Thirty  years ago (or more) the literature was full of 
definitions of subsistence farming (eg the 
Palaeoeconomy school, Boserup). 

It is probably a very loaded and dangerous term to use in 
the light of current understanding of heirarchies and power 
relations even in prehistoric times. I for one have never 
used it since being taken to task 20 y ears ago by a 
historian for arguing that a site was self-sufficient 
when all the other types of evidence showed that the site 
particated widely in markets.

Subsistence farming  was what farmers did who had no or 
very little involvement in the market.  It implies a 
farming system which was totally or almost completely 
self-suffcient and which did not produce a surplus of food 
or other agricultural produce for exchange or for a cash 
market. By the same token, the farmers did not acquire 
foodstuffs or very much else through the market or other 
exchange methods. There were still a few thought to be like 
that in all continents after World War 2 but they must be 
getting fewer and fewer, if they ever existed.

It is not peasant farming, because, though peasants may 
live close to subsistence level. they ( in Europe 
or anywhere else in the world) owe taxes or duties to a 
feudal lord, so are forced to produce a (small) surplus 
and in return (possibly) acquired some goods from the 
feudal overlord. 

So far as animal husbandry is concerned, it is probably 
safer to focus on whether herds were/ could have been  
self-sufficient or not. (See Grant on Iron Age Danebury, 
and others.).  

 I would be surprised if today you find 
anyone prepared to argue for subsistence farming in the 
prehistoric past. Good luck
Dale


On Thu, 13 Apr 2000 15:46:10 +0100 Jacqui Mulville 
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Come on you bone people,what exactly does it means when you
> write 'they practised subsistence farming'?  How do you 
> define and use this term? 
> 
> Proposed session for TAG 2000 (Oxford)
> 
> Session organizers
> Jacqui Mulville (English Heritage, Oxford University 
> Museum, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PW. E-mail: 
> [log in to unmask]) & 
> Mark Pluciennik (Department of Archaeology, University of 
> Wales, Lampeter, Ceredigion SA48 7ED, Wales, UK. E-mail: 
> [log in to unmask])
> 
> 
> All or nothing: human existence and subsistence
> 
> For much of prehistory and perhaps especially for 
> hunter-gatherers, materialist perspectives and especially 
> those related to subsistence still dominate. In Britain 
> this may be seen partly as the legacy of the Higgsian 
> 'palaeoeconomy' school and the narrow interpretation of 
> 'economy' to mean subsistence. More generally one may argue
> that the apparently 'obvious' and quantifiable nature of 
> food remains has tended to encourage a polarisation between
> functionalist interpretations and symbolic interpretations 
> for remains found in 'ritual' contexts such as graves, or 
> pits with structured deposition, for example. 
> 
> The session organizers wish to discuss ways in which we can
> integrate and interpret material from archaeobotany and 
> archaeozoology so as to be sensitive to aspects including 
> the ecological and functional and yet without assigning 
> 'problematic' remains to the realm of ritual. 
> 
> Part of the session will explore the ways in which the term
> subsistence has been used to identify an apparently 
> separate sphere of activity, as well as to classify whole 
> societies, and to ask whether alternative and perhaps 
> looser terms such as 'lifeways' are more helpful or merely 
> reproduce other equally rigid categories. The session will 
> encourage debate and demonstration of possibilities other 
> than the trajectory of subsistence as the focus especially 
> of prehistories. 
> 
> In order to facilitate other viewpoints we will be inviting
> anthropologists' comments on notions of subsistence in 
> living populations and how this concept shapes our 
> acceptance, understanding and 'control' of indigenous 
> peoples, but we are interested in an inclusive approach. 
> Papers are invited from critically aware archaeologists and
> others which offer new light on 'subsistence activities' 
> and their interpretation in the light of the comments 
> offered above. Please contact either of the organizers, 
> preferably by email, at the addresses above.
> 
> 
> 
> ----------------------
> Jacqui Mulville,
> EH Regional Science Advisor (E. Mids)
> Oxford University Museum,
> Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PW
> Tel: 01865-272996 Fax: 01865-272970
> 
> 

----------------------
Dale Serjeantson
Research Fellow
Department of Archaeology
University of Southampton
Southampton SO17 1BJ
(44)(0)1703 593210
[log in to unmask]



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