Lecture 6 9 12 13 FORAGERS AND HORTICULTURALISTS LECTURE 6 Foragers are everywhere FORAGERS HUNTER GATHERERS Complete or near complete reliance on hunted fished or gathered food o Virtually every animal on this planet is a forager For the mast majority of their time humans were foragers It was historically present around the globe GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FORAGERS DEMOGRAPHIC o High mortality and fertility o Low population density SOCIAL o Hunter gatherers tend to live in small groups Typical band size around 25 centered around kinship o Mobile o Because Foragers are moving all of the time they have to have very few possessions They only kept those things that were absolutely essential o Fission Fusion groups will often become relatively large and then break up these groups are dynamic their composition changes o There isn t a lot of variance in Political Power FORAGERS TEND TO BE MORE EGALIATARIAN PYGMY GROUPS OF CENTRAL AFRICA All pigmy groups are associated with Bantu speaking The gender roles have become more combined men take more part in parenting THE ACHE o o o o o o o o o Well known Foraging group from Paraguay Only 1000 2000 Rely heavily on hunting hunt 8 hours a day Contacted in the 1970s Prior to contact they lived full time in the Jungle Moved every two days Were largely unclothed they moved about naked As foragers they ate whatever they could find They rely on plant foods palm trees berries nuts honeycomb from beehives o Notorious for sharing everything equally HAD A CULTURAL RULE THAT HUNTERS COULD NOT EAT FROM THE ANIMAL THEY KILLED THEY HAVE TO SHARE EQUALLY HAD TO SHARE AN AREA WITH WILD ANIMALS AS WELL SUCH AS JAGUARS BOBCATS ETC o Today they live on farms they have a decent plot of land and a large plot of forest as well When they re in the forest they go back to sharing everything equally When they re on the farm the sharing has greatly decreased because of the fact that it took more effort and time to obtain certain items HORTICULTURALISTS o Just a form of Agriculture it small scale family ran mainly subsistence level farming o Often supplemented with Domesticated animals hunting fishing and gathering o THE FERTILE CRESENT THESE PEOPLE HAPPENED TO GET LUCKY WITH A LOT OF BIODIVERSITY AND FERTILE LANDS o Spread very quickly in Eurasia There s a lot more land mass that s apart of one climate than any of the others o COMMON PRACTICE USED BY HORTICULTURALISTS SLASH AND BURN Clears unwanted plants Add nutrients to soil Productive for a number of years FIRST AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION Increased sedentism we can stay in the same place o Means that you can have more things because you aren t as mobile there s a larger population and there s better shelters Increased Population Densities Ownership Greater social complexity these villages are centered around Kinship Samoan Islands Roughly 300 000 people Consist of multiple extended families or Aiga Community is headed by chief and numerous sub chiefs Each Aiga is headed by a head man or maita THE TSIMANE Live in large extended families Rely heavily on river resources Rely heavily on Plantains 09 12 2013 09 12 2013