ANT-2 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Transhumance, Pastoralism, Social Control
Cultural Anthropology
Notes
Joseph Yang
Agriculture
● Cultivation that requires greater labor demands
● New technologies
o Domesticated animals
o Irrigation
o Terracing
● Pros and cons
o More human labor (+ and -)
o Land more sustainable (+)
o Low yields on new or old land (-)
o Harder work (-)
● Main advantage
o Long-term yield per area is greater and more dependable
o Single plot land = years of production
o In other words… more reliable to amount of food
● Consequences
o Demographic (health)
o Social
o Political
o Environmental
Pastoralism
● Herders who live in a symbiotic relationship with their animals
● Uses of animals
○ Money/status symbol
○ Riding/transportation
● Hardships
○ Most herds = food
○ Not a good diet when solely reliant upon animals
■ Many supplement diet
● Types of pastoralist movements
○ Nomadism
■ Move with herds
■ Mongolians
■ Typically associated with trading to supplement diets
○ Transhumance
■ Only part of group move
■ Other are permanent
■ Maintain small plots to supplement diet
