The Giving Environment: Another Perspective on the Economic System of Gatherer-Hunters

Bird‐David, Nurit

doi:10.1086/203825

Cited by 365 publications

(128 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…All Paleolithic societies and the Unauthenticated Download Date | 5/10/18 8:33 AM vast majority of modern hunter-gatherer bands are nomadic. Their nomadism is almost always contained within a fairly distinct range (Bird-David 1994;Turnbull 1968, 135). However, they do not usually claim exclusive control over this territory or strictly defend it against outsiders (Johnson/Earle 2000, 32).…”

Section: Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Myths about the State of Nature and the Reality of Stateless Societies

Widerquist¹,

McCall²

2015

Analyse &Amp; Kritik

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This article argues the following points. The Hobbesian hypothesis, which we dene as the claim that all people are better o under state authority than they would be outside of it, is an empirical claim about all stateless societies. It is an essential premise in most contractarian justications of government sovereignty. Many smallscale societies are stateless. Anthropological evidence from them provides sucient reason to doubt the truth of the hypothesis, if not to reject it entirely. Therefore, contractarian theory has not done what it claims to do: it has not justied state sovereignty to each person subject to it by demonstrating that they benet from that authority. To be justied in contractarian terms, states have to do something to improve the living standards of disadvantaged people under their rule.

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Section: Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Myths about the State of Nature and the Reality of Stateless Societies

Widerquist¹,

McCall²

2015

Analyse &Amp; Kritik

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“…They make group decisions collectively (Leacock 1998: 144). They can count on each other to share food even if they are unable to produce food to share in return (Bird-David 1990;Bird-David 1992;Hawkes et al 2001). Many ethnographers have remarked on the excessively social nature of band societies.…”

Section: Social and Cultural Satisfactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy

Widerquist

McCall

2017

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“…Theories considering the roles of humans in their environments have ranged from studies of closed societies that include analyses and critiques of "original affluent societies" in which hunter-gatherers were seen to have balanced work and leisure relative to their resources [52,53], or the "giving environment" in which humans are integrated in sharing relationships with the natural world [53], to using natural sciences such as measuring calorie production and consumption [54] and cost-benefit analyses of "optimal foraging theory" [55]. In 1974, the term 'original ecologists' was applied in the popular media to Laughlin's description of the Aleut because of their abundant environment, showing how they are "the world's best example of how man fits in the natural system" [56].…”

Section: Human Economic and Ecological Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustaining Sanak Island, Alaska: A Cultural Land Trust

Reedy-Maschner

Maschner

2013

Sustainability

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Sanak Island is the easternmost of the Aleutian Islands and was inhabited by the Aleut (Unangan) peoples for nearly 7000 years. The past few centuries of Sanak Island life for its Aleut residents can be summarized from ethnohistoric documents and extensive interviews with former residents as shifting local-global economic patterns beginning with the sea otter fur trade, followed by cod and salmon fishing, fox farming, and cattle ranching through waves of Russian, American, and Scandinavian authority and/or influence. As the industries changed and the island absorbed new peoples with new goals, Aleut identity and practices also changed as part of these shifting economic and social environments. Sanak Island was abandoned in the 1970s and although uninhabited today, Sanak Island is managed as an important land trust for the island's descendants that serves local peoples as a marine-scape rich in resources for Aleut subsistence harvesting and as a local heritage site where people draw on the diverse historical influences and legacies. Further, this move from an industrial heritage to contemporary local subsistence economies facilitated by a commercial fishing industry is a unique reversal of development in the region with broad implications for community sustainability among indigenous communities. We find that by being place-focused, rather than place-based, community sustainability can be maintained even in the context of relocation and the loss of traditional villages. This will likely become more common as indigenous peoples adapt to globalization and the forces of global change.

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The Giving Environment: Another Perspective on the Economic System of Gatherer-Hunters

Cited by 365 publications

References 2 publications

Myths about the State of Nature and the Reality of Stateless Societies

Myths about the State of Nature and the Reality of Stateless Societies

Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy

Sustaining Sanak Island, Alaska: A Cultural Land Trust

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