Anth - Chap 3 & 4

Question 0

Pastoralism

Answer 0

Small number of societies depend mostly for their living on domesticated herds of animals that feed on natural pasture; herding large domesticated animals

Question 1

Cash crops

Answer 1

Crops raised for sale (I.e. Cotton, tobacco)

Question 2

Commercialization

Answer 2

May occur in any area of life & which involves increasing dependence on buying & selling, usually with money as the medium of exchange

Question 3

Horticulture

Answer 3

Growing of crops of all kinds with relatively simple tools & methods; small-scale, low intensity farming

Question 4

Slash-and-burn

Answer 4

Slash the undergrowth & using a controlled burning to clear a garden spot; Swidden agriculture

Question 5

Extensive or shifting cultivation

Answer 5

The land is worked for short periods & then left idle for some years; they are later cleared by slash-and- burn

Question 6

Intensive agriculture

Answer 6

Use techniques that enable them to cultivate fields permanently; fertilizers, irrigation & plows used; larger scale, intensive farming

Question 7

Foraging

Answer 7

Food-getting strategy that obtains wild plant & animal resources thru gathering, hunting, scavenging, or fishing; aka hunter-gatherers

Question 8

Transhumance

Answer 8

Moving from ecosystem to another, depending on the season. Specifically, a blended form of nomadism, where part of the family stays in one place, while the animals & generally the males of the family move with the animals from ecosystem to ecosystem

Question 9

Nomadism

Answer 9

Everyone moves to obtain essential resources

Question 10

Carrying capacity

Answer 10

The amount of people/population an ecosystem can support

Question 11

Peasants

Answer 11

People who are tied to the land that often work for the elite. The presence of a peasant class suggests a class system has developed. They can be found where intensive agriculture is practiced.

Question 12

“Neolithic Revolution”

Answer 12

About 10,000 years ago, humans began to cultivate & ultimately domesticate plants & animals

Question 13

Subsistence economies

Answer 13

Almost all able-bodied adults were largely engaged in getting food for themselves & their families

Question 14

Negative reciprocity

Answer 14

Taking with no intention of return. This can occur during periods of war or between strangers.

Question 15

Potlatch

Answer 15

Native American groups of Pacific Northwest where a chief might attempt to enhance his status; a chief & his group would give away blankets, pieces of copper, canoes, large quantities of food

Question 16

Generalized reciprocity

Answer 16

When goods or services are given to another, w/out any apparent expectation of a return gift

Question 17

Balanced reciprocity

Answer 17

Involves either an immediate exchange of goods or services or an agreed upon exchange over a limited period of time.

Question 18

Barter

Answer 18

Nonmonetary exchange of goods & services

Question 19

Redistribution

Answer 19

The accumulation of goods or labor by a particular person, or in a particular place, for the purpose of subsequent distribution.

Question 20

Subsistence patterns

Answer 20

Sources & methods a society uses to obtain its food & other necessities

Question 21

Anthropologist divided cultures of world into 4 basic subsistence types:

Answer 21

1. Foraging
2. Pastoralism
3. Horticulture
4. Intensive agriculture

Question 22

Production

Answer 22

how food and other necessities are created in a society.

Question 23

Market economy

Answer 23

an impersonal but highly efficient system of production, distribution, and exchange that is principally characterized by: 1) the use of money as a means of exchange, 2) having the ability to accumulate vast amounts of capital (i.e., wealth that can be used to fund further production), and 3) having highly complex economic interactions that are ultimately international in the scale of their inter-relatedness.

Question 24

Potlatch

Answer 24

a complex redistributive system that existed among some of the Indian cultures of the Northwest Coast of North America. This was a complex system of competitive feasting, speechmaking, and gift giving intended in part to enhance the status of the giver. For the Kwakiutl society, potlatches were important social gatherings held to celebrate major life events such as a son’s marriage, the birth of a child, a daughter’s first menses, and the initiation of a sister’s son into a secret society. They also were used to assert or transfer ownership of economic and ceremonial privileges. It sometimes took years to accumulate the things needed for a big potlatch. Loans (with interest) had to be called in from relatives for this purpose. When all was ready, high ranking, influential people from the local and other communities were invited for several days of feasting and entertaining. Guests were seated according to their relative status. The host made speeches and dramatically gave gifts of food, Hudson Bay Company blankets, canoes, slaves, rare copper artifacts, and other valuable items to the guests. Those of higher status received more. The host was likely to also destroy money, waste fish oil by throwing it on a fire, and do other things to show that he was willing to economically bankrupt himself in order to increase his social status. The acceptance of the gifts was an affirmation of the host’s generosity and subsequently of his increased status. The feast and the gifts essentially placed the guests in debt to their host until they could at some future time invite him to their own potlatch and give him more than he gave them–in essence a return on an investment. The potlatch served as a tool for one-upmanship for important Kwakiutl men.

Question 25

Slash-and-burn

Answer 25

the method used by horticulturalists to clear fields of heavy vegetation in preparation for planting new crops. Brush and small trees are cut down and allowed to dry out in place. They are then burned. This simultaneously clears the field of all but large trees and adds ash to the soil surface. The ash acts as a fertilizer. No other fertilizer is applied to the field. As a result, soil productivity lasts only for a few years.

Question 26

Food production

Answer 26

The cultivation & raising of plants & animals