AnthropologyLesson 3 of 6 in the course Work, Life, and Value: Economic Anthropology

Gathering-Hunting: Subsistence, Hadza Life, and Contemporary Foragers

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

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Summary

This lesson introduces gathering-hunting, a flexible way of making a living by using resources available in the natural environment. It also explains why many scholars place gathering before hunting when naming this strategy.

A subsistence strategy is a way people obtain the food and other necessities they need to live. In gathering-hunting societies, people rely mainly on resources they find in their environment rather than producing most of their food through farming or herding.

All flashcards

Sexual division of labor
A pattern in which some work is assigned differently according to a person's sex.
Honeyguide relationship
A mutually beneficial interaction in which a bird leads a hunter to a hive and receives beeswax.
Group consensus
A way of making decisions through public discussion rather than rule by a permanent leader.
Environmental knowledge
Knowledge of resources, water, animal behavior, useful plants, and environmental dangers.
Original affluent society
Marshall Sahlins's phrase highlighting how foragers may meet their needs with limited work and enjoy leisure.

Quiz questions

  1. When Hadza hunters leave beeswax after harvesting honey, what does the honeyguide gain?Answer: Wax that it can eat.
  2. How are decisions commonly made within a Hadza band?Answer: Through public discussion and group consensus.
  3. When a gatherer-hunter band needs resources on a neighboring group's land, what may it do?Answer: Ask the neighboring group for permission to use the land.
  4. Why can some coastal or riverine gatherer-hunters live in permanent or semipermanent settlements?Answer: Fish may be available throughout the year.
  5. Why should contemporary gatherer-hunters not be treated as direct models of humanity's distant ancestors?Answer: They adapt, innovate, and have histories shaped by contact with states and other societies.

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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