Foraging, Dawn Depouli

According to our text, foraging “sets limits on population growth and density and…on the complexity of social organizations in these societies.” Anthropologists are often interested in how societies and particular cultures are organized socially. By studying past and current foraging cultures, we can gain greater perspective on social hierarchies, how people contribute to their communities, and learn more about humans before they began to practice agriculture and animal domestication, which began about 10,000 years ago.

For example, the Inuit of the Artic use foraging, which affects their culture and social organization. Our text states that they focus on cooperating and helping each other, religion plays a large part in their spiritual survival in the winters, and they have a “flexible kinship organization.” The Inuit use technology to assist with them with their foraging lifestyle, in the form of transportation, fishing aids, and shelter.

We can learn from studying foraging by remembering to be a part of our environment, and have a positive effect on it. Richard Nelson, an ethnographer in Alaska, believes that traditional societies, like the Koyukon Indians and Inupiaq Eskimos, can teach us about “responsible membership in the community of life.” In “Understanding Eskimo Science,” he discovers the plethora of environmental knowledge the people have and their “naturalistic observations.” He admires the way these societies have “sustain(ed) membership in a natural community … without profoundly degrading it.”

Studying foraging societies and cultures can also have scientific implications. Nelson’s article reveals the vast scientific knowledge the Eskimos have about the animals in their environment. The next example shows how we can learn about the science of our own bodies. Patricia Gadsby, author of “The Inuit Paradox,” uses anthropological studies of the Inuit foraging culture to learn fascinating new ideas about human nutrition. This article was a particular favorite for me because I am a chef totally interested in nutrition science. By studying the diet of the Inuit, research shows that humans need essential nutrients not necessarily essential foods. It teaches us a new way to look at the human diet and where we get nutrients. For example, most of us drink some orange juice for vitamin C, but the Inuit can get this nutrient from meat, if not overcooked. In Gadsby’s article, Cochran states that “’How we get our food is intrinsic to our culture.’” For the Inuit, foraging is physical, social, and spiritual.