Program 9: Lesson 7 - Patterns of Subsistence: Food Foragers and Pastoralists

Faces of Culture - "Patterns of Subsistence: Food Foragers and Pastoralists"

Narr: In the beginning we took directly from nature what we needed to survive. We didn't plow, plant or herd domesticated animals. We didn't need to. We were few in number, and the earth was bountiful.

For some two million years we were foragers. Women gathered nuts, fruit, berries and roots, providing for some 85% of the group's diet.

These !Kung women of Africa's Kalahari Desert can tell by a few leaves sticking above the dry ground how to find tubers that contain both life-giving water and nutrients necessary to survive in this harsh climate.

Men provided meat. These Mbuti Pygmies of Zaire's rainforest are hunting much as they did a thousand years ago.

Long ago foragers inhabited the lush places of the earth. Today they are relegated to the marginal areas, like here, the Arctic Circle, northwest of Hudson Bay.

These are the Netsilik, "people of the seal." Here, any kind of agriculture is impossible.

The lives of the Netsilik, like those of all foragers, represent an exquisite adaptation to their environment. In winter the Netsilik hunt and kill seals, the richest source of food during those frozen months.

The ice is seven feet thick here, expect where a seal has made a breathing hole. A seal will make many such holes in a given area. It can be killed only when it appears at one of them to breathe.

Since no one can predict which hole it will actually use, men must cooperate on the hunt. Each finding his own hole to maximize the group's chances of making a kill. Each hole must be found by smell, by the faint scent the seal leaves behind.

Everything the Netsilik uses is carefully crafted by hand. This delicately curved breathing hole searcher will tell the hunter the exact angle at which he must thrust for the kill. And this indicator is made from a hard piece of caribou antler, artfully split. A bit of down is attached to it by a sinew thread.

When the seal comes up for air, it's breath will gently flutter the down. Then the hunter will strike.

Now begins the long wait. Infinitely patient, he will endure here for hours.

In spring, the season of the most intensive and rewarding seal hunting, women and children, armed with sticks station themselves at breathing holes the men cannot cover.

(Wind howling.)

(Man grunting.)

Narr: At the beginning of time according to their belief, a group of Netsilik set out in their only kayak to find food, but there wasn't room for all.

A young girl clung to the boat, but she had no relatives to protect her, so the others cut off her fingers and she fell to the bottom of the sea.

Her fingers became seals and the girl became the Sea Goddess, Mistress of Sea and Land, the source of all the animals that human beings need to survive.

Eating the liver of the freshly killed seal has religious significance. It is a ritual, a way of appeasing or paying tribute to the Seal Goddess.

It affirms the inter-connectedness between human beings and all animals.

(Netsilik men talking.)

Narr: Because they must constantly be on the move to find food, the Netsilik live in small bands and they can own only what they can carry.

The impossibility of accumulating wealth in the form of possessions leads to equality of social position and the absence of formal government.

Because the labor of every individual is important for survival, there is little specialization.

Every man can do what every other man can do. Every woman can do what every other woman can do. This, too, helps make for a society of relative equals.

(Netsilik children laughing.)

Narr: The Netsilik use virtually every part of the seal. The skins are used for various purposes, from clothing to wall hangings. The blubber is converted into oil for lamps. The Netsilik drink the seal's blood and eat its meat.

The hunter's wife divides the seal into 14 pieces, each named with precision. The pieces are distributed among relatives and hunting partners.

Each member of the band knows that no one will go hungry. Each knows which part of the seal he or she will receive.

(Netsilik children and adults talking.)

(Drum and singing.)

Narr: Egalitarianism, the concept of community, a profound respect for nature and a sexual division of labor, are part of the legacy we have inherited from our foraging forebears.

(Netsilik singing.)

Narr: About 10,000 years ago a new mode of subsistence began to emerge--food production.

In various parts of the world the environment made certain forms of food production more likely than others.

In semi-arid land, with little water for crops, pastoralism provided an ingenious adaptation for the needs of food production.

Instead of hunting prey, we collected animals in herds. Instead of following them, we led them where they needed to go, protected them.

(Nuer man singing.)

Narr: With song this Nuer tribesman in Africa's Sudan remembers his battles, his friends, and the beauty of his cattle.

(Nuer man singing.)

"We have always had cows, ever since God gave them to us. They give us everything. They are our happiness. When we need help from God, we take an ox and sacrifice to Him. You can sacrifice an ox to the God of Grass or to the God of Sky. You can sacrifice to thank God just for giving you life."

Narr: A Nuer man takes his social identity, his name from his cattle.

The Nuer eat the flesh of their cattle, drink their milk and their blood. They wash their hands in their urine, clean their teeth and cover their bodies with ash from their burnt dung.

(Nuer boys singing.)

Narr: The Nuer move their animals from one grazing field to another following a seasonal cycle that allows them to make maximum use of the land available to them. Cattle provide a dependable source of food, making it possible for people to live together in larger groups.

Their greater numbers and the necessity of protecting their animals requires pastoralists to develop specialized social roles not required of foragers.

Herd animals can be killed and eaten by predators. They can be stolen by human marauders. And herders must defend their right to move freely through territory they may not hold exclusive title to. The Nuer value warriors who protect their cattle from outsiders and add to their herds through raids.

(Nuer man chants.)

Narr: Pastoralists in the temperate forest of Nepal combine herding with other economic activities, farming, trading and wage labor. But like other pastoralists, the success of these Nepali Sherpas depends on sophisticated knowledge of both their environment and their animals.

The Sherpas practice a form of selective breeding producing hybrid animals suitable for their mountain environment. They mate yaks with cows to combine the ability of the yak to survive at high altitudes with the productivity of the milk cow. The result is the zomo, an animal that give rich milk and thrives at high altitudes.

The zomo has the disagreeable temperment of the yak, making it more difficult to milk than cows. Women must learn the preferences of each animal in order to milk it.

One valued product is butter. Milk is collected for several days in a large tub and then churned into butter which is consumed by the family in the form of butter tea. It may also be sold or bartered with neighbors.

(Sherpa men talking.)

Narr: Butter has religious as well as nutritional significance. For the annual Nara Festival the Sherpas color the butter and form it into intricate designs on dough figures or torma which are temporary abodes for visiting deities.

(Music of bells and singing.)

Narr: And ceremonial breads are deep fried in vats of clarified butter.

(Sherpa men talking and laughing.)

Narr: Sherpas also herd sheep which produce yarn for weaving into clothing.

These mountain pastoralists must be flexible in their adaptation making use of different animals and several means of livelihood to exploit an environment in which the climate varies dramatically at different altitudes.

In the mountains of Iran live other pastoralists, the Basseri. Sheep and goats provide the Basseri with both food and money.

In the spring the valleys are dry and barren. So the Basseri move their herds into the mountains where it is wet and fertile. When the valleys bloom again, they return.

A pattern of cyclical migration often characteristic of pastoralists.

It is an incredible journey from low lands to high lands, dangerous and grueling. The Basseri cover 16,000 square miles and climb 6,000 feet straight up.

(Basseri woman chanting.)

Narr: The wealth of the tribe, its herds, is controlled by men which leads to a male dominated society. Only men serve as chieftains.

Family descent and inheritance are patrilineal, that is, determined through the male line. Women are important for bearing children to continue the line, but the social role of men is emphasized.

The hazardous environment calls for a willingness to take chances and a readiness to act.

(River raging)

(Ringing of many small bells on the animals.)

(Wind howling)

Narr: The government of Iran wants to build roads through these passes. But the Basseri resist such encroachments. They cherish their independence. They demand the right to herd their animals along traditional migration routes.

The pastoral way of life still resonates in our religious metaphors. In the Gospel of John, Christ is called "the Good Shepherd" and "the Lamb of God."

Luke calls the prodigal son, the "Lost Sheep."

And though U.S. society is based on intensive agriculture, it continues to rely heavily on herd animals. But it is a form of herding much altered by a market economy.

These people selecting meat in the supermarket are far removed from the animals that produced it. You buy "beef" which bears little resemblance to a cow and "bacon" which we no longer associate with a pig.

Foraging, too, continues in modern cities.

"There was a time when I used to have a lot of money, but the cocaine took away most of the money.

I had a truck and I tried Hawaii for a little while, for about a year, and that didn't work too well. I came back, got my truck and decided to come back East where I was originally from.So, I drove around New England for a little while. And I had a nice truck, but I had altered my plates to make it look like they said '86.

While in Newport, Rhode Island, they took away the plates and in Bristol, Rhode Island, they took away the truck--ha, ha, ha. So I took my last $20 and I wound up in Boston and the first thing I ever heard about was, you know, scalping."

Narr: Peter began collecting "cast off" items when he realized he could probably make as much money going through trash as he could at a regular job.

"Six traditional coasters. Here's the part to the tea thing, I think. Plugs. Aha! Sterling silver, right there! That's how you find it!"

Narr: Peter's foraging also has been shaped by a market economy. He does not use the items he has gathered. Rather, he sells them at a swap meet.

"Lady, give me only five or ten minutes to at least let me peruse my own products."

"Peruse, peruse!"

Narr: The results of Peter's labors produce cash which he can use to buy goods. Peter is saving to buy a truck to replace the one he lost to New England authorities.

(Ladies laughing.)

"OK, these are my best, I wouldn't take less than $3 even."

"The thimble."

"The thimble, where's it at?"

"Right there."

"Oh, my big thimble, just the thimble."

"Yes, just the thimble."

"That's cute!"

"OK, I told you, Man, I get this stuff from the garbage, and as far as I'm personally concerned, I want to have fun in my life, people will go.."

"What do you want for these two?"

"What would you say?"

"Ten apiece, maybe."

"No way, five bucks for the set."

"For both?"

"Yeah."

"Um."

Narr: Other foragers also hover at the edge of the market economy. Kwakiutl living in Alert Bay on the west coast of Canada continue to make their living by fishing, even though their activities have been drastically changed by the introduction of technology.

But modern Kwakiutl conform to the demands of a market economy in a stratified system of government. Many feel their traditional fishing rights are threatened by regulations imposed by the Canadian government in an effort to promote conservation.

"Still, in many ways Alert Bay is a modern town, although the government has placed strict limitations on our fishing rights. Most of us continue to make our living from the sea."

"You can call us more like the salmon people in this area. This is all we ever lived on from time, and we still depend on the fishery and the sea."

"Our people have always fished where, when and how they wanted. We can no longer do that. There's a moratorium on black cod, halibut, next thing you know it will be clams and everything like this."

"The ocean is our life, it's our whole lifeline. I think you cut off the lifeline, like salmon, the fishing is like taking the dirt away from the farmers. We no longer would exist."

"We're now looking at hours in fishing where we used to look at days!"

"I think we've got to tell them, this is it!

We're not going to be pushed any more!"

"We're can't be pushed any more because we're right to the bottom now!"

"I believe what he was saying."

(Pygmy man chanting.)

Narr: Though foragers and pastoralists have been pushed to the margins of modern society, these forms of subsistence are remarkably durable. Modern technology and a global market economy have changed these traditional ways of life forever.

(Music and singing of many cultures.)