ANTH 316 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Mbuti People, Yellow Fever, Habitat Destruction
Document Summary
Slash and burn the gardens often in order to control them and let them lay fallow. Population controls: mortality via infant and juvenile mortality, warfare, disease. Infanticide that is female based in some cultures due to men being valued as warriors but their higher rate of death creates and equilibrium. Warfare, take over land and reduce population, people scatter or die. Disease: vector borne illnesses like malaria, yellow fever, others are low density dependent diseases. Hunt, fish, gather wild plant and insects. Applies to all tropical aboriginal peoples prior to domestication but some say they couldn"t have moved into tropical rainforest without agricultural supplementation via practice or trade. Most are semi-settled now relying more agriculture/horticulture. People"s percentage contribution by food and sex is determined by local ecology, resource abundance, seasonal availability, cultural tradition, etc. Examples are the hiwi foragers of venezuela, the pygmy groups of cameroon and democratic republic of the congo (mbuti, aka, baka)
