Anthropology exam

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HandoutQuestionsonEcologyandSubsistence1.docx

The Hunters: Scarce Resources in the Kalahari by Richard Borshay Lee

1. How does Lee assess the day to day quality of life of the !Kung when they lived as foragers? How does this view compare with that held by many anthropologists in the early 1960s? What evidence does Lee give to support his view about the !Kung?

3. According to Lee, !Kung children are not supposed to work until after they are married; old people are supported and respected. How does this compare to behaviors in our own (your) society? Explain?

4. How do social and cultural notions of time change across cultures? For instance, did the !Kung have any concept of a “week-end”? Why or why not? How many hours per day or week did hunters and gatherers such as the !Kung work? How does this compare to working in industrialized societies? What were non-working hours like?

5. What was key to successful subsistence for the !Kung and other hunter gatherers according to Lee? In what ways has life changed for the !Kung since 1964? What caused these changes?

6. Overall, how did your group respond to this essay? What did students respond to most/ least in this essay? Does this essay offer any food for thought regarding the topic of this chapter, ecology and subsistence?

Illegal Logging and Frontier Conservation by Nathan Williamson

1. According to Williamson what plans and programs have been tried to promote sustainable logging in the Bolivian lowlands? How have they worked?

2. What are three main types of logging employed by people in the Chimanes and nearby forests? How destructive to the forest is each? What motivates the Chimanes Indians and cuarteneros to illegally cut timber in the Chimanes National Reserve? What role does the frontier nature of the area play in their ability to get away with these activities? Which is more destructive – illegal logging or commercial logging? Can you make any comparisons to other industries in this regard?

3. According to Williamson why have the programs put forth by the Bolivian government and NGOs failed to work in forests that surround San Borja? What does he suggest might be a better way to promote sustainable logging there? What factors do you think need be considered to make the logging industry more sustainable? More regulations/ fewer? Geared more toward illegal logging or commercial logging? Why?

4.How are logging activities in the Bolivian lowlands connected in the world economy? What role do consumer desires and behaviors

6. Overall, how did your group respond to this essay? Like/ dislike? What did students respond to most/ least in this essay? Understand most/ least? Does the essay offer any food for thought in regard to the topic of the chapter, ecology and subsistence?

We are Going Underwater by Susan A. Crate

1. Consider the opening words to the essay: “There are no longer any skylarks. They are gone and we don’t hear them. And now we also don’t hear the shaman’s drum.” What do you infer from this? What is the main idea of the essay?

2. According to Crate, what are nine changes induced by climate change in this setting?

3. How does Crate define “place-based peoples”?

4. What are the attributes of a climate-sensitive region?

5. What does a focused study of the Viliuti Sakha contribute to our understanding of climate change more broadly? Do you think that ecology and subsistence strategies for the 21st century are best when decided from the “top down”, from the “bottom up”….or in “knowledge exchanges between those who make and implement policies and people who are most affected by them?

6. Overall, how did your group respond to this essay? Like/ dislike? What did students respond to most/ least in this essay? Understand most/ least? What food for thought does the essay offer regarding the topic of the chapter, ecology and subsistence?

Forest Development the Indian Way by Richard K. Reed

1. Anthropologists claim that subsistence strategies affect a society’s social organization and ideology. Evaluate this assertion in with regard to the life-ways of Guarani peoples.

2. Why is horticulture more environmentally sensible than intensive agricultural and pastoral exploitation in the Amazonian rain forest?

3. How does Guarani intervention increase the biodiversity of the forest ecosystem? Does this change our understanding of “nature” and the “natural world”?

4. Guarani Indians are largely subsistence farmers and foragers., How do they use their forest environment without destroying it?

5. How have colonos disrupted the lives of Guarani villagers? What does this tell us about the relationship between subsistence and social structure?

6. How can the Guarani use their rain forest habitat to make money, and what does their experience suggest as a way to integrate forest exploitation into a market economy without environmental destruction?

7. Overall, how did your group respond to this essay? What did students respond to most/ least in this essay? How does this essay illustrate the topic of the chapter, ecology and subsistence?