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OBTAINING FOOD IN DIFFERENT CULTURES:Optimal Foraging, Suggested Readings

<< FOCUS ON LANGUAGE (continued):Levels of Complexity, Cultural Emphasis
FOOD AND CULTURE (continued):Food Collectors, Food Production >>
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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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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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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