Settled Ingredients: Domestic Food Production

 

Adaptation: the process by which organisms achieve beneficial adjustments to their available environment.

Human beings exhibit a very high level of PLASTICITY (adaptability to many environments). They do this not through the process of genetic evolution, but through CULTURE! Culture is a adaptive system.

ECOSYSTEM: a system or functioning whole composed of both physical environment and organisms that live in it.

• each has a CARRYING CAPACITY. This is defined as the number of human beings it can support due to its limiting resource(s).
• Although you do not need to memorize the ecosystems in your text, notice that there are adaptation that are impossible or very difficult in some ecosystems. They may also have low carrying capacities for human beings and may entail major alterations of the environment to support them. these can be a great strain on the environment.
• tundra
• desert
• grassland
• temperate forest
• mountain zones
• icelands

Two basic kinds of subsistence systems.

• Food Gatherers
• hunters and gatherers (H/G)
• Food Producers
• horticulture (extensive)
• pastoral (animal focused)
• horticulture (plant focused)
• agriculture (intensive)
• agrarian (nonindustrial)
• industrial

*we will go over this more when we speak about ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

Hunting & Gathering Subsistence Strategies

• collect wild plants and animals
• bands (political organization)
• 25 people (small)
• egalitarian (social structure)
• sharing (reciprocity based economic system)
• diet: 95% plant food / 5% animal protein
• child spacing- 5 years
• prolonged nursing
• birth control 
• passive infanticide
• few material possessions
• bilateral (kinship patterns)
• dependence/independence training
• nomadic
• highly varied food sources
• very healthy population free from most disease

Hunting & Gathering Culture: Wadani of Rain Forest

Example of Australia
Evolution from Foraging to Pastoralism: film Links

Horticultural Subsistence Strategies (extensive agriculture-land expensive)

• domesticate plants &/or animals (focused on one)
• increased land use
• simple tool kit for production
• egalitarian/ranked (social structure)
• tribal (political organization)
• 100-250 people
• strategies do not alter the carrying capacity of the environment
• fecundity (high levels of childbirth)
• dependence training
• unilineal (kinship)
• communal ownership (economic exchange)

pastoral (animal focused)                                        horticulture (Plant focused)

transhumant                                                                sedentary

animal focused with no plant domesticates           plant focused with animal cash crops

mixed subsistence                                                     slash and burn (swidden)

patrilineal (kinship)                                                    matrilineal & patrilineal

Pastoral Systems (short definition-film link)

Example: pastoral system
Horticultural Systems: (short definintion -film link)

example: plant-based horticulture
Agricultural Stystems: (short definition) Film Link

Agricultural Subsistence Strategies (intensive agriculture)
Agraraian (non-industrial ) rice farming

Advanced agriculture (industrial) Israel 

• domesticate plants AND animals
• alter environment to increase carrying capacity of land
• fertilization
• irrigation
• plow/draft animals
• 500-millions of people
• chiefdoms and states (political structure)
• redistributive/surplus economies
• ranked and stratified political systems
• lineal kin ownership
• sedentary
• complex tool kit
• mono-crop production
• greater output on less land
• poor nutrition & famine prone

industrial agriculture

• individual ownership
• industrial tools & technologies
• increased population density and population
• increased productivity
• bilateral kinship

EVOLUTIONARY GASTRONOMY

The Prolonged exposure to food allowed settled peoples physiologically respond to their diet to such a degree that genetic changes occurred conferring protection in particular environments.The legacy of these ancestral diets can still be carried in today's populations.

• cuisines are a functional mix (not random)
• They work at the genetic level to confer advantages
• diseases
• drought
• plagues
• We need to holistically evaluate food strategy interconnections which entails
• The environment - places demands on the species  and have a variety of carrying capacities
• the types, abundance, and seasonality of food species whether wild or domestic require further behavioral responses from humans
• domestic groups-organize the production, distribution and consumption of food
• Subsistence and division of labor
• technology associated with subsistence
• productive rules create ties and obligationsbased on the degree of social equality
• cosmologies underpin societies values beliefs and ideas
• the value and meaning of food is created and changed through the interconnection between these aspects

HUNTERS AND GATHERERS

• Hunting and gathering societies are small which today live in marginal communities
• original affluent society?
• work 20 hours per week
• remarkable knowledge of environment
• Low birth arte
• exercise
• wide variety of foods
• two types- based on the availability of food resources
• immediate return
• delayed return
• Each cultures cuisine will reflect the social order bringing value and meaning to food through its social uses.

SMALL -SCALE Immediate return H/G

• they show a pattern of congregation when food is abundant and a pattern of dispersal when it is not
• demands an encyclopedic knowledge of foods
• typically food is consumed immediately
• difficult to acquire food resources have stringent rules for sharing (meat)
• today supplement store bought foods, "shop tucker", with their diet (as opposed to "bush tucker") HYBRID ECONOMY
• small mobile (nomadic) groups that are egalitarian, and cooperative
• what to eat from so much knowledge of the choices?
• preferences if possible
• if not OFT or whatever you find
• taste]rarity
• abundamnce
• ease of collection
• duration of eating season
• tastiness
• satisfaction of hunger
• absence of side effects
• acceptability of food for family, friends or guests
• PREFERENCE for fat, sweet, meat
• everyone contributes in some way to subsistence startinfg with children under 5bYO
• gendered roles but with flexibility as needs dictate
• SOCIAL BENEFITS of sharing foods
• Goannas- selfish food, low rank, usually eaten as they are caught (anyone and women)
• Kangaroos (men) afford social benefits when shared -high status 
• GENERALIZED RECIPROCITY (equal exchange when the value and time it takes to reciprocate are not designated)
• generosity is highly valued (and even demanded)
• simple tool kit (technology for production0
• belong to everyone along with land and are shared
• respect for other species and requirement to protect them- STEWARDSHIP
• rock drawings- ritual obligations and mapping water and food sources
• FOOD GETTING IS LIFE AND DEFINES PEOPLES SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS

LARGE SCALE ,Delayed return H/G (rare)

• abundant, reliable and relatively easily acquired resources
• larger populations
• some ability to store food resources for later use
• coastal pacific NA
• abundant marine resources and land- seasonally abundant resources
• instead of being constantly nomadic, they tend to congregate during abundant season and disperse when resources are scarce. 
• salmon as generalizing metaphor and highly valued resource
• cyclical ideology of codependence and gratitude
• ideologically egalitarian, but allowed for corporate descent groups that may own things they accumulate
• strict gender ideology and division of labor reinforced by cosmological taboos and control of women's activities to protect men's hunting and fishing
• women; gathering and processing food, and storage of plants and animals
• men hunting and fishing
• roles regarded as complimentary
• food
• distinction between domestic meals and public feasts
• food is a vital part of identity and associated with clan totems
• value on rarity; most abundant is least valuable (individually acquired)
• least abundant is most valuable because requires cooperative hunting and must be shared
• hogh stauts food which requires elaborate preparation is highly valued and is for guests
• reciprocity and generosity are valued
• competition over valued resources- POTLATCH- competitive sharing

DOMESTICATION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS

the result of gradual intensification of human manipulation of plants and animals

• how?
• deliberate transplantation/manipulation
• stewardship: irrigation, planting, weeding, killing predators
• enhance useful wild qualities and diminish less useful
• does not always enhance nutrition or health
• result in a more settled (SEDINTARY) lifestyle
• vulnerability to attack
• environmental disasters
• new diseases
• more stable food supply
• early domesticates were status symbols rather than staples- non staples
• changes wrought by domestication
• shift to domestic family centered life rather than communal
• public sphere as the realm of the social order
• household becomes the status apparatus of the family group
• Cosmological changes: manipulation of nature as opposed to stewards of it
• separation between amn and nature
• trend for intensification
• types
• horticulture
• pastoralism 
• agrarianism
• agriculture (industrial)
• always a specialized adaptation to a specific environment
• grasslands
• tropical forests
• mountains

PASTORALISM

• Based on renewable resources of domesticated animals
• milk, eggs, wool, pelts, blood, etc
• relationship between pastoralists is complex and deeply rooted in peoples sense of identity
• Nuer example
• Dani example
• availability of pasture lands, water, and seasonal weathger patterns determines the degree of TRANSHUMANCE
• degree of movement
• culinary traditions adapted to movement and environment
• mixed mode food getting strategies - add h/g and fishing and some small scale plant horticulture
• share food with kin- rights to pasture owned by kin group
• Cosmology
• cattle herding as a gift from god- social and economic life imbued with social and economic meaning
• cattle of ancestors- healthy cattle means healthy social relationships
• male centered societies where men own valued resources -cattle
• Staple resources
• milk, cheese, yogurt, blood  and small amounts of meat
• milk added to porridge
• shameful to kill an animal for meat- meat tends to come from lesser domesticates (sheep or chickens) rather than valued cosmological animals -cattle
• fish as important supplement along with hunted animals
• women in charge of processing of foods and their distribution-complimentary

HORTICULTURE

• characterized by polycropping- multi-species plots
• shifting, extensive agriculture, swidden, slash and burn
• requires a large land base so fields can be shifted and left fallow
• only use human labor and the natural carrying capacity of the envirionment
• large variety of domesticated species-seasonal
• Example
• Trobriand islands
• yans as primary crop associated with cosmology (men)
• surplus used for social purposes
• great gender distinctions
• cash crops- used for social mobility and gift display- bank account
• kitchen gardens in households on the other hand provide most daily food needs
• yam growing competitions
• especially vulnerable to seasonal variation and weather anomalies

AGRICULTURE

• associated with the rise of large-scale societies or civilization
• creates huge surpluses associated secure relationships with neighbors through trade
• highest levels of labor
• draft animals
• ploughing and harrowing devices
• greater energy imput
• mechanization
• irrigation
• mono-crop tendencies (reduction of species variation)
•  Industrial versus agrarian
• industrial is now the most dominant form- transforming the globak economy and the environment
• developed the most mobile cuisine becoming global
• ingredients have also become mobile
• GRAIN CROPS- particularly prominent
• stored easily
• ground and made into many products
• reduced breastfeeding dramatically
• diet
• reduced variety
• more grain dependent
• increased nutritional deficiency
• increased food insecurity with specialization and mono-crop dependence
• stratified social order
• huge surpluses
• greater specialization
• fewer people in production
• divorced from land
• interdependence versus independence
• foundation for stratified societies
• food laden with social values comaptible with stratification
• two-three daily meals develop
• status versus nonstatus foods exaggerated