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Introduction
to Cultural Anthropology
SOC401
VU
Lesson
11
OBTAINING
FOOD IN DIFFERENT
CULTURES
Strategies
for Obtaining
Food
Food
obtaining strategies vary from culture to
culture. Food obtaining strategies
are developed in response
to
particular environments. There are five major
food obtaining strategies
found in different cultures of
the
world.
These five forms of obtaining
food are not mutually
exclusive and within each
category there are
evident
variations due to technological and
environmental differences. Therefore,
often one form of
obtaining
food predominates within a given
culture.
While
food obtaining strategies vary
widely around the world, none is
necessarily `superior' then
another.
Major
Food Obtaining
Strategies
Food
Collection: collecting
wild vegetation, hunting and
fishing.
Horticulture:
cultivation,
using simple tools and
small and shifting plots of
land.
Pastoralism:
keeping
livestock and using its
produce for food.
Agriculture:
cultivation
using animals, irrigation
and mechanical
implements.
Industrialization:
producing
food using complex machinery.
Most developed countries and an
increasing
amount
of developing countries rely on industrialized
processes to obtain
food.
Food,
Environment and Technology
Some
environments enable a number of modes of
food acquisition, while others
permit limited number of
adaptations.
Technology provides the advantage of adaptation to a
given environment. It can be said
that
specific
food obtaining modes are
influenced by the interaction of a people's
technological and
environmental
conditions.
The
extent, to which any society
can procure food, depends on
sophistication of tools used and
the
abundance
of plant and animal life in
a given area. Productivity of
agriculturalists not only
depends on
technology
but also availability of natural
resources like water and
fertile soil.
Anthropologists
agree that while the
environment does not set
limits on food obtaining
patterns, it does
place
a limit on the adaptations possible
and on the ultimate productivity of an
area. People with
simple
technologies
also cope well with
their environments and are
intelligent given their circumstances
and
surroundings.
The
environmental capacity of a given area is
referred to as `carrying capacity'. The
natural consequence of
exceeding
carrying capacity is to harm the
environment.
Optimal
Foraging
Many
foraging societies spend
extra time and effort to
obtain a particular food. Ethnographic
studies of the
Ache
in Paraguay for example have
revealed that this is not
irrational behavior but due
to caloric returns of
these
food sources despite the
energy expended in killing, collecting
and preparing it. This
reveals that
optimal
foraging is a calculated strategy
not a irrational
whim.
Useful
Terms
Foraging:
collecting or
gathering
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/98-11_files/98-1100002im.jpg" width="695"
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Introduction
to Cultural Anthropology
SOC401
VU
Optimal:
best
or most feasible
Expended:
spent
Environmental
capacity: carrying
capacity of the environment, i.e. the
amount of productive pressure the
air,
water and soil can take
without being damaged
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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