Some Evolutionary Bypaths

and a Brief Review

Chapter 8
Soci 2000
NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL UNIVERSITY
Environmentally Specialized
Societal Types
The next Three societies that we will look at are
Fishing Societies, Herding Societies, and Maritime
Societies.
These societies adapted to less common
environments.
Two of these societies adapted to aquatic
environments and one to grasslands and arid
environments.
Environmentally Specialized Societal Types
These specialized types of societies have contributed
to sociocultural evolution in many ways.
There contributions have been less limited than the
societies that we have previously discussed.
Fishing Societies
No society has ever fully depended exclusively on
fishing for its food supply.
Fishing societies obtain fruits and vegetables by
foraging and cultivation.
They also hunt and occasionally raise livestock as
additional food sources.
Fishing Societies
A fishing society simply means that fishing is the most
important subsistence activity.
The majority of fishing societies are found in the
northwestern part of North America…..Oregon,
Washington, British Columbia, and before Alaska.
Fishing societies have also been found in northeastern
Asia, among the islands of the Pacific, parts of Africa
and South America and other places
Fishing Societies
Fishing societies are the second oldest type
They emerged a few thousand years before the first
horticultural societies.
The practice of fishing is even older and more
widespread and has provided food for thousands of
years.
Fishing Societies
Fishing Societies can be looked at as hunting and
gathering societies that have adapted to aquatics.
One important thing to remember about a fishing
society is that, a fishing economy has the potential
for supporting a larger, more sedentary
population than a hunting and gathering
economy.
Herding Societies
Herding societies represent an adaptation to
specialized environmental condition
The technology used by a herding society is more
advanced that that of a fishing society
Animals were first domesticated about the same time
plants were first cultivated
Herding Societies
Crop cultivation was severely limited in some areas
because of insufficient rain fall, but it was possible to
raise livestock in many of these same areas.
This caused a new and different type of society to
emerge
A pastoral economy usually necessitates a nomadic or
seminomadic way of life
The term “Nomad” comes from an early Greek word
meaning a “herder of cattle.”
Herding Societies
Herding societies were similar in size of their
communities to hunting and gatherers
Hunting and gathering communities 40
Herding communities 72
Fishing communities 90
Simple horticulture communities 138
The environment that these societies are located in
determine the size of the society
Herding Societies
Limited or sparse resources are the major reasons for
population control
Herding societies are fairly large
Open grasslands, where the majority of herders live,
present few natural barriers to movement and this lead to
political expansion
Research shows that many herders rode horses or camels,
which made them a potent military force and greatly
facilitated their political expansion
Herding Societies
The basic resource in these societies is livestock, and
the size of the herd is the measure of a man
Large herds signified wealth and power
Kinship is important in herding communities
They are more likely than any other type of society to
require the payment of a bride price or bride service
They are the most likely to require newly married
couples to live with the husband’s kinsmen
Herding Societies
One of the most important technological
advancements of these societies was the utilization of
horses, and later camels, for transportation
Herding societies had a strong military and governing
body
Maritime Societies
The rarest of all the major societal types
They play a very important role in the civilized world
Located near large bodies of water in an era when it
was cheaper to move goods by water than by land
The members found trade and commerce far more
profitable than either fishing or the cultivation of their
limited land resources
Maritime Societies
They created a societies in which overseas trade was
the chief economic activity
Most maritime societies developed near islands or
peninsulas that were difficult to attack by land
Their only military advantage was in naval warfare
Maritime societies primarily developed in
Mediterranean areas
Maritime Societies
The spread of maritime societies largely came about
because of diffusion and migration of the maritime
people
These communities resembled advanced agrarian
societies, particularly their urban centers
Maritime communities were fairly small
Maritime societies were usually republics, because
commerce was the chief interest of the members
Maritime Societies
One unique characteristic of this society was their
unusual system of value and incentives
Merchants were the dominating class and a very
different view of economic activity prevailed
The greater the social status and political influence of
its merchants, the higher the rate of technological and
economic innovation in preindustrial societies tended
to be.