Appropriating economy - what is it? Appropriating economy: definition

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Many historical facts testify to the origin of man from animals. Even 2 million years ago, he began to stand out among his own kind by upright walking, improving his hands and brain. Constant changes also took place in the field of food production. One of the ways to ensure existence was the appropriating economy. What it is and what it led to is described in this article.

What is an appropriating economy?

The appropriating economy is a type of primitive man's activity, which is characterized by the appropriation of all the gifts of nature in order to maintain existence. Mankind has been doing it since the Paleolithic era. Then the population was still insignificant, there were no problems with the means of subsistence. People took from nature everything they could, and it was fair. After all, she provided her fruits, and the man collected them.

How did the appropriating economy come about?

According to Darwin's theory, humankind borrowed gathering and hunting from animals. Guided by natural needs, people used the appropriating economy. This is confirmed by many excavations and historical facts. But no matter how the first people were compared with animals, man never appropriated natural we alth with his bare hands.

According to historical documents, even in the earliest stages of its existence, mankind invented various tools that would simplify everyday life. For example, ancient Africans split stones in such a way as to obtain sharp edges for quick dissection of the carcass of killed game. Over time, people invented more and more new household items and learned how to use natural resources for vital needs. They even had needles to make their own clothes from the skins of dead animals.

For quite a long time, all tribes and peoples led an appropriating economy. The productive economy arose only in the 5th millennium BC. e.

Features of activity

Scientists have identified many important features that the appropriating economy had. This type of economy is characterized by the following features:

• collective activity;
• maintaining it by all the inhabitants of the tribe, so all appropriation is divided equally;
• people and nature are in equal dependence;
• only stone tools are used for appropriation;
• development of technicalprogress, albeit at a slow pace;
• differentiation of labor by age and gender.

Types of appropriating economy

There are several industries that are included in the appropriating economy. These are gathering, fishing and hunting. The main ancient occupations of people were hunting and gathering. At different stages of development and in different climatic conditions, the ratio of these activities could differ.

Fishing

In many tribes, fishing was the main branch of the economy. Mankind successfully mastered rivers, seas, learned to fish in large volumes. Fishing tools acquire noticeable changes: nets, a hook, a boat with oars appear. Fishing was simplified so that even children could do it. Some tribes believed in the existence of different gods responsible for the weather or the harvest, and made sacrifices to them in the form of booty. Fishermen were among them.

Hunting

As new tools were invented, hunting became easier and did not take much time, and the tribes could quickly move and develop new territories. People began to invent all kinds of traps, came up with driven hunting, began to make chisels, knives, stone axes, spears.

Hunting productivity increased significantly after the invention of the spear thrower, which was a stick with an emphasis. Thanks to its special shape, the spear flew at the victim at the speed of an arrow. The spear thrower is considered the first mechanical weapon that supplementedhuman muscular strength.

At the end of the Paleolithic, climatic conditions changed significantly, and the era of glaciation began. People began to look for new lands where they could live comfortably and run an appropriating economy. The identification of such places was an important point, since there were not enough means for subsistence, and the time spent searching could cost the life of the entire tribe.

During the glaciation, people hunted mainly reindeer and wild horses. To catch these animals, the tribes used driven hunting. It allowed to catch a large number of animals in a short period of time. In the cold season, animals were valuable prey, not only as food. They provided people with skins and fur for heating the body and arranging dwellings. Reindeer served as a means of transportation during seasonal migrations. So, in the hot season, people moved closer to the tundra, and in winter they looked for forest zones. Thanks to the search for better living conditions, mankind developed new lands.

After the retreat of the glacier, the Mesolithic era began. The deer went behind the glaciers, and the hunters followed them. Some people remained in place, adapting to the appropriation of small animals. In the Mesolithic era, mankind invented the boomerang, bow and arrow, etc. These technological advances have made man more dangerous to the surrounding animal world. Also during this period, man managed to tame the first animal - a dog. She has become a faithful and indispensable assistant in hunting.

Gathering

After the retreat of the glacier and the general warming, favorable conditions have come for the development of gathering. In many tribes, it was a priority industry, on which the entire appropriating economy rested. This occupation included not only the search for food, but also their processing and cooking. The objects for gathering were wild fruits and berries, nuts, grains, herbs, root crops, leaves, algae, mushrooms, bird eggs, insects, frogs and lizards, crayfish, snails, wild bee honey. Often such food was the basis of the nutrition of primitive people, and the gathering itself was a more reliable source of subsistence than hunting and fishing.

This branch of the economy was mainly occupied by women and children. However, in some cases, the duties were still performed exclusively by men. For example, collecting wild honey required physical strength to climb a tree or rock. Gatherers also invented various tools and devices to speed up the process of harvesting food. So, in this branch of the economy, a stone grain grinder, a hoe, and reaping knives are widely used.

Neolithic Revolution

Favorable climatic conditions at the end of the Mesolithic contributed to the development of the appropriating economy. Since this period, mankind has developed at a rapid pace. The tribes grew dynamically and began to feel the lack of natural gifts. Even in herd animal areas and on the sea coasts, food was in short supply. Under such conditions, it was impossible to conduct appropriatingeconomy. The definition of new territories solved the problem with food only partially. This is an important feature of the era of the appropriating economy - a person could live only in the places of distribution of animals and plants. Such natural dependence soon began to stifle the development of society and the world around.

In difficult conditions of survival, people began to pay more and more attention to plants that gave a lot of fruits: rice, wheat, barley. They realized that it was not necessary to look for land with wild crops if they were growing well in the ground near the settlement. So people learned to sow, cultivate, fertilize crops themselves, protect crops from birds and animals. Thus, mankind mastered agriculture.

The domestication of wild animals ends the era in which the appropriating economy existed. Domestic animals were often used not only as the basis of food, but also for physical work. For example, for cultivating land or as a means of transportation.

The development of agriculture and animal husbandry is considered the most important process in the development of mankind. It went down in history as the "Neolithic Revolution".