Subsistence and Economy: Hunter Gatherers and Agriculture

Part 1: Agriculture

1) Agriculture is defined as the cultivation of food plants in soil prepared and maintained for crop production. The benefit to agriculture is growing a population's own food using the same materials to feed the people and livestock. This practice is then used by the next generation and so on to keep a rising population. Agriculture also allows people to live off the land instead of depending on the population of certain animals.

As previously mentioned, agriculture can also help feed livestock so that the population also has meat they can add to their diet.

Although animals provide meat, some animals are used for other purposes such as providing milk for the population.

Hunter Gatherers

Like agriculture, there are also beneficial aspects of Hunter Gatherers. Their primary diet consists of meat which gives them stronger bodies because of the animals they hunt down. They also forage for plants that may contain healing properties. 

Hunter gatherers may also be more accustomed to the land they forage in. Every environment poses its own set of challenges, but hunter gathers might have learned some helpful tricks that only work for that specific environment and it's wildlife. This includes no spoils in the animals they successfully capture because every part of the animal will be used and has some benefit to the population like shelter or clothing. 

2) Although there are many benefits to both agriculture and hunter gatherers, they each also have their own disadvantages. For example, hunter gatherers depend on their skill in hunting animals and the availability of them in the first place. If the animal population were to decrease then the population would suffer and also decrease. This does not mean that agriculture is more well off than hunter gatherers because they rely heavily on the environment. Sometimes unexpected natural occurrences such as a drought may happen preventing them from growing crops to feed the people or their livestock because of the lack of water. 

3) In my opinion, agriculture serves the healthier diet than hunter gatherers. Agriculture than grow many different type of foods. Some foods such as carrots contain nutrients in them that improve eyesight. There are also other vegetables that provide some type of benefit to a healthier lifestyle. But agriculture is not only limited to vegetables but also meat because of the livestock. They feed and allow the animals to reproduce so they do not have to go hunt for more animals to add to their livestock. What the animals eat can also be controlled in order to have better quality meat. This is why I believe agriculture has the upper hand in a healthier diet. 

4) Early human populations started to transition into agriculture because of the probable abundant availability of a food source. I would imagine that hunting for animals would take time and the hunting endeavors would not always turn out to be successful.  With agriculture, there would be more security in there being something to eat in the future. But those early humans could have also found room for hunter gathers to find animals to add to the livestock for food. Although there are many more benefits to agriculture, people can not grow animals from the ground. So there was still a need for hunter gatherers which may in fact have actually helped agriculture grow. 

Part 2

1) The meaning of the statement in which there is a relationship between the availability of surplus and the ability to trade is that even if there is a surplus of a particular food or item, it is not valuable if there is not one to trade with. It could also mean that the ability to transport one form of goods from other population to another may also be difficult or even impossible. 

2) Not only is trade beneficial by receiving certain types of goods from someone else, but it also helps build social relationships. This social benefit would allow for an equilibrium between two parties. They would have an agreement that they would only trade a certain type of good with each other which would benefit them both. Another social benefit of trade is generalized reciprocity in which whatever is given is not expected to have some sort of returned payment. An example of this is buying food for someone and not expecting anything from them. This does not only benefit the receiver, but also the person who shown kindness by giving them a "feel good" feeling. 

3) Like most things, there is a negative aspect for developmental trade. One of the negative social results are negative reciprocity which is to get more than what you give. Another word which most people recognize when addressing negative reciprocity is "cheating". This is the person who does whatever it takes to take advantage of another person and practices unfairness to end up on top. Another negative social aspect of developmental trade is a decrease is social standing. If for whatever reason a person does not repay a debt their social standing may be impacted. This causes a bad reputation and with a bad reputation, it becomes much more challenging to find another person to trade with.

4) With the development of agriculture came the development of trade. Agriculture allowed populations to start growing their own food and trade goods. This increase in trade goods allowed two different populations who practice agriculture to trade crops that the other does not grow. So both population would benefit because both would have crops from the other that they would not have otherwise. They are not only limited to crops however, they can also trade livestock for crops depending on a population's needs. Trade would also keep the peace between two different populations because they would realize that they need each other in order to receive certain types of goods. Trade would not happen so often before because there would not be much to trade as hunter gatherers. I would imagine it would be difficult to come across a surplus of food availability and would thus limit their trading power.