E' Service M' Fried K' Polanyi SubsistenceEthnographic Social

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• E. Service M. Fried K. Polanyi
  Subsistence Ethnographic Social
• Polit Org Society Type Exchange
  Strategy Example Status
• Bands egalitarian reciprocity
  foraging Ju/hoansi, Inuit Achieved
• Tribes egalitarian reciprocity
  horticult/pastoral Yanomamö, Nuer Achieved
• (Big-man) (egalitarian)
  (redistribution) horticulture Kawelka,
  Kaoka Achieved
• Chiefdoms ranked redistribution
  agriculture Kwakiutl, Trobriands Ascribed
• States stratified market exch.
  intens ag/indust Inca, Egypt, U.S., India
  Both

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Human Prehistory

• 99 of human existence
• Small nomadic bands
• Foraging
• Sparse population

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Neolithic Revolution

• 12,000 years ago
• Horticulture domestication of plants
• Pastoralism domestication or control of animals
• Fertile Crescent, Thailand, China, Africa
• Increased food production
• Increased carrying capacity
• Set in motion
• Increased population
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Property rights
• Permanent settlements
• Greater division of labor/specialization
• Complex social structure
• New technology
• Civilization (urban centers)
• Inequality, poverty, war
• Environmental degradation

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Evolution of Political Organization
Agriculture
Big-men
Tribes
States
Chiefdoms
Bands
More surpluses of resources and wealth Increase
in number of role specializations Increased
population density and residential
centralization More social inequality/ranking/stra
tification Less reliance on kinship relations as
the basis of political structures Increased
internal and external social conflict Increased
power and responsibility of leaders Increased
burdens on the population to support political
organization
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Bands/Foraging Societies
Fewer than 300,000, mostly in marginal
areas Deserts Ju/hoansi of Kalahari Circumpolar
region Inuit of Canada, Alaska, Greenland
Doggan of Siberia Tropical forests Aka of
Central African Republic Congo Mbuti Baka of
Zaire
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Foraging Strategies

• Optimal foraging
• Simple technology
• Extensive strategy
• large areas
• temporary use
• Mobility
• Low population density
• Nomadic/seminomadic (except Kwakiutl)
• Seasonal movements
• Small family groups
• Coordinated with plant growth,
• water, animal movements
• No individual land rights

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Band Organization

• Small-scale
• Primary social unit family or band
• Low level of social political complexity
• Egalitarian
• Loose association with territory - no individual
  property ownership
• High value on sharing, cooperation, reciprocity
• Kin-based
• Direct negotiation
• Least political integration no overall
  authority, decentralized
• Integration based on kinship, common language,
  culture
• Politics tied to other aspects of social
  structure
• Informal leadership
• No designated or permanent authority acephalous
  (headless)
• Advice, guidance, persuasion
• Achieved, based on personal traits
• No status difference
• Ephemeral
• External conflict rare

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Division of Labor

• Least Complex
• Minimal occupational/role specialization
• Age and gender
• Temperate (Ju/hoansi, Aka, Agta)
• Most food is gathered
• Minimal gender division of labor
• Circumpolar (Inuit)
• Most food hunted and fished
• Greater gender division of labor
• Man the Hunter vs. Woman the Gatherer
• Ju/hoansi diet 70 vegetable gathered by women
• Affluent society?

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Foraging vs. Industrialism (Capitalist)

• Foraging Industrialism
• Production for use Production for profit
• Low consumption High consumption
• Exchange sharing-based Exchange market-based
• Basic, finite needs Consumerism, infinite needs
• Labor family-based Labor class-based
• Overlapping gender roles High degree of
  specialization
• Egalitarian Stratified
• Property relations
• collective, use right private, ownership
• Resource use
• Extensive temporary Intensive expanding
• High sustainability Low sustainability
• Good diet and health Health and diet vary by
  class
• Less work, more leisure More work, less leisure

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The Ju/hoansi

• !Kung
• San
• (Bushmen)

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Ju/hoansi Foraging

• Dobe area
• 4000 feet, northern edge of Kalahari
• Semi-desert
• Abundant plant foods
• Game unpredictable
• 70 of diet vegetable

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Ju/hoansi Social Organization

• Egalitarian - no headman
• Leveling mechanisms
• Insulting the meat
• Sharing arrows, food
• Resources pooled
• Reciprocity
• Generalized - sharing
• Balanced - hxaro
• Kinship-based
• Bilateral kinship system
• Flexible population distribution
• Camp
• Traditional social unit
• Flexible group
• Seasonal changes
• Nuclear extended families
• 10-30 people

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Ju/'hoansi Camp Organization
Core owners, kausi
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Camps

• Changing composition
• Exhaust local food resources
• Visits
• Conflict
• Marriage bride service
• Demographic composition
• Flexible
• Unit of sharing
• Interconnected
• Aggregate dry winter
• Disperse summer
• Children inherit rights to parents camps
• Couples live with eithers parents
• Mobility

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The Ju/hoansiSummary

• Camp Size 10-30
• Settlement Pattern Nomadic
• Dispersion and Aggregation
• Subsistence Strategy Foraging
• Economic System Reciprocity
• Sharing
• Hxaro
• Social Organization
• Division of Labor Age/Sex
• Egalitarian
• Political Organization Band
• Acephalous
• Status Achieved/Ephemeral
• Leveling Mechanisms
• Conflict Resolution
• Leave to join other group
• Fight