ANTH 2 Lecture Notes - Kalahari Desert, Social Stratification, Pastoralism
Document Summary
We"ve been looking at the ways that we"re similar and using an anthropological perspective to understand the reasons behind our beliefs and practices. We will learn the broad-level processes that structure economy, political organization, gender roles, and other features that at first glance may seem chaotic. Subsistence: transforming the material resources of the environment into food, clothing, and shelter. A particular mode may be dominant, but other modes may coexist. Subsistence strategies may develop as adaptations to seasonal variation in the environment and other environmental variations such as drought, flood, or animal diseases. Exerts a huge influence on key features of a society and culture. It structures societies in specific ways so that there are similarities among groups with no previous contact on the other side of the world. Types of subsistence strategies: from foraging to industrialism, complexity increases; but this isn"t the same as an evolution or necessary improvement.