Subsistence & Economy

Part 1

1. Having small group size in a hunter gatherer environment can be considered a benefit, there are less people to worry about and a less density of people to land. Also, food sharing keeps people from starving. A hunter's kill can feed others, and thus when the others have a kill, they can feed the hunter. "Today you, tomorrow me" is a simple way to put it. Domestication of plants and animals allows for transformed cultural systems (cities and industry), social structures, and ideological patterns. Letting people have food at their leisure allows for people to become more specific in what they specialize in, leading to prosperity in a culture.

2. The downfall to agriculture is that if it did fail for some reason and crops were not readily available, it would cause serious distress for people who don't know how to gather and prepare their own food. Hunting and gathering means you are moving from place to place, which proves to be dangerous in colder climates or in times of acute ecological disaster.

3. Hunter-gatherers were not free to determine their diet, rather, it was their predetermined biological requirements for particular nutrients that constrained their evolution. At the same time, these dietary needs apparently allowed for selection to favor increased brain size in the human lineage and the development of technology, social, and other abilities directed at securing these nutrients. However the proportions of the modern human gut appear to reflect the fact that many foods are 'predigested' by technology in one way or another before they ever enter the human digestive tract, but just because some hunter-gatherer societies obtained most of their diet from wild animal fat and protein does not imply that this is the ideal diet for modern humans, nor does it imply that modern humans have genetic adaptations to such diets. It does, however, indicate that humans can thrive on extreme diets as long as these diets contribute the full range of essential nutrients.

4.  With the development of agriculture, humans began to radically transform the environments in which they lived. A growing portion of humans became sedentary cultivators who cleared the lands around their settlements and controlled the plants that grew and the animals that grazed on them. The greater presence of humans was also apparent in the steadily growing size and numbers of settlements. These were found both in areas that they had long inhabited and in new regions that farming allowed them to settle. This great increase in the number of sedentary farmers is primarily responsible for the leap in human population during the Neolithic transition.

Part 2

1. This is known as the balance of trade. It is a nation's imports and exports. A positive balance is known as a trade surplus if it consists of exporting more than is imported; a negative balance is referred to as a trade deficit or a trade gap. The balance of trade is sometimes divided into a goods and a services balance.

2. Generalized reciprocity is a good practice, for it involves exchange in which the value of what is given is not calculated, nor is the time of repayment specified - such as gift giving, or giving to others in time of need. Such exchanges will couch them explicitly in terms of family and friendship social relations. Balanced reciprocity is also good because it has a direct obligation to reciprocate promptly in equal value in order for the relationship to continue. Events such as these are birthday parties or baby showers, it is obligatory to give, and to then expect something in return it is our turn, speaking simply.

3. The negative side to trade is when the two people trading do not have any sentimental feelings for each other and only trying to get a deal. This usually spawns hard bargaining, manipulation, or cheating. It may also lead to taking something by force, while realizing that one's victim may seek compensation or retribution for losses. Also sometimes elements of negative as well as balanced reciprocity are present. These are often the case with political fundraising in the US, where big contributors expect their generosity will buy influence with a candidate, resulting in benefits of equal value. The politician may do as little as possible in return, but not so little to not receive future donations.

4. Like agriculture, trade began as an individual thing, with one person trading with another, or one person sharing food with another. Then it gained mass leverage and soon extremely large trades were happening between nations. Agriculture also spawned due to people starting to group with each other extremely larger than just small little tribes and demanding the need for consistent flow of resources.