AnthropologyLesson 2 of 3 in the course Work, Life, and Value: Economic Anthropology

Plant Cultivation, Farming Strategies, and Social Change

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 5 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

Plant cultivation changed how people obtained food and organized their lives. This lesson introduces cultivation, plant domestication, and the independent development of farming in different regions.

Cultivation is the deliberate manipulation of nature to grow useful plants in convenient locations. People who gathered and hunted wild foods experimented with cultivation long before farming became the basis of their way of life. They might have noticed that seeds discarded near a camp sprouted or moved useful plants closer to home.

All flashcards

Cultivation
The deliberate manipulation of nature to grow useful plants in convenient locations.
Plant domestication
Gradual crop change as people repeatedly select and grow plants with valued traits.
Intercropping
Growing different crops together so they can benefit one another.
Extensive horticulture
Cultivation that commonly uses hand tools, multiple plots, and periods of fallow.
Intensive agriculture
Repeated cultivation of the same plots using methods such as plowing and irrigation.

Quiz questions

  1. What distinguishes intensive agriculture from extensive horticulture in anthropological usage?Answer: Intensive agriculture repeatedly uses the same plots with methods such as plowing or irrigation.
  2. In the Three Sisters system, what role do beans play?Answer: They add nitrogen to the soil.
  3. What do usufruct rights allow people to do with land?Answer: Use land without owning or selling it.
  4. How does irrigation support intensive agriculture?Answer: It brings managed water to fields, including where rainfall is insufficient.
  5. In anthropology, what is a peasant?Answer: A farmer with a small plot incorporated into a larger regional economy.

Based on Introduction to Anthropology by Jennifer Hasty, David G. Lewis, Marjorie M. Snipes (OpenStax), licensed CC BY 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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