Adaptive Strategy
Define adaptive strategy. Identify the five adaptive strategies in Cohen’s typology of societies. Discuss how Cohen links economy and social features.
Sample Answer
Definition of Adaptive Strategy
Production and ways of living have evolved consistently with the passing years. Societies incorporate dynamics and expand their productions from local subsistence into larger systems (PHILLIP, 2017, p84). According to PHILLIP, adaptive strategy refers to a society’s primary economic production system (85). Anthropologist Yehudi Cohen gives a detailed description of the concept of adaptive strategies and how each idea is relevant to society. The strategy entails the basis for similarities of the socio-cultural effects of two or more communities caused by similar economic activities. Similar adaptive strategies unite the different societies. Cohen applied the link between economic activities and social features of specific communities to analyze the correlations of different typologies of societies, including; foraging, horticulture, pastoralism, agriculture, and industrialism.
The Five Adaptive Strategies in Cohen’s Typology of Societies
Foraging is the first and earliest form of production that was ecologically reliant. Economic output in this period was mostly on hunting, gathering, and fishing and thus relied solely on exploiting natural resources. The foragers did not engage in crop or animal farming, but they began incorporating food production after some years. This social group was highly mobile and specialized in the division of labor with distinct duties for males and females. Personal relationships among the foragers were founded in fictive kinship, where social distinctions were made according to age and gender (PHILLIP, 2017, p88). Examples of this group are the South Asians, South Indians, South Americans, and some of the Central and West Africans.
Secondly, horticulture describes a society that emerged with the rise of food production and relied on cultivation without utilizing the factors of production like land, capital, labor, or machinery. The horticultures’ cultivation involved simple tools and mere shifting and slash cultivation. According to Cohen, agriculture was the third type of society that utilized more factors of production like land, machinery, and agrochemicals (PHILLIP, 2017, p89). The society engaged in all such activities as; irrigation, domesticated farming, and terracing. Agriculture was considered significant due to its economic returns and dependence on food. Agricultural societies are mostly confined together and engage in more varied economic production.
Fourthly, pastoralism describes a group whose main activity was domesticating animals like cows, goats, sheep, and camels. This typology utilized their animal products to substitute agricultural and horticultural products for sustenance. Pastoralists were either nomads, moving with their herd throughout the seasons, or transhumance, moving with the herds but primarily residing in home villages (Sutton and Anderson, 2020). Finally, industrialism characterized the societies that embraced the industrial revolution. People were forced to work in industrialized setups to accrue wages when their employer trades the product being produced. This society described a phase of workers’ alienation from the product and the rest of the groups since salaries and wages were significant than the rest.
How Cohen Links Economy and Social Features
In summary, Cohen’s work on adaptive strategies linked the economy and social features of the people. Human beings utilize a wide range of environmental provisions to either universally maximize profits and acquire satisfaction as in the classical period or work to gain wages and maximize profits individually like in the present industrialism era (Cohen et al., 2017). Based on their varied adaptive strategies, the different societies have unique social bonds and various economic activities globally in the United States and other countries. The several economic production approaches account for the variation in farming systems, labor, cultivation, and shift into industrialization that embraced machines to foster farming and manufacturing activities. People engage in activities to satisfy their motivations, like in the non-industrial societies, or maximize profits like in the modern industrialized society. The engagement in economic production can be purposed for subsistence, social, rent, or ceremonial. The wage financial output period alienated the people from each other and their passion for products and work and integrated them to yearn for money and more profits. Social ties are established and maintained through avenues like social funds and communal activities in the present phase.
References
- Cohen, M., Brown, H. S., & Vergragt, P. J. (2017). Social change and the coming of post-consumer society. https://api.taylorfrancis.com/content/books/mono/download?identifierName=doi&identifierValue=10.4324/9781315630168&type=googlepdf
- PHILLIP, C. (2017). MIRROR FOR HUMANITY: A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. MCGRAW-HILL.
- Sutton, M. Q., & Anderson, E. N. (2020). Introduction to cultural ecology. Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003135456/introduction-cultural-ecology-mark-sutton-anderson
