A FRAMEWORK HUNTER-GATHERER STUDIES Image result for hadza last of the first Image result for hadza last of the first Related image Image result for hadza last of the first Kramer & Codding WHAT ARE COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS OF HGS ◼Historical aspects and approaches to studying hunter-gatherers ◼How those approaches have shaped our understandings of 21st century HG communities. A FRAMEWORK HGS TODAY CULTURAL0002 HUNTER-GATHERERS (FORAGERS) DEFINED ◼Economically – mode of subsistence. ▪reliance on hunting wild animals, gathering wild plant foods, and fishing ▪no domesticated plants and animals (except dogs) Inuit_Seal_Hunting.jpg KungSan gather.jpg Mongongo.jpg HUNTER-GATHERERS (FORAGERS) DEFINED ◼Socially – band level societies, live in small groups where membership is flexible and relations are generally egalitarian (Kelly 1995). Inuit band.jpg kung band.jpg HUNTER-GATHERERS (FORAGERS) DEFINED ◼Cosmology and world-view (Lee and Daly 1999) P1010021.JPG haida_tattoo1x.jpg ETHOS AND WORLD-VIEW ◼Sharing – “central rule of social interaction among HGs” (Lee and Daly 1999:4) ▪Morgan – “primitive communism” ▪Generalized reciprocity ◼Giving Environment? ◼A Trickster ◼Shamanism Barnard 1999 IMAGES OF HGS IN EUROPEAN SOCIAL THOUGHT 19TH CENTURY GREAT CHAIN OF BEING chainofbeing.jpg RISE OF EVOLUTIONISM ◼Unilineal Evolution ▪Developed by Lewis Henry Morgan ▪Concept of Cultural Evolution ◼Do not need to seek causes for the present state/activities of a group’s “culture” in biology or climate, or any other factor outside of culture itself. ◼Civilization – use of phonetic alphabet ◼Barbarism – herding and agriculture ◼Savagery – hunting and gathering ▪3 stages ▪Lower ▪Middle ▪Upper LEWIS HENRY MORGAN (1818-1881) RECAP ◼Hunter-gatherers at the bottom of the social evolutionary scale B/C: ▪Few material possessions ▪No private property ▪Moral limitations (lazy, brutish etc.) ◼Initially a search for the archetypal HG turned into a quest to figure out why there is diversity 20TH CENTURY MODELS ◼Disappearance is not due to technological inefficiency ▪Political factors – European expansion ◼Importance of early human history ▪Contemporary H&G are not relics from the past ▪But participants in the modern world system ◼Forced into marginal areas THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND THE ORIGINAL AFFLUENT SOCIETY HOW DO WE DEFINE HUNTER-GATHERER? ◼Do we define it in… ▪Evolutionary terms? ▪Organizational terms? ▪Subsistence terms? PATRILINEAL/PATRILOCAL ◼Radcliffe Brown = description of Australian Aboriginal social organization, first mention of the patrilineal band PATRILINEAL/PATRILOCAL Definition of patrilineal: relating to, based on, or tracing descent through the paternal line a patrilineal society, : patrilocal: located at or centered around the residence of the husband's family or tribe GENERALIZED FORAGING MODEL THE ORIGINAL AFFLUENT SOCIETY MAN THE HUNTER (1968) https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Jl3bLPdwL._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg rv and Richard at SAfA in Toronto June 2012 ◼Surprise! A result of the the “Man the Hunter” conference ◼Marriage, demography, territoriality, social and political organization and evolution from a variety of contexts MAN THE HUNTER CONF. ◼Despite name they claim to have discussed the importance of women… GENERALIZED FORAGING MODEL “NOMADIC STYLE” 1.Egalitarianism 2.Low population density 3.Lack of territoriality 4.Minimum of food storage 5.Flux in band composition As read in Kramer and Codding, what other questions/conclusions came from the 1968 ”Man the Hunter” conference? THE INDEPENDENT MODEL ◼HGs are not isolated or outside of history ◼A history of contact has resulted in dramatic changes in HG livelihoods ◼2 main issues 1.Are sociocultural trends associated with Hging itself or as a product of interactions with other nonHG groups 2.The increased concern with political economy Modes of production OR PROFESSIONAL PRIMITIVE ◼Developed by Marx and Engels ◼Civilization followed the invention of private property (result of internal conflict) ▪Some individuals became wealthy and needed to protect wealth ->Social classes and specialization followed MARXISM ◼Market Principle ▪Capitalism ▪Supply and demand ◼Reciprocity – exchange between social equals ▪Generalized ▪Balanced ▪Negative ◼Redistribution – movement of goods and services to a center and then flow back out. EXCHANGE SYSTEMS ◼Generalized ▪giving without expecting a concrete or immediate return ▪Less about economic exchange, more about relationships ▪Between kin or fellow house or band members ◼Balanced ▪Exchange with those distantly related, or not related ▪Cousins, trading partner, fictive kin ◼Negative – deceit, cheating, theft, raiding RECIPROCITY (SAHLINS 1972)