Patterns of Subsistence Key Terms

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Chapter 17

• Patterns of SubsistenceKey Terms

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• cultural adaptationThe process organisms undergo
  to achieve a beneficial adjustment to an
  available environment and the result of that
  processthe characteristics of organisms that fit
  them to the particular environmental conditions
  in which they are found.

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• horticultureCultivation of crops using hand
  tools such as digging sticks.
• ecosystemA system, or a functioning whole,
  composed of both the physical environment and the
  organisms living within it.

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• cultural ecologyThe study of the interaction of
  specific human cultures with their environment.
• progressThe notion that humans are moving
  forward to a higher, more advanced stage in their
  development toward perfection.

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• convergent evolutionIn cultural evolution, the
  development of similar adaptations to similar
  environmental conditions by peoples whose
  ancestral cultures were quite different.
• parallel evolutionIn cultural evolution, the
  development of similar adaptations to similar
  environmental conditions by peoples whose
  ancestral cultures were similar.

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• culture areaA geographic region in which a
  number of different societies follow similar
  patterns of life.
• culture typeThe view of a culture in terms of
  the relation of its particular technology to the
  environment exploited by that technology.

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• culture coreThe features of a culture that play
  a part in matters relating to the societys way
  of making a living.
• food foraging Hunting, fishing, and gathering
  wild plant foods.

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• carrying capacityThe number of people who can be
  supported by the available resources at a given
  level of technology.
• density of social relationsRoughly, the number
  and intensity of interactions among the members
  of a camp or other residential unit.

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• Neolithic revolutionThe profound culture change
  associated with the early domestication of plants
  and animals.
• swidden farming An extensive form of
  horticulture in which the natural vegetation is
  cut, the slash is subsequently burned, and crops
  then planted amongst the ashes.

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• intensive agriculture Crop cultivation using
  technologies other than hand tools, such as
  irrigation, fertilizers, and the wooden or metal
  plow pulled by harnessed draft animals.
• pastoralismBreeding and managing of herds of
  domesticated grazing animals, such as goats,
  sheep, cattle, llamas, or camels.

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• transhumancePattern of strict seasonal movement
  between different environmental zones.
• preindustrial citiesThe kinds of urban
  settlements that are characteristic of
  nonindustrial civilizations.