Anthropology 295.01 Jonathan Andelson
Spr ‘02, T-Th 2:15-4:05 HHH 104, x3139
Goodnow 105 andelson@grinnell.edu
CULTURE & AGRICULTURE
It is widely agreed that the development of agriculture fundamentally altered humans’ relationship with the rest of the natural world. Agriculture allowed humans to survive in a context of increasing population density and resource scarcity, but at the same time it has been one of the primary reasons for the degradation of natural ecosystems. Agriculture has dramatically affected humans’ relationship with one another by providing a foundation for the rise of urbanism and, much later, of the modern world system. This course offers a diachronic and cross-cultural overview of the relationship between culture and agriculture from the origins of plant and animal domestication to the present. The role of agriculture in subsistence and trade will be considered, but also its relationship to social structure, religion, and world view. The last section of the course will focus on agriculture in Iowa: the rise of industrial agriculture, the problems of concentration and vertical integration of food production, the eclipse of the family farm, and possibilities for reconfiguring the relationship among food, people, and the land. This focus will afford us the opportunity to take a number of field trips to visit area farms and agricultural operations.
In addition to contributing to the anthropology curriculum, this course should be of interest to anyone concerned with food, the variety of ways in which humans produce it, and the nutritional, environmental, and social consequences of different types of food production.
Charles B. Heiser, Seed To Civilization. Harvard U. Press. 1990
Gilbert Wilson, Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden. Minnesota Historical Society. 1987.
Robert Netting, Smallholders, Householders: Farm Families and the Ecology of Intensive, Sustainable Agriculture. Stanford U. Press. 1992
Robert Wolf, The Triumph of Technique and the Industrialization of Agriculture. 2002
(a xerographic copy of a draft will be provided courtesy of the author)
Sonya Salamon, Prairie Patrimony. U. of North Carolina. 1992.
William Lockeretz (ed.), Visions of American Agriculture. Iowa State U. 2000.
Course Requirements
Nutritional Self-Assessment. About 2½ pages. Due 1/31 (10%)
Paper on traditional agricultural systems. About 5 pages. Due 2/26 (20%)
Mid-term Examination. 3/14 (20%)
Analysis-Response to Smallholders, Householders. About 5 pages. Due 4/23 (20%)
Final paper on aspect of Midwestern agriculture. About 7 pages. Due 5/13 (25%)
Active participation in class (5%)
date topic
I. Humans and Domesticated Foods: A Global Survey
In order to talk intelligently about agriculture, we need to have some background in food types, diet, and nutrition.
1/22 A. Introduction: Agriculture, Food, and Nutrition
1/24 B. Grasses: the Major Staples
Heiser, Chaps 3 & 5
Begin Nutritional Self-Assessment Exercise
1/29 C. Other Staples
Heiser, Chaps 6, 7, 8, & 9
1/31 D. Other Foods
Heiser, Chaps 10, 11, & 4
Due: Nutritional Self-Assessment Exercise
II. Agriculture and Culture in Comparative Perspective
There are hundreds of distinct kinds of traditional agricultural systems in the world, or at least there were. Many have been obliterated, or at least hugely modified, by the modern world system and the global economy, with a concomitant loss in traditional techniques, knowledge, and species. In fact, in recent years scholars have published few accounts of traditional agricultural systems, focusing instead on how they have been altered. In this section we will examine a small fraction of the variety of traditional systems and consider their relationship to other aspects of culture.
2/5 A. The Origins of Agriculture
Heiser, Chapters 1 & 2
B. Case Study: a Hidatsa Account of Hidatsa Agriculture
Wilson, Introduction, Preface, Foreword, Chaps 1-3
2/7 Wilson, Chap 4
2/12 Wilson, Chaps 5-11
C. Brief Accounts of Some Traditional Agricultural Systems
2/14 Napoleon Chagnon, Chapter 2, “Cultural Ecology” (excerpt), fromYanomamo (4e)(1992)
Rada and Neville Dyson-Hudson, “Subsistence Herding in Uganda,” Scientific American (1969)
Alan R. Beals, “The Shape of Gopalpur,” from Gopalpur: A South Indian Village (1962)
2/19 Louise Sweet, “Camel Pastoralism in North Arabia and the Minimal Camping Unit,” in Leeds and Vayda (eds.), Man, Culture,and Animals (1965)
Clifford Geertz, “Two Types of Ecosystems,” from Agricultural Involution: The Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia (1963)
G.E.B. Morren and D.C. Hyndman, “The Taro Monoculture of Central New Guinea,” Human Ecology (1987)
2/21 J.A. Pitt-Rivers, “Occupation and Wealth: (i) Agriculture,” Chap. 3 of The People of the Sierra (1961)
R. K. Beardsley, “Land and Water,” Chap 6, Village Japan(1959)
Rhonda Lou Yoder, “Findings and Discussion,” Chap 4 of Amish Agriculture in Iowa (1990)
IV. Maladaptive Agricultural Systems
Many view agriculture as humankind’s most important invention, but it can go awry and lead to various problems. The following brief survey of some maladaptive agricultural systems, among them our own, according to some authors, provides a counterpoint to the successful systems considered in the previous section.
2/26 A. In Classic Civilizations
McGuire Gibson, “Violation of Fallow and Engineered Disaster in Mesopotamian Civilization,” in E.E. Downing and M. Gibson (eds.) Irrigation’s Impact on Society (1974)
Robert Santley et al., “ On the Maya Collapse, “ Journal of Anthropological Research, 42:123-159 (1986).
Due: paper on traditional agricultural systems (about 5 pages)
B. In North American Industrial Agriculture
2/28 Wolf, The Triumph of Technique, Chaps 1-3
3/5 Wolf, Chaps 4-6
3/7 C. In the Context of Colonialism and Globalization
Richard P. Tucker, “The Depletion of India’s Forests Under British Imperialism: Plants, Foresters, and Peasants in Assam and Kerala,” in D. Worster (ed.), The Ends of the Earth (1988)
Mark Edelman, “From Costa Rican Pasture to North American
Hamburger, in M. Harris and E.B. Ross (eds.), Food and Evolution (1987)
Joseph Henrich, “Market Incorporation, Agricultural Change, and Sustainability Among the Machiguenga Indians of the Peruvian Amazon,” Human Ecology (1997)
3/12 D. Is Agriculture Fundamentally Maladaptive?
P. Shephard, “The Domesticators,” in Nature and Madness (1982)
Daniel Quinn, “The Great Forgetting,” in The Story of B (1996)
3/14 *** Mid-Term Examination ***
3/16-
3/31 Spring Recess
V. Smallholder Sustainable Agriculture: Ecology and Culture
Robert Netting has been called the founder of agricultural anthropology. Known as “an astute ethnographer of farming communities,” he became increasingly concerned about the about the sustainability of smallholder farmer versus conventional industrial agriculture. His writing in this vein is directly connected to his goal of helping us to understand how we might live sustainably on the planet.
4/2 A. Netting, Prologue, Chap 1
4/4 B. Netting, Chaps 2 & 3
4/9 C. Netting, Chaps 4, 5 & 6
4/11 D. Netting, Chaps 7 & 8
4/16 E. Netting, Chaps 9 & 10, Epilogue
VI. Culture and Agriculture in the American Midwest
We turn next to farming in the Midwest and its relationship to culture and the social contract.
4/18 A. Salamon, Preface, Introduction, Chaps 1 & 2
4/23 B. Salamon, Chapters 3 & 4
4/25 C. Salamon, Chapters 5, 6, & 7
4/30 D. Salamon, Chapters 8, 9, 10, & Conclusion
VII. Alternatives in American Agriculture
What can or should we do about American agriculture? A variety of social scientists offer their ideas on this question.
5/2 A. Lockeretz, selected essays
5/7 B. Lockeretz, selected essays
5/9 C. Lockeretz, selected essays