Agriculture/Food Getting

10,000 years ago everyone that lived on earth got their food by hunting animals and gathering nuts, berries and roots. These hunter/gatherer societies were probably small bands of people of no more than 50 or so. Keeping the numbers small ensured there would be plenty of food for everyone. There is approximately a quarter of a million people still living this lifestyle. They are located in the Arctic and the interior of Africa, Australia and South America.

                                                     Kalihari Bushman (Hunter/Gatherer's)

Some sources state that agriculture started 10,000 years ago with the domestication of wheat in what is now northern Iraq. Other sources state that the domestication of other grains were probably started in different areas of the world and diffused from these locations. Domestication of seeds ensured they could be planted and harvested in the same place. Wild versions of grains had exploding seed pods and the seeds would scatter everywhere making is difficult to find and replant.

                                                                Domesticated Wheat

Food getting tells us a lot about a culture. For instance in the United States it is not necessary for us to be hunter/gatherers because food is a big industry here. There are farms big enough to supply the country with meat, fruits and vegetables. While some people still hunt for food and still grow their own crops for their personal consumption that is a choice not necessarily a necessity. Where I as an Anthropology student find real interesting information is in the hunter/gatherer societies that still exist. There is much to learn from these people.

We find things in this type of lifestyle completely different from the way we live. For instance, we find that these numbers were kept low by a number of factors. First the life expectancy is only about 30 years of age. They have a high infant mortality rate. Nursing an infant lowers the ability to conceive when the diet is marginal, causing increased birth spacing. Some of the qualities of this lifestyle are.. They are nomadic, moving from place to place searching for food and never settling one place for an extended period of time. A big one that most societies could take a lesson from, as they are nomadic they are not materialistic. The live in shelters not houses so there is no place to put non essential items, plus they would not want to lug a bunch of knickknacks around with them. They have a simple sexual division of labor. The men do the hunting and the women and children to the gathering. They are egalitarian, meaning that everyone in the group has a say in what happens. There is no one person in charge of the group. There is no one person in charge of the group. Another issue that is not so glamorous is that these people really have no territory to defend, making them easily bullied out of what little they do have.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Agriculture also has its ugly side firt of all it brought about social stratification, which is the hierarchical arrangement of individuals into divisions of power and wealth within a society.  There are other not so nice issues that were brought about by agriculture.

In the May 1987 issue of Discover magazine, Jared Diamond, a physiology professor at UCLA Medical School, wrote an article entitled “The worst mistake in the history of the human race.” In it he argues that once formal agriculture was established the health of human beings began to decline. He mentions that first of all the Kalihari Bushmen only spend about 12-19 hours a week obtaining food. Leaving a lot of time for leisure activities.  He argues that h/g societies have a more nutritional diet from the various things they eat.  Paleopathologists have been able to determine from skeletal remains in Greece and Turkey that the average height at the (end of the ice age was 5'9" for men and 5'5" for women.  With the adoption of agriculture, height crashed and by 3000 B.C. the averages were 5'3" for men and 5' for women) 65.  He also lists starvation, and epidemic diseases as curses that were brought about because of agriculture.

I found this section on agriculture to be pretty interesting coupled with the information that I received in anthropology class.  Learning about agriculture form the human geography perspective will help immensly when working on ethnographies in just about every culture.  The history of agriculture will also peek up during archaeological work when digging in preshistoric garbage dumps.

References:
http://www.bing.com/search?q=social+stratification&src=IE-Address
Contemporary Human Geography, Rubenstein, James M., Prentice Hall, Pearson, 2010
Dr. E. Steve Cassells, Laramie County Community College, Cheyenne, WY, Cultural Anthroplogy Class
Discover Magazine, May 1987, Jared Diamond, pp 64-66