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FOOD AND CULTURE (continued):Food Collectors, Food Production

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Introduction to Cultural Anthropology ­ SOC401
VU
Lesson 12
FOOD AND CULTURE (continued)
Food Collection
Food collection involves (systematic exploration) of natural plants and animals available in given natural
environments. People have been foragers for an overwhelming majority of time, and have only developed
other options to secure food in the last 10,000 years or so.
Food Collectors
Most societies prefer to produce food, but half a million people in different cultures live by foraging even
today. There are considerable variations in the life patterns of current foragers but it is possible to make
some generalizations about them.
Contemporary Food Collectors/Foragers
Food collecting societies have low population density. They are usually nomadic or semi-nomadic rather
than sedentary since their prey often migrates. The basic social unit amongst food collectors is a family or a
band, a loose federation of families. Contemporary food collectors occupy remote and marginal habitats,
due to pressure from food processing people with their dominating technology and thirst for more land
While food collectors hunt as well as collect wild plants, vegetation provides almost 80% of their food
intake. Food collecting people live in a wide variety of environments including deserts, tropical forests,
mountains and the polar regions of the Artic and Antarctic circles.
Unlike food producers, food collectors possess inbuilt mechanisms (low population and little use of
technology), which prevents it from becoming too efficient and completely destroying their own source of
food.
Do Foragers Live Well?
Despite inhabiting the most unproductive parts of Earth, foragers are well off and dubbed `the original
affluent society' by anthropologists. They enjoy leisure time, have enough food and use remarkable
intelligence and ingenuity in securing their food.
Most contemporary foraging societies remain small scale, unspecialized, egalitarian and non-centralized. The
Khung in the Kalahari Desert in Namibia and the Inuit in the Artic region, provide good examples of
hunting and gathering peoples today.
Food Production
About 10,000 years ago, humans made a transition from collecting to producing food by cultivating crops
and keeping herds of animals. The earliest cultivation occurred in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East.
Archeologists think this transition was due to demographic and environmental pressures. Early farmers paid
a high price for this new food strategy. They did not switch convinced by the superiority of agriculture,
which was more monotonous, less secure and required more labor and time. Evidence reveals early
cultivators also experienced a decline in nutritional and health standards because they had to shift from
collecting to growing food.
Changes Resulting From Neolithic Revolution
Food production resulted in the first population explosion. Fertility rates also increased since children could
make an economic contribution. People became sedentary and civilizations began to develop. As farming
became more efficient, people had more free time and began making farm implements and pottery, leading
to the division of labor and specialization. The egalitarianism of foraging societies was replaced by social
inequalities and the thirst for private ownership.
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Introduction to Cultural Anthropology ­ SOC401
VU
Useful Terms
Population: number of people in a given area
Sedentary: settlement, or settled down in one place
Strategy: a thought out method to obtain some objective or goal
Monotonous: boring
Nutritional value: amount of energy
Suggested Readings
Students are advised to read the following chapters to develop a better understanding of the various
principals highlighted in this hand-out:
Chapter 7 in `Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective' by Ferrarro and/or Chapter 16 in `Anthropology' by
Ember and Pergrine
Internet Resources
In addition to reading from the textbook, please visit the following web-site for this lecture, which provide
useful and interesting information:
Anthropology of Food
http://www.archaeolink.com/anthropology_of_food_general_res.htm
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Table of Contents:
  1. WHAT IS ANTHROPOLOGY?:Cultural Anthropology, Internet Resources
  2. THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE AND THE APPLICATION OF CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
  3. MAJOR THEORIES IN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY:Diffusionism
  4. GROWTH OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY (continued):Post Modernism
  5. METHODS IN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY:Comments on Fieldwork
  6. METHODS IN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY (continued):Census Taking
  7. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION AND CONSUMPTION IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD
  8. ECONOMIC ANTHROPOLOGY (continued):THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOODS AND SERVICES
  9. FOCUSING ON LANGUAGE:Languages of the World, Structure of Language
  10. FOCUS ON LANGUAGE (continued):Levels of Complexity, Cultural Emphasis
  11. OBTAINING FOOD IN DIFFERENT CULTURES:Optimal Foraging, Suggested Readings
  12. FOOD AND CULTURE (continued):Food Collectors, Food Production
  13. OBTAINING FOOD IN DIFFERENT CULTURE (continued):Pastoralism, Agriculture
  14. RELEVANCE OF KINSHIP AND DESCENT:Kinship Criteria, Rules of Descent
  15. KINSHIP AND DESCENT (continued):Tracing Descent, Primary Kinship Systems
  16. THE ROLE OF FAMILY AND MARRIAGE IN CULTURE:Economic Aspect of Marriage
  17. ROLE OF FAMILY AND MARRIAGE IN CULTURE (continued):Family Structures
  18. GENDER AND CULTURE:Gender Stratification, Suggested Readings
  19. GENDER ROLES IN CULTURE (continued):Women Employment, Feminization of Poverty
  20. STRATIFICATION AND CULTURE:Social Ranking, Dimensions of Inequality
  21. THEORIES OF STRATIFICATION (continued):The Functionalists, Conflict Theorists
  22. CULTURE AND CHANGE:Inventions, Diffusion, Donor, Conventional
  23. CULTURE AND CHANGE (continued):Cultural Interrelations, Reaction to Change
  24. CULTURE AND CHANGE (continued):Planned Change, Globalization
  25. POLITICAL ORGANIZATION:Bands, Tribal Organizations, Chiefdoms
  26. POLITICAL ORGANIZATION (continued):State Systems, Nation-States
  27. POLITICAL ORGANIZATION (continued):Social Norms, Informal Mechanisms
  28. PSYCHOLOGY AND CULTURE:Emotional Development, Psychological Universals
  29. PSYCHOLOGY AND CULTURE (continued):Origin of Customs, Personality Types
  30. IDEOLOGY AND CULTURE:Ideology in Everyday Life, Hegemony
  31. IDEOLOGY AND CULTURE (Continued):Political ideologies, Economic Ideology
  32. ASSOCIATIONS, CULTURES AND SOCIETIES:Variation in Associations, Age Sets
  33. ASSOCIATIONS, CULTURES AND SOCIETIES (continued):Formation of Associations
  34. RACE, ETHNICITY AND CULTURE:Similarity in Human Adaptations
  35. RACE, ETHNICITY AND CULTURE (continued):Inter-group Relations
  36. CULTURE AND BELIEFS:Social Function of Religion, Politics and Beliefs
  37. LOCAL OR INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE:Changing Definitions of Local Knowledge
  38. LOCAL OR INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE (continued):The Need for Caution
  39. ANTHROPOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT:Influence of Development Notions
  40. ANTHROPOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT (Continued):Contentions in Development
  41. ANTHROPOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT (Continued):Operational
  42. CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND ART:Relevance of Art, Art and Politics
  43. CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND ART (continued):Art as a Status Symbol
  44. ETHICS IN ANTHROPOLOGY:Ethical Condemnation, Orientalism
  45. RELEVANCE OF CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY:Ensuring Cultural Survival