Subsistence and Economy

Part 1

Two major types of subsistence patterns used by humans have been hunter-gatherers and agriculture. Both of these types of subsistence patterns have benefits and drawbacks. The benefits of a hunter-gatherer system are less exposure to disease due to constant migration, a more diverse range of foods, and a healthier lifestyle due to constant movement. The hunter-gatherer moves around from place to place without staying stagnant. This characteristic didn’t suit a healthy environment for some disease like it does today in crowded establishments. In addition, the hunter-gatherer had a wide range of food due to movement to new environments. This means they are not eating only salty or sugary foods that cause health problems. Finally, their migratory lifestyle has the ability to enhance health by constantly walking and moving.

The benefits of an agricultural system of subsistence include a steady source of food, a more specialized workforce, and the ability to sustain larger populations. The agrarian society gives people a steady source of food supply that can be relied on for most times of the year, except for drought or insect problems. The fact that people can rely on a steady source of food means they have more time settle in one location and concentrate on other forms of leisure. Also, the invention of agriculture resulted in a specialization of skills. People could now designate their skills toward certain parts of their society due to the fact that they could settle down. Finally, the agrarian society has allowed large populations to settle in one place because of a steady food source. These people can stay in a settlement without worry that they need to search for food.

Even though these subsistence patterns have many benefits, they also have some drawbacks. The hunter-gatherer has to find food on a day-to-day basis because they do not have a permanent source of food like agrarian societies. This means that they can die from hunger if food is not found in their new environment. Another disadvantage of the hunter-gatherer system is the fact that this system cannot sustain a large population of people. Since they migrate and find new places for food, they can only travel in groups small enough that the food they find can sustain.

The agricultural system of subsistence has some disadvantages as well. Their agricultural product is not permanent, it can be subject to water shortages, insects, and low food yields. These factors make getting the amount of food you need very difficult. In addition, the agrarian society can suit large populations, which allow disease to thrive. Many new diseases were present in places of agricultural settlement due to the populous amount of people. Even though the agricultural society creates labor specialization, this can be seen as a drawback because it means people do not have an all around skillset that they can use to help them throughout their life for many different situations.

I think the hunter-gatherer system provides a healthier lifestyle. The constant change in food means that people are not eating the same foods repeatedly. The constant movement from place to place and eating of nutritional foods makes the diet healthier for a hunter-gatherer. The fact that they can only support how much they can feed means that they can eat much smaller portions of food at many more intervals throughout the day, which are healthier for humans.

I think early humans turned towards agriculture because they found it very hard to be constantly migrating from place to place all the time. I think the human bod has trouble acquainting to new places all the time. They just needed to find a steady source of food, which is why they went for agrarian societies. The early humans did not want to lose loved ones and travel in small groups. They wanted to keep all members alive so they had to develop an agricultural based system.

Part 2

There is a direct relationship between the availability of surplus and the ability to trade because one must have the necessary amount of goods to survive for them as well as to trade to other people. It is impossible to trade something that you do not have.

Two social benefits to trade include the increase in social relationships and the increase in specialization of certain technologies of the trading parties. When two parties trade, they are creating a social relationship between one another because they are mutually trading items that benefit one another. This creates relationships that last between people, countries, and industries. In addition, trading creates specialization within society. Since one party may be trading their products to others, they can specialize their technology so they become very efficient in what they are doing to increase profit.

Two negative social results of the development of trade are the creation of monopolies and the increase in debt relations between parties in the trade. A monopoly is when a particular person or enterprise is the sole supplier of a certain commodity. This is a drawback because if one person controls a viable commodity, they can drive up the prices and people will have to go through them to buy that commodity. On the same note, trade can create debt implications on parties that trade products for something of lesser value. This puts countries in international debt, setting them back in areas such as education, healthcare, and infrastructure in order to use their money to pay back debt.

Agriculture is related to trade by the production of food products that can be traded between regions throughout the world. Now that humans have found a way to settle in a place viable to grow crops, they can trade to others around the world to obtain items that will help them survive. Since all humans cannot produce everything that they need to survive, trading has helped them get these items.