What are Subsistence Strategies?

Wrap Up

If you've read this article from the beginning, you have learned what subsistence strategies are. You have learned that subsistence strategies can be divided into four categories: foraging, pastoralism, horticulturalism and agriculturalism. You've learned that society becomes more complex as you move from foraging, into pastoralism, to horticulture and finally to agriculture.

While there is a general trend for societies to change in the previously mentioned direction, this does not mean that all societies change in this way. Nor does this mean that all societies are moving towards some ultimate goal of perfection. On the contrary, societies change to meet the needs of the people who live within it.

No subsistence strategy is intrinsically better than another. Foragers are not primitives and agriculture is not the best way to produce food for every culture. As with any cultural practice, a society uses a subsistence strategy because it is the best way for that society to survive. If for some reason an industrialized society finds a pastoralist way of life to be more advantageous, than it will move in that direction.

I hope you've found this article useful. As always, please send me any questions or comments to the email address listed at the bottom of any page in this site.