The transition from foraging to farming in prehistory and 'ethnography'

Coded data on subsistence dependence in George Murdock's Ethnographic Atlas have been interpreted as showing that traditional societies face a stark choice between foraging and farming modes of subsistence. Supposedly, scheduling conflicts and the need to stay mobile effectively prevent forager...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:World archaeology 2013-10, Vol.45 (4), p.557-573
Main Author: Bulbeck, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Commitments
Conflict
Economy and society
Ethnography
Ethnology and art
Farmers
Farming
Food production
Foraging
Foraging-farming transition
Methodology and general studies
Murdock's Ethnographic Atlas
Prehistory
Prehistory and protohistory
Subsistence economy
subsistence task scheduling
Traditional society
Traditions
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Summary:Coded data on subsistence dependence in George Murdock's Ethnographic Atlas have been interpreted as showing that traditional societies face a stark choice between foraging and farming modes of subsistence. Supposedly, scheduling conflicts and the need to stay mobile effectively prevent foragers from supplementing their diet with low-level food production. However, close inspection of Murdock's data reveals several potential problems with how he arrived at his estimates of subsistence dependence. When his data are corrected to counter these problems, foraging activities appear to rival agriculture in importance in most farming societies. Accordingly, this study infers that foraging and farming tasks do not necessarily pose scheduling conflicts, even though a commitment to farming tends to lead to its increased economic importance over time.
ISSN:0043-8243
1470-1375
DOI:10.1080/00438243.2013.821668