Conformity and Conflict 15th Edition McCurdy Spradley Late Shandy Test Bank

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 978-0134226958

PART 3

ECOLOGY AND SUBSISTENCE

The introduction to Part 3 discusses the concept of cultural ecology and a classification of societies based on their adaptive food-getting strategies.
KEY DEFINITIONS

Ecology is the relationship of an organism to other elements within its environmental sphere.

Cultural ecology refers to the way people use their culture to adapt to particular environments.

The physical environment is the world people experience with their senses.

The cultural environment is a people’s cultural classification of their physical environment, which usually reflects their adaptive needs and cultural perspective.

Subsistence strategies are strategies used by human groups to exploit their environment for material necessities.

Hunting and gathering (foraging) is an adaptive food-getting strategy based on the collecting of wild plants and the hunting of wild animals.

Horticulture is an adaptive strategy in which food is gardened with a hoe or digging stick.

Slash-and-burn agriculture, sometimes also referred to as shifting agriculture, is a common kind of horticulture in which large trees are cut and the fields burned over before planting.

Pastoralism is an adaptive strategy based on the herding of domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep, or goats.

Agriculture is an adaptive strategy based on the intensive farming of permanent fields. Agriculture is often associated with the use of the plow, irrigation, and sometimes terracing.

Industrialism is a subsistence strategy marked by intensive, mechanized food production and elaborate distribution networks. It is dominated by a market economy, as well as separate legal, religious, political, and economic systems.

Climate change is a long-term change in the Earth’s climate, especially due to a long-term increase in the atmospheric temperature as well as rising sea levels.

PART 3 QUESTIONS

True or False?

F 1. The physical environment is one area of human experience that people everywhere categorize in the same way.

F 2. Food-getting strategies have little impact on the structure of society.

T 3. Four anthropological classifications of societies based on food-getting techniques are hunting and gathering, horticulture, pastoralism, and agriculture.

F 4. The origin of bipedality (two-footedness) in humans is something that an anthropologist interested in cultural ecology would study.

T 5. Slash-and-burn agriculture is a kind of horticulture.

F 6. Cultural ecology is the most important form of subsistence strategy.

Multiple Choice

1. The study of how people use their culture to adapt to particular environments is called
a. ecology.
b. cultural ecology.
c. environmental determinism.
d. physical ecology.
Correct Answer: b

2. The world that people can experience with their senses is called
a. ecology.
b. cultural ecology.
c. physical environment.
d. cultural environment.
Correct Answer: c

3. The fact that a tourist sees scenic mountains and valleys when viewing a high pass in the Rocky Mountains, whereas a geologist sees cirque basins, U shaped valleys, and paternoster streams, illustrates the concept of
a. cultural ecology.
b. physical environment.
c. cultural environment.
d. scientific impartiality.
Correct Answer: c
4. Slash-and-burn agriculture would best be classified as which kind of the following adaptive strategies?
a. horticulture
b. agriculture
c. pastoralism
d. industrialism
Correct Answer: a

4. If a society uses irrigation, its food-getting (subsistence) system would best be classified as
a. agriculture.
b. horticulture.
c. pastoral.
d. hydraulic.
Correct Answer: a

5. Some of the following are listed as subsistence strategies in Part 3 of Conformity and Conflict. Which one of the following is not?
a. hunting and gathering
b. agricultural
c. manufacturing
d. horticultural
Correct Answer: c

6. Which one of the following subsistence strategies would most typically be found to support permanent settlements containing between 50 and 250 people?
a. hunting and gathering
b. horticulture
c. agriculture
d. pastoral
Correct Answer: b

7. According to Part 3 of Conformity and Conflict, the relationship of an organism to other elements within its environmental sphere is called
a. ecology.
b. cultural ecology.
c. the cultural environment.
d. biointeraction.
Correct Answer: a

Article 8

The Hunters: Scarce Resources
in the Kalahari RICHARD BORSHAY LEE

With an update by Richard Lee and Megan Biesele
Summary Basing his conclusions on an extensive study of !Kung subsistence activity and nutrition in 1963, Richard Lee challenges the notion that hunters and gatherers lived a hand-to-mouth existence. Despite residence in the Kalahari Desert, where there is an average yearly rainfall of only six to nine inches, !Kung managed to lead a remarkably stable, relaxed existence. They resided in camps located at permanent water holes. They frequently visited relatives in other camps but rarely moved long distances to hunt and gather.

Overall, hunter gathering provided over 85% of subsistence needs. A key to assured subsistence was the availability of vegetable foods, particularly the mongongo nut. !Kung could subsist entirely on such foods although they preferred meat. Vegetable foods made up 60 to 80 percent of their diet. The abundance of their sparse environment was revealed by the fact that !Kung ate selectively, consuming only some of the edible plant and animal species found around them. A significant number of !Kung lived beyond the age of 60, and approximately 40 percent of the population did no productive work. !Kung spent only about two and one-half days a week in productive activity, using the remainder of their time for leisure activities. Lee concluded that for many hunting and gathering groups, a dependence on plant foods produced a stable, effective way of life.

The way of life described for 1963 has changed, however. By 1994, most Ju/’Hoansi !Kung were living in permanent settlements, eking out a living by herding, farming, and craft production. Hunting and gathering now only supply about 30 percent of their subsistence needs. The spread of commercial ranching on the areas in which they traditionally foraged may soon reduce this figure to zero.
ARTICLE 8 QUESTIONS

True or False?

T 1. Richard Lee claims that the consumption of edible plants, rather than meat, was the key to successful subsistence for the !Kung in 1963.

F 2. Lee found that in 1963, from 60 to 90 percent of the !Kung diet consisted of meat brought back to camp by the men.

T 3. Despite residence in a sparse desert environment, the !Kung did not eat a majority of the edible plants and animals found in their territory when observed in 1963.

F 4. Because their environment was so difficult, the !Kung relied heavily on the labor of children and old people to provide edible plants for general consumption in 1963.

T 5. According to Lee, in 1963 the !Kung had more leisure time than average Americans.

F 6. One reason the study of !Kung subsistence patterns is so important is the rarity of the case; the !Kung had had no contact with other people until the study began in 1963.

T 7. Over the 30 years since Lee first described them, the Ju/’Hoansi !Kung have come to live in permanent villages and have become much less dependent on foraging to meet their subsistence needs.

Multiple Choice

1. According to Richard Lee, in 1963 !Kung men
a. supplied between 20 and 40 percent of the calories consumed by members of a camp.
b. hunted almost every day to bag sufficient food for people’s daily needs.
c. collected approximately 70 percent of the edible vegetable foods.
d. began hunting regularly before they were 10 years old.
Correct Answer: a

2. Lee feels that the key to successful subsistence for many hunter-gatherers, such as the !Kung, is
a. adequate defense against the encroachment of other hunting and gathering groups.
b. dietary selectivity.
c. dependence largely on a diet of edible plants.
d. band loyalty and membership stability.
Correct Answer: c

3. According to Lee, the most important staple in the diet of the !Kung when studied in 1963 was
a. taro root.
b. the mongongo nut.
c. giraffe meat.
d. a kind of bitter berry.
Correct Answer: b