Maasai Vs Nalthi

The two human adaptive strategies I chose to focus on are pastoralism and hunting and gathering. Specifically, I will be looking at the case studies of the pastoral society Maasai and the hunter-gatherer society Nuu-Chah-Nulth; who are also called the Nootka. The differences between the two are vast though there are similarities in how their strategies connect with the natural world. Furthermore, both strategies include complex cultural systems that are maintained though resource guided social organizations and the management their environment. The Nootka are the indigenous peoples of Vancouver Island on the Pacific Northwest coast; today the culture remains active though the assimilation of Anglo-Canadian culture has changed their

Sutton and Anderson write, “…for all practical purposes, the Maasai do not hunt game for food, they look upon people who do with contempt” (268). Instead, products from domesticated cattle form the basis of life in this culture. The Maasai are milch pastoralists that use the products of live animals as their primary food source. In contrast, the Navajo society living in Arizona and New Mexico, are semisedentary pastoralist that rely heavily on animal meat as their main resource. The main cattle products used by the Maasai are milk, blood, horns, urine for medicinal purposes and dung as a fuel source (267). This system transforms the energy from the grassland environment into usable animal resources, which in turn better supports a larger population of people with a smaller number of cattle. In comparison, hunter-gatherer societies like the Nootka, had an abundant variety of resources that supported a smaller population. Apart from Massai’s use of cattle as a food resource, another important aspect of cattle is their social

The techniques they used toward controlling their environment were passive and included burning the landscape in order to attract large game and to promote the growth edible plants like berries (183). In contrast, the Maasai society practice little environmental manipulation but also use controlled burning on their lands, although it is for the purpose of eliminating brush in order to encourage pasture grass growth. The three main resources they manage are animals, pastures and water. Water is a critical resource in the stability of their cattle populations resulting in water holes being created and managed by individual landowners. Although, the most intensively managed resource is their cattle. The main techniques used to manage cattle are selective breeding and castration. Controlling population of domesticated species is more prominent in pastoral societies like the Maasai, though the Nooka had developed a strategy in managing salmon populations during times when salmon migrations were low; they would monitor their populations and then artificially stock streams in times of decreased numbers (180). This type of management was important in keeping a stable system because salmon were the key resource to the Nooka