ANTHRO 2A Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Transhumance, Pastoralism, The Persians
Document Summary
Week 5 (oct. 26) subsistence continued - industrial capitalism. Subsistence patterns: oldest - hunting & gathering (forager) Ai - live in bands: society with no chiefs, headmen, and political leaders. Because h&g has no political leaders, westerners usually assumed their society was very violent. Hobbes claimed people are naturally selfish & brutish, tend towards violence. Hobbes claimed people need strong ruler to control human violence. He argued that people are naturally acquisitive & greedy. Sahlins argues that violence levels are not higher than ours in h&g society. No one owns land or water or food. !kung women & children gathered mostly plant food. Young & middle aged men hunt animals 30% of total diet. Use spears to kill an animal that is slow enough to catch. Sahlins - why are h&g affluent: work, leisure time, diet, violence levels, egalitarian, no relative poverty, all resources are shared, wants are easily satisfied. Practice slash & burn or swidden agriculture.
