by Jason Todd

Created on: July 04, 2007

Foraging as a subsistence method was the primary way of life for most of human history. It is only relatively recently in the time-line of the human race that horticulture, agriculture, pastoralism, and finally industrialism became the primary means of survival. Foragers, or hunter-gatherers, are rare in today's world, but there is still a place for them to exist in some areas. The Mikea people of Madagascar are one example of a modern-day foraging group. In this paper, I will talk about the Mikea people, and their foraging lifestyle. First, I will explain what foraging is. Then I will describe how the Mikea sustain themselves by foraging. Next, I will analyze the economic and political patterns of the Mikea. Finally, I will explain the changes in the Mikeas' way of life as the world moves into the future.

In order to understand the Mikea, we must understand what foraging is. A forager is one who survives primarily on gathering wild foods and hunting or trapping wild animals. A forager could theoretically survive alone or with other foragers without performing any other means of subsistence or having contact with outsiders who rely on another means of subsistence. In reality, most if not all, foraging people today rely on supplemental means of subsistence outside of foraging. Jan Fortier states, "it would be a mistake to characterize modern hunter-gatherers as doing nothing but provisioning themselves with forest resources" (2001, p. 197). She goes on to say that modern foragers will supplement their hunting and gathering with "wage labor, trade, agriculture, cultivation, stock keeping, and even government office work and welfare benefits" (2001, p. 197).

Among the spectrum of foraging societies, one can break them down into two groups; those with immediate-return systems and those with delayed-return systems. In an immediate-return system, the food gathering activities are geared more to the present, to be eaten soon after it is attained. The people that use this system do not tend to put much work into things that need a significant amount of time to make or things that will produce anything of value in the future. In a delayed-return system however, the subsistence gathering activities are forward-looking. The people will build things such as beehives, nets, and boats to aid in their hunting and gathering and increase the amount of food they can attain in the present and the future. There is a broad range of societies that fall at either end of the spectrum

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