Subsistence economy

"Subsistence" is understood as supporting oneself and family at a minimum level. Basic subsistence is the provision of food, clothing, shelter. A subsistence economy is an economy directed to one's subsistence rather than to the market.'Subsistence agriculture' in: Alan Barnard and Jonathan Spencer, eds. (1996) Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology, London and New York: Routledge, p.624. Often, the subsistence economy is moneyless and relies on natural resources to provide for basic needs through hunting, gathering, and agriculture. In a subsistence economy, economic surplus is minimal and only used to trade for basic goods, and there is no industrialization.{{cite web|url=http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/subsistence-economy.html|title=What is subsistence economy? definition and meaning|website=BusinessDictionary.com|access-date=7 April 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171101163546/http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/subsistence-economy.html|archive-date=1 November 2017}}{{cite web |url=http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/sustecon/others/subsistence.htm |title=Subsistence Economy |access-date=2009-11-01 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007213636/http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/sustecon/others/subsistence.htm |archive-date=2008-10-07 }} Chief Seattle to President Pierce regarding sale of land In hunting and gathering societies, resources are often, if not typically underused.Marshall Sahlins (1972) Stone Age Economics, Chicago and New York: Aldine-Atherton, passim e.g. pp.17,34,42,50.

The subsistence system is maintained through sharing, feasting, ritual observance and associated norms.{{Cite journal |last=Amanda D. Boyd, Cynthia G. Jardine,Christopher M. Furgal |date=2010 |title=A Social and Cultural Capital Approach to Understanding Traditional Activities on the Land in Two Northern Dene Communities|url=https://cjns.brandonu.ca/wp-content/uploads/30-2-03boyd.pdf |journal= The Canadian Journal of Native Studies |volume=XXX |issue=2 |pages=267–287}}

Harvesting is an important indicator of social capital.{{Cite journal |last=Ready |first=Elspeth |date=2018-12-03 |title=Sharing-based social capital associated with harvest production and wealth in the Canadian Arctic |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=e0193759 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0193759 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=5846769 |pmid=29529040 |bibcode=2018PLoSO..1393759R |doi-access=free }}

Subsistence embodies cultural perspectives of relationships to places, people and animals.{{Cite journal |last1=F. Berkes , P. J. George, R. J. Preston, A. Hughes, J. Turner, B. D. Cummins |last2=George |first2=P. J. |last3=Preston |first3=R. J. |last4=Hughes |first4=A. |last5=Turner |first5=J. |last6=Cummins |first6=B. D. |date=1994 |title=Wildlife Harvesting and Sustainable Regional Native Economy in the Hudson and James Bay Lowland, Ontario |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40511596 |journal=Arctic |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=350–360 |doi=10.14430/arctic1308 |jstor=40511596 |issn=0004-0843|doi-access=free }}

In human history, before the first cities, all humans lived in a subsistence economy.{{cn|date=December 2023}} As urbanization, civilization, and division of labor spread, various societies moved to other economic systems at various times.{{cn|date=December 2023}} Some remain relatively unchanged, ranging from uncontacted peoples, to marginalized areas of developing countries, to some cultures that choose to retain a traditional economy.{{cn|date=December 2023}}

• Hunting and gathering techniques, also known as foraging:
• Artisan fishing — a term which particularly applies to coastal or island ethnic groups using traditional techniques for subsistence fishing.
• Aboriginal whaling, including the subsistence hunting of the bowhead whale in the Arctic.
• Agriculture:
• Subsistence agriculture — agricultural cultivation involving continuous use of arable (crop) land, and is more labor-intensive than horticulture.
• Horticulture — plant cultivation, based on the use of simple tools.
• Pastoralism, the raising of grazing animals:
• Pastoral nomadism — all members of the pastoral society follow the herd throughout the year.
• Transhumance or agro-pastoralism — part of the society follows the herd, while the other part maintains a home village.
• Ranch agriculture — non-nomadic pastoralism with a defined territory.
• Distribution and exchange:
• Redistribution
• Reciprocity — exchange between social equals.
• Potlatching — a widely studied ritual in which sponsors (helped by their entourages) gave away resources and manufactured wealth while generating prestige for themselves.
• LETS — Local Exchange Trading Systems.
• A parasitical society, subsisting on the produce of a separate host society:
• Raiding
• Conquest
• Garbage picking, when subsisting in a larger economy

{{cols|colwidth=16em}}

• Amish
• Anthropological theories of value
• Back-to-the-land movement
• Lasse Nordlund
• Mahatma Gandhi
• Natural economy
• Poverty
• Shakers
• Simple living
• Staple food
• Society
• Subsistence crisis
• Tiny house movement

{{colend}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Economic systems

Category:Agricultural economics

de:Subsistenzwirtschaft