Subsistence

Question 1

What is subsistence?

Answer 1

The activities and materials that people use to obtain food - strategies to acquire calorific resources for survival.

Question 2

Why is subsistence considered a major component of the economy in arc studies?

Answer 2

It includes essential practices such as hunting, gathering, and farming/agriculture.

Question 3

What does it mean to have an economy of farming?

Answer 3

It means having a subsistence strategy that relies on farming, which is interchangeable with subsistence of farming.

Question 4

What is hunting and gathering?

Answer 4

A subsistence strategy reliant on wild animals and wild plants, typically requiring lower investment.

Question 5

What are immediate returns in hunting and gathering?

Answer 5

A direct result of labor.

Question 6

What evidence is used for hunting?

Answer 6

Species representation, body part representation, and mortality profiles.

Question 7

What do mortality profiles indicate?

Answer 7

They show how old the animal was at the time of death.

Question 8

What is catastrophic mortality?

Answer 8

It reflects age in natural populations and death by mass mortality events.

Question 9

What is attritional mortality?

Answer 9

It shows predominance of young and old individuals.

Question 10

What is an example of a tool used in hunting?

Answer 10

Fish hooks, which are the oldest in the world (23kya - Okinawa).

Question 11

How is isotope analysis used in archaeology?

Answer 11

To reconstruct diets using stable isotope analysis for diet.

Question 12

What do C and N isotopes in collagen signify?

Answer 12

They act as signatures for food eaten during the formation of teeth and bones.

Question 13

How often is the human skeleton remodeled?

Answer 13

Every 10 years.

Question 14

What is a trophic level?

Answer 14

Each step in the food chain where animals eat plants or other animals.

Question 15

How do plants obtain nitrogen and carbon?

Answer 15

Plants obtain N from the soil and C from CO2 in photosynthesis.

Question 16

What does the ratio of 13C to 12C represent?

Answer 16

Delta 13C.

Question 17

What are the delta 13C values for different plant types?

Answer 17

C3 plants: -26.5%, C4 plants: -12.5%, CAM plants: falls between C3 and C4.

Question 18

What is the delta 15N ratio?

Answer 18

The ratio of 15N to 14N, which comes from dietary protein.

Question 19

What does delta 15N indicate?

Answer 19

It appears in amino acids that are in collagen and is suitable to environmental factors.

Question 20

How does delta 15N change with trophic levels?

Answer 20

Every step up the food chain increases the ratio by 3%.

Question 21

What is the significance of measuring delta 15N in archaeology?

Answer 21

It compares base delta 15N for herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores at the same site and time.

Question 22

What is agriculture?

Answer 22

The intentional propagation of food by humans.

Question 23

What is domestication?

Answer 23

The biological process that changes the genetic makeup and morphology of a plant or animal, resulting in a new species.

Question 24

What results from the isolation of domesticated species?

Answer 24

It is a result of human intervention, whether intentional or unintentional.

Question 25

Tools as Evidence for hunting

Answer 25

Fish hooks - the oldest in the world found 23kya in Okinawa

Question 26

Delta 13 C (ratio of 13C to 12C)

Answer 26

Different plants use different pathways for photosynthesis -> have different delta 13C
C3 - Trees, Shrubs, temperate grasses, have a delta 13C of -26.5%
C4 - Subtropical grasses have a delta 13C of -12.5%
CAM - Crassulacean acid metabolism - Bromeliads, Orchids, Lilies, and succulents, have their 13C fall between C3 and C4
Marine plants mainly use C3 pathways but base delta 13C is %7 more positive than terrestrial delta 13C falls between C3 and C4

Question 27

What is domestication?

Answer 27

a process of increasing mutual dependence between human societies and the plant and animal populations they target

Question 28

Ratio of 15N to 14N = Delta 15N

Answer 28

Comes from a dietary protein, appears in amino acids that are in the collagen - Delta 15N is suitable to environmental factors
- hot/arid = more positive ratios than cold and wet ecological zones
- Every step up the food chain (A tropic level) increases the ratio by 3% because marine ecosystems have many more levels = delta 15 N skews higher

Question 29

Invention of Agriculture…

Answer 29

The intentional propagation of food by humans - an artificial ecosystem in which domesticated species are cultivated and reared

Question 30

Domestication

Answer 30

The biological processes that changes the genetic makeup and morphology of a plant or animal -> new species
The isolation of the domesticated species from their wild relatives is a result of human intervention whether intentional or unintentional

Question 31

Delta 15N seen in human consumers of terrestrial plants and animals vs fish, seals, sea lions

Answer 31

terrestrial plants and animals: Delta 15N = 6-10%
ish, seals, sea lions: Delta 15N = 15-20%