Food Production & Economics

• Types of Food Collection:

• Hunter-gatherers:

• Horticulture:

• Pastoralism:

• Environmental changes in Europe

• Glacial melt 10,000 year ago—led to rising oceans, opening of more land (Scandinavia), and increased temperatures

• Rising oceans = more fishing opportunities

• Tundras (treeless plains) would eventually switch over to dense forests

• Mammoths became extinct

• Problem: When your world becomes warmer and your food supply dwindles, what do you do?

• Paleolithic & Mesolithic periods—Stone Age (12,000-8,000 BC):

• Relied on big-game hunting—followed migratory herds (cattle, antelope, bison, and mammoths)

• Neolithic Revolution (“New Stone Age”): circa 8,000 BC—domestication and cultivation of plants and animals

• Made possible by new stone tools

• Domestication:

• Fertile Crescent:

• Wheat, barley, peas, dogs, goats, sheep, pigs, and cattle all discovered to have been domesticated in the crescent beginning around 8000 BC

• Affects on humans caused by food production:

• Population increases

• Establishment of permanent villages

• People more sedentary—fewer nomads

• More elaborate and comfy housing

• Increased size, more floors, furniture, more solid structures, etc.

• Long-distance trade begins

• Characteristics of hunter-gatherers: less than 0.01% of our global population—found mostly in world’s marginal areas (deserts, the Arctic, rain forests)

• Aborigines of western Australia:

• Get less than 8 inches of rain per year with temperatures nearing 118° in summer

• Watering holes are hundreds of miles apart

• Children get water, women get plants, men hunt emus and kangaroos

• Use fire to round up game

• Usually return with just small game (lizards and rabbits)

• Nomadic people

• Camps range from only several people to 80 people

• Rarely camp near water—WHY?

Copper Eskimos of the Canadian Arctic– Lived in groups of about 50 people

• Lived on the ice off the shore because of seal hunting and on shore during summer

• Lived in family groups– Live off seals and occasional polar bear in winter

• Seal provides meat, cooking and lighting oil, and sealskin used to make boots, kayaks, buckets, etc.

• Maupok– During summer they move onto the shore

• Split into smaller groups• Dry and store fish and caribou for winter

months• When hunting caribou, the intestines are

removed and emptied for undigested vegetables—eaten by hunters on the spot

• Characteristics of Horticulturalists:• The Jivaro of the Andes

• Live in small villages in tropical rain forests

• Rely mainly on manioc roots to make flour and beer

• Men clear a vegetable plot with slash-and-burn method

• 1st: cut away undergrowth

• 2nd: cut down trees and let them sit for several months during dry season

• 3rd: set fire to trees and brush on ground

• 4th: clear land and cultivate plants

• Women take care of cultivation

• Men do limited hunting of monkeys and birds with blowguns and poison darts

Samoans of the South Pacific– Islands receive upwards of 200 inches of

rain per year– Temperatures remain between 70° and

88°– Rely on tree crops (breadfruit, coconut,

and bananas)• Constantly provide new crops of fruit

– Also practice “shifting cultivation” of taro (root crop)

– Cannot weed crops often b/c it will cause erosion of loose volcanic soil

– This type of horticulture requires little work—Europeans first viewed them as being lazy

– Also raise chickens and pigs and catch fish

– General features of horticulturalists:• Able to support larger populations b/c they have more food than

hunting-gathering societies• Societies are more sedentary• Still rely on some hunting• Creation of social differentiation

– Some people have part-time jobs– Some families have more “status” than other families

Characteristics of Pastoralists Lapps of northwestern Scandinavia

(Finland, Sweden, & Norway)– Cold and arctic environment– Herd reindeer in enclosed fenced areas– Milk female reindeer and use males for

working purposes– Only eat the male reindeer and keep all

females alive for mating purposes

– General features of pastoralists:• Practiced mainly in grassland

areas• Usually nomadic or semi-nomadic• Communities are small and

consist of mainly related families• Migratory decisions are made by

the community and never individuals

• Reliance on animals for more than food (milk, hides, and some drink their blood for protein)

Forced Labor

Simple societies have no way to coerce or force “lazy” people to work– They may be fed, but may become joke or outcast

Complex societies have methods to force people to work– Not simply slave labor– Must have a central authority figure (president, king, chief, etc.)– Taxation—requires people to put in certain amounts of work to pay

off taxes• Taxes can be in forms of money or work

Corvée System of required labor that is owed to

central government/authority figure Incan Empire—Andes mountain range (Peru)

– Each commoner assigned 3 plots of land to work

• State• Temple plot• Individual plot

– Overabundance of workers meant reassignment to menial tasks

• Story of a ruler requiring workers to move a hill to stay busy

• Military draft

Machu Picchu

Corvée—continued

Ancient Egypt– June-September: Inundation of

the Nile River• Belief that the fertility god

Hapi was making farm lands more fertile

• Floods made the lands temporarily unworkable

– Pharaohs usually would require all able-bodied citizens to spend the inundation time to work for him on various projects

• Most famous projects: Giza Pyramids

Corvée—continued Post-Civil War United States (Southern states) Sharecropping—perpetual slavery

– Blacks given land they can work– In return for land and shelter, the worker owed

the land owner a portion of the harvest• Manipulated prices• Gave loans at high interest rates• Required them to purchase goods at their

store at exorbitant prices – If sharecropper tried to leave w/o paying

debts, land owner used state to force farmer to stay and continue farming

Georgia farm—1941

Distribution of goods & services Reciprocate: Generalized reciprocity:

– Nature operates on generalized reciprocity—berry bushes & birds give and take from one another

– Gift-giving tends to equalize by end– Parent-child relationship: parents feed

children b/c they want to, not b/c they HAVE to or expect anything in return

• X-mas example• Child may eventually feed parent near

end of parent’s life

!Kung of the Kalahari

“Far-hearted”:– Openly show disapproval, anger, or hostility to those that don’t give gifts– To reduce tensions, one MUST give gifts to maintain “friendships”

Examples of reciprocity:– Hunter shoots antelope; by custom he gives meat to fellow hunters, wives’

parents, parents, siblings• Every time an antelope is shot, this occurs—guarantees that all band

members will have meat at various occasions Not altruistic—learned idea that all !Kung must rely on one another

Balanced reciprocity:

Semang’s “Silent Trade”:– Live in Thailand on Malay Peninsula– Hunter-gatherers– Actively trade killed game with horticulturalist

tribes– Believe it is wrong to have contact with

foreigners so they do not meet with horticulturalists—MUST ADAPT OR DIE

• Leave their goods/meat at agreed location• Come back at later time to pick up their

fruits/vegetables in return• What may happen if the Semang are taken

advantage of in a trade with farmers?

Kula Ring

Ceremonial trade circle between islanders of the Trobriand Islands near Papua New Guinea

Each island specializes in different goods White shell armbands and red shell necklaces are traded first amongst

the islanders—possessing an ornament allows you to organize an expedition to trading partner’s island

High point of expedition is the trading of the kula ornaments between partners

Expedition remains on island for 2-3 more days, more gift-giving of food and goods occurs—bartering often occurs

At end of expedition, both sides have accomplished a years’ worth of trading while not appearing to do anything

Kula Ring (continued) Kula Ring trades require mutual trust

– Reduces hostilities between islands– Expedition takes on a feeling of adventure—brings a sense of enjoyment to life– Maintains the spread of island myths, rituals, and history– Allows each trading partner to possess valuable shell (kula) ornaments at various

times of their life

United States “Kula Ring” 1970s meetings between Richard

Nixon and Communist China’s Mao Zedong– China gave US Pandas and we

gave them oxen—practically useless animals to trade

• Meant to be ceremonial trades to “break the ice”

• Real trading of goods occurred after the ceremonies were over

Negative reciprocity:– Can even resort to dishonesty and theft– !Kung man told anthropologist of a time when he was forced by

another tribe member to give him his shirt and pants in return for a small pan and cup

– Goal of reciprocity is often to maintain peace between peoples—negative reciprocity is often performed against strangers or enemies

Another Balanced Reciprocation

Melanesian Potlatches—performed by Melanesian tribes on Papua New Guinea– Enormous pig feasts (as many as 2000 pigs slaughtered) given in honor of

other tribes, chiefs, and “big men”• Dancing & speeches also present

– “Big Man”: male with “prestige”; has no real political authority—can only persuade people to work hard to get a pig feast in order

– Moka:

– Seen by our culture as highly wasteful• Some Northwestern Canadian and American Indian tribes use

potlatches– Both countries banned them in the late 1800s largely b/c of pressure from

Catholic Church– Catholic Church--“worse than useless custom” & “demonic”

• Maintains food supply over a period of years• Surplus vegetables and roots are fed to pigs—seen as a store of food

value for later use• Helps to build up “social credit”• “Big Man” competition between tribal chiefs

– Will also give away blankets, canoes, fur, etc. to guest tribes– Helps Big Man to gain prestige and respect from other tribes

Ongka’s Big Moka

Main players: – Ongka: local big man – Peroa: Another big man from a neighboring tribe who will be guests at Ongka's big

moka– Rumbicole: Ongka's favorite wife – Riemer: Ongka's rival, an aspiring big man in the Kawelka tribe

Questions:

1. What skills/attributes must you have to be a successful big man? 2. Why does Ongka desire so strongly to hold this big moka? 3. How do Kawelkans feel about their pigs? 4. What determines when a moka will occur? 5. How is a "big man" able to get together the massive amount of wealth necessary for a

successful moka? 6. Why can't Ongka's supporters just deliver their pigs when they are ready, instead of holding

the series of small mokas? 7. How does Ongka rally his reluctant supporters? 8. What forces/difficulties threaten to derail Ongka's plans? 9. How does Ongka attempt to defuse this explosive situation? 10. Why was the big moka delayed?