Subsistence is the action or fact of maintaining or supporting oneself at a minimum level.
The following is a list of subsistence techniques:
- 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.
- Cultivation:
- Horticulture — plant cultivation, based on the use of simple tools.
- Subsistence agriculture — agricultural cultivation involving continuous use of arable (crop) land, and is more labor-intensive than horticulture.
- 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 and taxation
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, subsistence and/or techniques:
“Shea—they call him Scholar Jack—
Went down the list of the dead.
Officers, seamen, gunners, marines,
The crews of the gig and yawl,
The bearded man and the lad in his teens,
Carpenters, coal-passers—all.”
—Joseph I. C. Clarke (1846–1925)
“Lovers, forget your love,
And list to the love of these,
She a window flower,
And he a winter breeze.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Culture is the tacit agreement to let the means of subsistence disappear behind the purpose of existence. Civilization is the subordination of the latter to the former.”
—Karl Kraus (1874–1936)
“It is easy to lose confidence in our natural ability to raise children. The true techniques for raising children are simple: Be with them, play with them, talk to them. You are not squandering their time no matter what the latest child development books say about “purposeful play” and “cognitive learning skills.””
—Neil Kurshan (20th century)