PATTERNS of SUBSISTENCE

TYPE
Foraging

Pastoralism

Horticulture

Agriculture

EXAMPLES
CHARACTERISTICS
o Northwest Coast Indians
o They survive on hunting,
o Chumash
and
California
gathering and/or fishing for
resources
Indians
o They live in small, nomadic
o Khoisan
groups
o Agta/Aeta
o Men usually hunted while
o Australian Aborigines
women
gathered
plant
o Calusa
resources
o Ainu
o Found in deserts, tropical
rainforests, arctic
o Saami
o Domestication of livestock/
o Wodaabe
herd animals (cattle, goats or
sheeps)
o Maasai
o
They
herd to gather milk
o Bakhtiari
products, wool, blood and
o Navajo
sometimes including meat
o Involves
exploitation
of
grazing lands
o Tsembaga
o They practice slash-and-burn
o Ainu
o The domestication of crops
with hands and simple tools
o Konso
o atal Hyk

o They
cultivate
lands;
horticulture
requires
fallowing and so becomes
more labor intensive
o Irrigation, terracing and multicropping are employed.
o Animals are also domesticated
and used to produce
different products like milk,
meat, eggs.
o They are used for plowing,
killing
rodents,
and
fertilizing.

I. Briefly identify the cultures listed below, and locate them on the world map.
1. Tsembaga
The Tsembaga is a subclan of the Marings who at one point had 200 members. They are
herders of pig although these pigs are not used for human sustenance. These pigs, however,

have high values and are not killed unless for religious or family obligations. When there is a
surplus of pigs, the Tsembagas would hold a pig festival in which 85% of the pigs will be
slaughtered and consume while discussing issues with other clans. It also marks the time for
the removal of restrictions on warfare.
2. Comanche
The Comanche Indians are from the southern part of Nebraska and northern part of Texas.
They are good traders and warriors. They are usually nicely dressed in leather boots and silver
conchos. They are known for kidnapping women and children and requesting ransom from
their families as part of their trading tradition. They lived in tee-pees and are nomadic huntergatherers.
3. Shoshone and Paiute
Shoshones or the Valley people live in several areas in USA including California, Idaho,
Nevada, Utah and Wyoming although there is a concentration of Shoshone population in the
Snake river area in Idaho. Their subsistence varies based on the settlement area (either on the
east, west, north). Women generally do the gathering and leather-making. Men are responsible
for hunting and decorating items.
The Paiute are scattered in the USA with some living in California, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona,
Utah, and Oregon, but the largest concentrations are historically along the Virgin and Muddy
rivers. Pauites are foragers but also practiced simple irrigation-agriculture. Economy is
embedded in the social institution of the family.
4. Hadza
Hadzas settled in northern Tanzania. They are known for not having any concept of time (in
hours, days or even years), and no words past the number three or four. They are strictly
hunter-gatherers, growing no livestock or plants. They do not take part in warfare. They are
barely any rules and very few social obligations; they have no leaders at all.
5. Mekranoti Kayapo
Mekranoti Kayapos are very knowledgeable swidden farmers from Central Brazil. They plant
intensively in a short time usually 8.5 hours a week.
6. Gururumba
Gururumbas of the Upper Asao Valley in Papua New Guinea are also hunters and gatherers on
top of being swidden farmers. Like the Tsembagas, they also raise pigs but not
necessarily/mainly as food consumption but in their case, to regulate political economy. Their
division of labor is traditional with the women as gatherers and farmers while the men hunt and
guards. They have patriclans who control access to their lands.
7. Bahktiari

Bahktiaris inhabit the central Zagros mountains of Iran. The name Bahktiari means bearer of
good luck. A third of the some 800, 000 tribe members are nomadic while the rest are
agriculturists. They herd sheep, cattle and goat to produce dairy and meat products. They are
actually Shiite Muslims, but were Zoroastrians before the Arabs invaded Iran.
8. Aymara
They can be found in the Andes and Altiplano regions of South America, more specifically in
Bolivia, Peru and Chile. They have a reverse concept of time according to recent studies.
Aymaras practiced husbandry and agriculture in 2500 BC. Grazing lands are communal, but
agricultural land was passed on rotation depending on each familys needs. They had a sociopolitical unit called the allyu which is used in collective land ownership. Division of labor is
divided equally between spouses.

II. Briefly identify the cultures listed below, and locate them on the world map.
1. Enga
The Engas are found in the Enga highlands of Papua New Guinea. They have a strict segregation
between the sexes. They have a ceremony called sangai for boys aged 16 to 19 to be cleansed

from any sort of female contact. Their primary mode of subsistence is horticulture. Economic
transactions like finance, credit and interest revolved around the concept called tee.
2. Inca
The Incas inhabited the highlands of Peru as early as the 13 th century. They cultivate crops like
corn, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peanuts, etc. They also raised animals like llamas and alpacas for
their wool and meat. The Incas had a tax system and generally a complex socio-political sphere.
Their empire is the largest in pre-Columbian America.
3. Afar
The Afar tribes are located in Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Most of the Afar tribes are
nomadic who herded sheep, goats, cattle and camels ones wealth was measured by the size of
the herd. However, some have jobs or work as laborers in the nearby areas. They are proud
people, known for gaining prestige from killing people.
4. Tiv
The Tivs can be found in Nigeria and Cameroon. They are also known as Mitshi, Munchi or
Munshi. They are agriculture-dependent who practice fallowing, hoe cultivation and crop
rotation. Major crops are yams, sorghum and bulrush millet. They also cultivate sweet potatoes,
maize, peanuts, etc. They do not have chiefs or councils, but a group of people living together as
a community is called a tar. Religion revolved around the akombo which is a magical force and
its emblems.
5. Kota, Toda, Badaga, Kurumba
The above four tribes are found in India. There is a legend saying that the two former and
Kurumba tribes are brought out at the same time by a single creator. Kurumbas are traditionally
hunters and gatherers. They also exchanged goods with neighboring tribes or providing goods for
Toda festivals.
Kota tribes are usually introverted and shy people. They farm and cultivate. They are also adept
in arts and crafts. Toda tribe is the most ancient and unusual of those in the Nilgiri Hills. They
have secretive customs and worship different gods. They are known for their embroideries.
Major subsistence is cattle-herding and dairy production, therein. They are also vegetarians, but
they eat dairy products and some eat fish. Badagas are mixed farmers of millets, barleys and
wheat. They do not have irrigation and rely on rainfall extensively. Herded animals are kept for
dairy production. They also practice bee-keeping.

References:
http://faculty.ccbcmd.edu/~jdonahu8/PPT/ANTH101_Subs.ppt
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/bkimura/Subsistence.htm
http://public.wsu.edu/~forda/pig1.html
http://www.texasindians.com/comanche.htm
http://www.shoshoneindian.com/
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/12/hadza/finkel-text
http://www.umsl.edu/~wolfordj/courses/a11ws02/ch6notes.html
http://www.everyculture.com/Oceania/Gururumba-Economy.html
http://www.farhangsara.com/bakhtiari.htm
http://phys.org/news69338070.html
http://www.everyculture.com/South-America/Aymara-Economy.html
http://ingetjetadros.photoshelter.com/gallery/Engatribe/G0000PxWRyYGXgdg/C0000ONu7eEr5UUA
http://www.essaydepot.com/doc/29722/The-Enga-Of-New-Guinea
http://www.pridesoaring.com/Afar%20People%20of%20Africa.htm
http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/ethnoatlas/hmar/cult_dir/culture.7874
http://www.indianetzone.com/10/kota_tribe.htm
http://www.everyculture.com/South-Asia/Kurumbas.html
http://www.indianmirror.com/tribes/todatribe.html
http://controversialhistory.blogspot.com/2008/04/origin-of-badaga.html#.UD4r6tYgc24