Saturday, September 17, 2011

Chapter 5: Making A Living- Abbey Dahl

Reading this chapter reminded me of a saying that is something like, "in order to know where you're going, you must know where you came from." Anthropologists study foraging societies because it allows them to find out how we evolved from simply a foraging society to a global industrialized society. I find it so fascinating that there were cultures like the Pintupi of the Gibson Desert of Australia that went to such extremes to survive. Personally I would never be able to adapt to living in a mere 120 degrees on a daily basis. This is what makes studying culture interesting. This is most likely how society began before money and a profit became a primary way of measuring success. People had to quickly adapt to extreme climatic changes. They had to know what it was like not having water and/or food for an a lotted amount of time. Although living in these intense conditions is incredible from my perspective, this was just everyday life for them. Also, they may not have had processed food, or peanut butter, but the fact that the Pintupi people could accurately name,"126 plants, serving 138 different social, economic, and medicinal functions,"(106) is remarkable.
We can learn so much from these foraging groups. I believe that if people can live a full life like this in today's society, we should be able to go back to agricultural farming. It is sad to come to the realization that just over 100 years,"less than one-half of 1 percent of the population, listed farming as their primary occupation,"(117). It is great how organic goods are becoming more and more popular globally. In the beginning there was such rapid change to make things be produced faster and in bulk. From this we see inflation and other negative aspects affecting our society. With things growing so quickly we began to care less about the healthy aspects of the food we eat on a regular basis. Seeing that foraging groups can be successful, has enabled us to take a stand to gross, and fatty foods, and make a change for the better. I envy how these groups can survive on the bare minimum. They are very practical, unlike our society where the bigger is better. Slowly, but surely a change is being made, and going back to our original roots of foraging is gaining momentum and popularity.

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