Why Forage? Hunters and Gatherers in the Twenty-First Century

Description

Foraging persists as a viable economic strategy both in remote regions and within the bounds of developed nation-states. Given the economic alternatives available, why do some groups choose to maintain their hunting and gathering lifeways? Through a series of detailed case studies, the contributors to this volume examine the decisions made by modern-day foragers to sustain a predominantly hunting and gathering way of life. What becomes clear is that hunter-gatherers continue to forage because the economic benefits of doing so are high relative to the local alternatives and, perhaps more importantly, because the social costs of not foraging are prohibitive; in other words, hunter-gatherers value the social networks built through foraging and sharing more than the potential marginal gains of a new mode of subsistence. Why Forage? shows that hunting and gathering continues to be a viable and vibrant way of life even in the twenty-first century. Front Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Hunters and Gatherers in the Twenty-First Century / Karen L. Kramer and Brian F. Codding 1: Diversify or Replace: What Happens to Wild Foods When Cultigens Are Introduced into Hunter-Gatherer Diets? / Karen L. Kramer and Russell D. Greaves 2: Inuit Culture: To Have and Have Not; or, Has Subsistence Become an Anachronism? / George W. Wenzel 3: “In the bush the food is free”: The Ju/’hoansi of Tsumkwe in the Twenty-First Century / Richard B. Lee 4: Twenty-First-Century Hunting and Gathering among Western and Central Kalahari San / Robert K. Hitchcock and Maria Sapignoli 5: Why Do So Few Hadza Farm? / Nicholas Blurton Jones 6: In Pursuit of the Individual: Recent Economic Opportunities and the Persistence of Traditional Forager-Farmer Relationships in the Southwestern Central African Republic / Karen D. Lupo 7: What Now?: Big Game Hunting, Economic Change, and the Social Strategies of Bardi Men / James E. Coxworth 8: Alternative Aboriginal Economies: Martu Livelihoods in the Twenty-First Century / Brian F. Codding, Rebecca Bliege Bird, Douglas W. Bird, and David W. Zeanah 9: Economic, Social, and Ecological Contexts of Hunting, Sharing, and Fire in the Western Desert of Australia / Rebecca Bliege Bird, Brian F. Codding, and Douglas W. Bird Appendix A: Cross-Cultural Demographic and Social Variables for Contemporary Foraging Populations Appendix B: Economic Activities of Twenty-First-Century Foraging Populations References Contributors Index Back Cover