Anthropology

Each of these categories is in sequence, from hunting to agriculture, in order of least to greatest impact that they leave upon the environment. Every culture can fit into one of these subsistent styles. How a culture turns this style into a way of living is how each culture individualizes and becomes unique from each other. Which style the culture resides in mainly has to do with what the surrounding area has to offer them. The ecology of the environment has a great importance in deciding which style the group needs to adapt to in order to survive. For example, the Trobriand Islanders in Malaysia have a limited supply of where they can obtain their food. Since they live on islands they don't have the opportunity to herd animals or make large crops, they have to rely on the ocean and small fertile grounds for their food acquisitions. Another classification that can be made through subsistence styles is the process of specialization and division of labor. You will find that the further you go down in the order of subsistence styles the more the need for specialized labor increases. If your culture has many resources of food, like the Nuer tribe of northern Africa, you start to develop a more specialized way of dividing up labor. The reason for doing this is because the more complex you get with obtaining these necessities the less you can have a whole tribe knowing how to do everything. For example, the Yiwara hunt and gather, the least specialized group, so therefore the labor is divided up into broad categories. All the women have the same duties and have to perform all these duties themselves or will not survive. All the men have duties that they have to know and perform or will not survive. This is unlike our culture where you are very specialized in what you do and you use that specialization to help those who you can in turn for another individual, who is specialized in the field that you need, to help you obtain what it is you need.