic knowledge
extensive/intensive management
Plant management strategies
landscape burning
clearing, weeding, “cleaning”
Habitat creation, extension, or alteration
tilling soil
dissemination
transplanting
pruning
selective, partial, rotational or non-damaging harvesting
fertilizing, mulching
Landscape burning
Prescribed, periodic burning of particular sites and habitats, usually undertaken as rotation over several years
Clearing, weeding, “cleaning”
Manual pulling or digging out of brush or “weedy” growth; removing large rocks, etc
Habitat creation, extension, or alteration
Creating new drainage, light, or nutrient regimes through berming, terracing, ditching, digging, cutting trees
Tilling soil
Traditionally done with digging sticks to aerate soil; enhance moisture penetration; recycle nutrients, etc.
Dissemination
Planting or scattering seeds or fruits
Transplanting
moving roots and other plants from one location to another
Pruning
Cutting branches or entire upper growth of trees or shrubs to stimulate new growth
Selective, partial, rotational or non-damaging harvesting
taking only a portion of a plant or only some individuals from a population
Fertilizing, mulching
Adding nutrients (e.g. fish remains) or moisture-retaining materials to soil
Impact of indigenous burning
at the time of european contact the fire regime and resulting vegetation structure in many areas of north america was fundamentally alters by indigenous controlled burns.
used to enhance/promote plant production and influence the availability of wildfire
Natural ecology of ancient crops
Original crops were large seeded, annual grasses
annual plants produce large seed to survive hot dry summers
early hunter-gatherers collected
mediterranean environments selected for annual plants
long, hot, dry summers with terminal droughts
relatively cool, wet winters
Climate change triggering agriculture
possibly caused by large influx of fresh water from Lake Agassiz into North Atlantic
Interrupted thermohaline circulation (gulf stream)
Younger Dryas
coincided with beginning of agriculture
cooling may have reduced game populations
Difference between domestic and wild crops
elimination of seed dispersal (most important)
elimination of seed dormancy (most important)
larger seed size
uniform maturity
self-fertility
Elimination or reduction in natural seed dispersal
lack of shattering
tough rachis in domesticated cereals (does not break, prevents natural dispersal)
seed that shattered was not harvested
often controlled by one gene
No seed dormancy
dormant seeds do not grow
pulses have thick impermeable seed coats
wild grasses have physiological mechanisms that detect heat and light
Seed size
domesticated plants have larger seed
seed size in domestic vs. wild wheat seed
Uniform maturity
domesticated plants mature more evenly
How were wild relatives domesticated?
domesticated crops differ from wild plants in that they will not normally survive in the wild (rely on humans)
truly domesticated crops have evolved differences
Two theories on how crops were domesticated
intentional- probably most pulses
unintentional- possible in cereals
Crop production practices that select for domestic crops
sickle harvesting
Transporting seed from one field and re-planting it where there was none
Drill seeding and tillage
routine of harvest selected for even maturity
Sickle harvesting
non shattering: evolution of tough rachis in domesticated wheat
also helps selects for; pulling off of immature heads less selective
to select for this seed must be harvested and sown elsewhereTransportin
Transporting seed from one field and replanting it where there was none
selected for a lack of seed dormancy
increased the rate of selection of non-shattering- no seedbank of shattering types
Drill seeding and tillage
seed size
drill seeding and tillage may have selected for larger seed size as well
Routine of harvest selected for even maturity
uniform maturity; immature seed not viable, seed too mature would have fallen off of plant already
related to elimination of natural seed dispersal
Crop domestication
crops changed genetically in response to selection imposed by crop production practices
crops co-evolved with agriculture
to grow modern crops we mimic mediterranean climate
Rate of domestication
could have occurred rapidly
changes are often genetically dominant traits
seems to have taken 1-2 millennia
centers of origin of agriculture
first appeared in western asia, it evolved independently in several other places later
Maize (corn)
domesticated in central america
dominant caloric food source for many pre-contact first nations (olmec, maya, aztec, iroquois and many others)
domesticated in mexico
grown pre-contact through much of north and south america (manitoba, north dakota, montana closest to SK)
Maize domestication
teosinte- maize
less branched inflorescence
less branched plant
paired spikelet
few ear
non-shattering
>4 ranks capsule
naked kernels
weak dormancy
Antiquarianism
study of history through objects such as antiques, artifacts and manuscripts
Ecozones
National framework for land classifications
scale
variables
Plains Archaeology
visible
stratified sites
defined projectile point sequence
“hunter-gatherer” subsistence with focus on concentrated large game (bison)
Boreal Forest Archaeology (subartic)
invisible
few stratified sites
poorly defined point sequence
“forager” subsistence with focus on dispersed resources
Cultural chronology
archaeological data organized (usually) into time units based on artifact types- outcome of culture history approach
Archaeological culture
recurring assemblage of artifact types from a specific time period; two/three primary time periods
Early precontact
end of the last glaciation
clovis and folsom cultures
big game hunters
finely made points with ‘flutes’
cody complex style points
Middle precontact
environmental changes (warmer/drier)
atlatl and atlatl weights
bison evolution
subsistence shift
ceremonial circle sites
Late precontact
technology changes; bow and arrow, pottery, influence from eastern woodlands
ice glider gaming pipes
bison pounds, jumps, traps
focus on hunting
preservation, visibility and bias
Plains village tradition
fortified villages
subterranean houses overlooking Missouri River
valley bottom gardens
reliance on horticulture supplemented with bison
Middle Missouri
fortified villages, floodplain horticulture, seasonal bison hunting, distinctive pottery, competition for resoucres and warfare
Eastern Dakotas
Small, scattered and fortified and unfortified villages, mixed economy
Cahokia
was the largest and most significant settlement in North America and was present more than 1,000 years before european contact
Ethnoecology
studies how people in different societies understand, perceive, experience and relate with the natural environment around them.
Aims to understand how we as humans interact with the environment and how these intricate relations modify both nature and culture.
Thunderbird’s lightning
acts to burn off ‘old fool and to renew the land
polycropping
is the intentional co-planting of a variety of species of plants in one plot
Advantages of polycropping
nutrients stay in soil
the plants form their own self-sustaining ecosystem
Disadvantages of polycropping
labour intensive
limits mechanizations
The three sisters
is a cultural plant complex employed for at least 500 years before european contact that involves three plants- corns, beans, squash- working together
How three sisters works
beans grow up the corn stalks and give nutrients such as nitrogen to the corn from the soil
corn acts like a pole for the beans, giving them stability to mature
squash is planted in between the corn and beans to help keep weeds out
without this method, farming would have been much harder for the Native Americans to maintain
The fourth sister
can be sunflower which supports the beans, lures birds from the corn with seeds and attracts insect pollinators
Sister one: Corn (maize)
Corn is the most versatile of the three sisters
it was commonly dried and cooked over a fire or ground up into corn meal
the husks were also used for baskets and other tools
Sister two: beans
Bean originated and was domesticated in mexico as early as 6,000 years ago
few changes with changes mainly in seed size and coat impermeability to water
mostly eaten raw or boiled in water
often ground into a thick paste and eaten on maize tortillas
excellent storage capacity
Sister three- squash
Two possible places of origin- central america and eastern north america
one of the oldest foods eaten by native americans
mature squash often baked whole in the coals of a fire or sliced and boiled
strips of squash were laid in the sun to dry and then stored for use in winter.
cultivated for use as containers stored in pits
production strategies for three sisters
they were carefully planted in an exact spot, often on a mound
3-7 corn kernels were planted per hill and then squash and beans were planted in an alternating fashion. ring patterns on each hill have also been recorded.
Benefits of mound
controls plant populations
concentrate and recycles nutrients
generates warmth
facilitates weed control
reduces soil erosion
facilitates drainage
Agricultural labour
the majority of labor came from women using digging stick, with most of the labor carried out communally or task groups
groups of forty to fifty women working
Complexity of polyculture systems
mimic natural conditions and therefore more tolerant of stress
requires in-depth knowledge of individual crops
requires understanding of dynamic interactions between crops
requires ability to predict interactions over a wide range of environmental conditions
risk averse
the original no-till farmers
impressive and reliable yields
Common knowledge
is held by most people in a community; e.g. almost everyone knows how to weed a garden
Shared knowledge
is held by many but not all community members;e.g. community members know how to process and store corn
Specialized knowledge
is held by a few people who might have detailed knowledge on spatial and temporal changes- when to seed, when to rotate fields
Low-intensity fire
mineral soil
ladder fuels
duff layer intact
CO2 release
fine fuels
carbon storage
thicker bark
nutrient-rich mineral soil
fire break
new plants
High intensity fire
canopy destroyed
duff layer burned
nutrients evaporate
CO2 release
no CO2 capture
ash
hydrophobic soil
Plant cultivation on the Northwest Coast
indigenous peoples have been active participants in sustained plant resource production systems, influencing, through diverse and intentional methods, the quality and quantities of the foods and materials on which they have traditionally relied
Pacific Northwest’s “forest gardens’
were deliberately planted by indigenous people
Estuarine root gardens
Some of the most compelling evidence of northwest coast cultivation may be found in the traditional management of native plants with edible “root vegetables”
Wetland agriculture
wetland wapato garden
Wapato sites and preperation
the rock pavement likely functioned as a physical barrier to prevent the penetration of rhizome deep into the underlying substrate, thereby making the tubers available for harvest at a predictable and accessible depth
Root gardnes
the roots were among the foremost dietary sources of carbohydrates for central and northern coastal peoples
Orchards
orchard gardens represent a complex plant assemblage that were managed for nutritional, economic, medicinal and spiritual needs
Culturally Modified Trees (CMT)
Provide clues as to how indigenous peoples of the region managed cedar bark and wood extraction to ensure its ongoing availability
Red and Yellow Cedar
Lots of harvest
Social Management strategies
ownership/proprietorship
monitoring
socially determined conservation
teamwork and division of labor
distributed seasonal access to resource areas
feasting and sharing
Ecological management strategies
landscape burning
clearing, weeding, cleaning
habitat creation, extension or alteration
tilling soil
dissemination
transplanting
pruning
selective, partial, rotational, or non-damaging harvesting
fertilizing, mulching
Were the indigenous peoples of the NW coast resource managers
yes
were the indigenous peoples of the NW coast ecosystem engineers
yes
Were the indigenous peoples of the NW coast wetland farmers
yes
did indigenous peoples of the NW coast combine cultivation and foraging
yes
Wild rice- manomin
“good seed”
advantages; characteristics of cultivated plants- abundant, predictable, nutritious and can be stored for future consumption
The process of wild rice
binding
knocking
drying
parching
hulling
winnowing
storage
