what are the 4 major categories of human-environment interactions
1. hunting & gathering (foraging)
- ppl exploit wild plants and animals of their territory for food
2. agriculture (culitvation)
- ppl intentionally plant, care for, and harvest crops for food and other uses
3. herding (pastoralsim)
- ppl tend, breed, and
what's the principle of foraging
- to acquire resources efficiently, foragers must organize themsevles to be in the right place at the right time with the right number of ppl
what are the major similar factors among hunter-gathers
1. division of labor by gender and sex
- men hunt & women gather plants
2. seasonal mobility
- foragers migrate to where food or water is most plentiful or easiest to acquire during seasons
3. seasonal congregation and dispersal
- to gather plants and hun
reciprocal sharing
- mutually beneficial for foragers to share food and other possessions, both within and between families.
- sharing is more or less on basis of need: those who have more than they can immediately use share with others.
- sharing is normatively expected be
resource allocation
- useful to have familiar, patterned ways of allocating natural resources among individuals, families, and other kinds of groups
- allocate such rights: who can harvest which resources, where, and when
- possible way to allocate rights over territory and
similarities among foragers
1. division of labor based on gender and age
2. frequent movement based on seasonal change
3. congregation and dispersal of groups, especially from season to season
4. living in small bands of varying size and flexible composition
5. strong vales of recip
domesticatoin
- process by which ppl came to control the survival and reproductive rates of plants and animals for their own benefit
Old world crop/livestock vs New world crops/livestock
- old world: 10,000yrs - middle east,asia, africa, mexican and andeans; large farm animals
- new world: 10,000 - 4,000 yrs - central and northern america; domesticated animals (ducks, guinea, dogs) for meat
what are the 2 main factors that led prehistoric foragers to begin cultivating crops
1. climate change
- end of last ice age, climate became warmer at same time people began to domesticate plant and animals
2. growing human pop.
- numbers began to increase substantially, wild plants and animals could no longer support pop size in a region
one reason of spread of agriculture...
- farming ppl lived in denser settlements and outnumbered foragers, so they tended to spread into regions suitable for cultivation, displacing or depopulating the hungter-gatheres who had been living there.
horticulture
- plant cultivation in which human muscle power and hand tools are the only means to clear land, turn soil, plants, weed, and harvest crops.
what are the consequences of horticulture?
1. permanent settlement and increased pop. densities
2. family ownership rights over specific plots of land
- attachment to private property cause intergroup violence
3.. wealth accumulation
4. inequality
intensive agriculture
systems of cultivation in which plots are planted annually or semiannually; usually uses irrigation, natural fertilizers, and (in the Old World) plows powered by animals
- produce higher yields, farmers work in land harder -> motivates them to develop new
intensive agriculture is better than horticulture...
- high productivity is due to factors such as short or no fallow periods, preparing land more thoroughly prior to planting, removing weeds, adding manure and other organic matter to preserve fertility and manipulating supply of water.
what are consequences of intensive ag.?
- production of surplus over and above their own subsistence requirements.
-> central fact about preindustrial farmers who relied on intensive agriculture: most were not politically independent and economically self-sufficient communities but were incorpo
surplus
- amount of food or other goods a worker produces in excess of the amount consumed by the individual or the individual's department
- surplus produced was traded, sold, or taxed to support ppl who did not themselves do farmwork
civilization
a level of cultural complexity characterized by intensive agriculture, cities, monumental architecture, writing systems, metallurgy, and craft specialization.
gregory clark - "farewell to alms
argued that agriculture and civilization DID NOT improve human life for the majority of people at all. He believed the world changed when we approached the INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION
pastoralism
A type of agricultural activity based on nomadic animal husbandry or the raising of livestock to provide food, clothing, and shelter.
nomadism
seasonal mobility, often involving migration to high-altitude areas during the hottest and driest parts of the year
transhumance
the pastoral pattern involving migration to different elevations to respond to seasonal differences in the availability of pasturelands
generalizations about relationship between main forms of human interactions with nature and cultural systems:
1. in most environments, foraging is most efficient when ppl live in small, seasonally mobile groups that maintain flexible rights to the natural resources of large territories.
2. horticulture ppl settle in hamlets or villages in which land and other pro
main main impacts of group's culture
the ways a people harness the resources and cope with the problems of living in a particular environment are important influences on many dimensions of the group's culture
industrialism
an economic system built on large industries rather than on agriculture or craftsmanship
- shelters the world's more affluent persons from the environment and provides them with their means of survival without them having to engage nature directly
- began
leslie white
Neo evolution; Culture (not cultures) evolve; believed history of human civilization is based on the attempt to control nature by culture; The more energy a culture is able to extract, the more evolved a culture is bound to be; Technology and energy play
what are the consequences of industrialism?
- changes in food production and distribution
- global impact by encouraging colonialism as richer nations sought natural resources to supply their factories to seek control over natural resources in other continents
globalization of production
process of corporations that are headquartered in one country relocating their production facilities to other countries to reduce production costs and remain globally competitive
what are the consequences of globalization?
- when industrial production globalizes, so do its negative global environmental impacts
- extracting resources leads to depletions, landscape destruction, soil erosion, and other deteriorations of environmental quality
- factories pollute air from burnin
what are the two most important dimensions of human-environment relationship>
- natural environment in which a people live provides resources that they extract to meet their material needs and wants
- environment posses certain problems that ppl strive to solve or overcome