ANT 102 Lecture 5: Subsistence, Food production & Change
7 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Systems of production, consumption and exchange (of goods and services ) Study of decisions and social interactions within diverse cultural-economic contexts (ex: diverse systems of production, distribution, exchange, consumption. Foraging (hunt, fish, plants) rely on wildlife resources. More control over productivity; modification of environment and species (plants and animals) Requires high levels of skill and lek (local ecological knowledge) Subsistence based on care of domesticated animals. Diverse geographies, ethnicities and uses for animals. Slash and burn is widely practices throughout tropics and subtropics; appropriate adaptation for certain biomes at low population densities. Examples: milpa field in central america cultivates corn, beans, and squash. Advantages: reliable food source and food surplus, people control the rate of plant reproduction, more edible calories per acre. Nutrition: high quality, low quantity & low quality, high quantity. Adaptive strategy: means of making a living. Adaptation to environment reflects long history of co-evolution: diverse groups of humans co-evolving with very specific kinds of environments.
