Midterm #1 Review

potlatch

* Potlatch sponsors traditionally gave away food, blankets, pieces of copper, or other items in return for prestige * Classical economic theory vs cultural ecology * when Westerners first encountered, it was inexplicable due to classic economic theories * no profit motive * saw it as wasteful, pressured into outlawing it Ecologically * had an adaptive value of trading subsistence * when you had a surplus of food, you could turn that into blankets/etc * that was converted into prestige * later, those temporarily rich would host the temp. poor to come to partake * Customs such as the potlatch are cultural adaptations to alternating periods of local abundance and shortage. * a system that networked across multiple communities * balanced reciprocity in the long-run

agriculture

*Domestication of plants: Around 9000 years ago, humans around the world began to control the planting, growth, and form of the plants they used most intensively. * rudimentary horticulture: some form of manipulations * Irrigation: Humans also begin to control water for their crops, dramatically increasing yields. * Permanent settlements: Humans live near their fields year-round, to tend crops until harvest. * result of agriculture * Food storage: Humans live on a harvest-to-harvest schedule that requires them to store food. Implications of Agriculture * Population growth: More food is produced, and a larger population is supported. * Urbanization: Cities develop as settlements grow. *Craft specialization: Agriculture can support some people specializing in other types of work. * * can engage in trade/other work apart from food * whereas before everyone was involved in food * Development of elites: Agriculture leads to increased social stratification.

FILM CLIP: Baka: People of the Forest

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FILM CLIP: The Saltmen of Tibet

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Film clip: The Meaning of Food: Food and Culture

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READING: "Ancient Genes and Modern Health"

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READING: "Disease and Death at Dr. Dickson's Mounds"

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READING: "Profile of an Anthropologist -- From Tikal to Tucson: Today's Garbage Is Tomorrow's Artifact"

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READING: "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race," Jared Diamond

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READING: "You Are What You Eat"

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The Makah whaling debate

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capitalist economy

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READING: "How Many Fathers are Best for a Child?"

Bari Indians in Venezuela "human beings are just as clever and creative in assemblies their kin relations as they are putting together space shuttles or symphonies"

reciprocity (generalized, balanced, negative)

Exchange between social equals, who normally are related by kinship, marriage, or another close personal tie. * To distinguish types of reciprocity, ask: (a) how closely related are the parties to the exchange? (b) how quickly and unselfishly are gifts reciprocated? Types of Reciprocity: 1. Generalized - someone gives to another person and expects nothing concrete or immediate in return. * Might want relational things: love, loyalty * not concrete or immediate 2. Balanced - exchanges between people who are more distantly related; the giver expects something in return. * ex, birthday gift 3. Negative - exchanges in which someone attempts to get something for as little as possible, even using dishonesty. 1. in nonindustrial societies, often the initial exchange is purely economic 2. find it in exchanges where there is no relationship between the two parties 3. way of reducing: engage in silent trade

market principle

Means of production (land, labor, natural resources, technology, and capital): 1. are bought and sold using money, 1. to maximize profit, and 2. value is determined by the law of supply and demand 3. * bargaining is present people trying to maximize their own profits

FILM: Ongka's Big Moka

Men aspire to become "Big Men", by proving themselves in warfare and in competitive gift-giving ceremonies called moka Moka: * Series of exchanges with the goal to put the other side in debt * Requires much social networking * Culminates not in a single big gift but collection of many gift exchanges

redistribution

Operates when goods, services, or their equivalent move from the local level to a center * store of food available to all who need, but acknowledge that it is the chief's (native american tradition * Programs where people set aside a little something and later given to someone who needs it

purity and pollution on Iron Chef

This Asian chef gets hella pissed when Bobby Flay stands on a cutting board at the end of the competition because his culture views the cutting board and utensils as sacred.

READING: "Too Many Bananas, Not Enough Pineapples, and No Watermelon at All"

Three Object Lessons in Living with Reciprocity * What are the lessons learned by Count and his family? * * if food is given as a gift, you cannot offer money for it * have to accept it * if you have too much, you can give it away * there are rules to being a good citizen * can't demand a gift (pineapple)

agricultural transition

Transition from a hunter-gatherer/nomadic society to an agricultural one through the domestication of plants, irrigation, creation of permanent settlements, and food storage

the Dickson Mounds

a site that archaeologists have excavated remains in order to study

economy

a system of production, distribution, and consumption of resources

mode of production

a way of organizing production ("a set of relations through which labor is deployed to wrest energy from nature by means of tools, skills organizations, and knowledge" Wolf 1882, p.75) * similar adaptive strategies= similar modes of production * difference in modes of production may reflect differences in environments, target resources, or cultural traditions

human ecology

how humans extract food and other needed resources from their environment, how does this shape culture/how does culture shape this?

READING: "African Polygyny: Family Values and Contemporary Changes"

how might polygyny be understood as positive for women? (watch clip online)

hunter-gatherers

hunting wild animals and gathering wild plants foods as a way of life. Small social groups (~20 people), mobile lifestyle, no farming or raising food animals, few possessions, no permanent settlements, share food (to not share = morally wrong), gender division of labor, few status differences (egalitarianism - no one can really own more than another), can live comfortably, absence of many illnesses, few in modern times.

neolocal

live somewhere new, not close to either family (majority of Americans neolocal)

ambilocal

near whichever family is convenient or has the most resources/work to share

transhumant

only part of the group (usually men and boys) travel with the animals, while others stay in a settled village site and grow crops

paleopathology

study of human disease

pastoralism

symbiosis between humans and animals, animals get protection from predators or illness, help finding food, help reproducing. people get food, other products, ability to use marginal ecological areas

domestication

the process whereby humans modify, either intentionally or unintentionally, the genetic makeup of a plant or animal population to make them better suited to human use

nomadic

whole group of pastoral people travels with animals on their seasonal pattern, must get other food by trade