| Term | Definition |
|---|
| adaptation | the process organisms undergo to achieve a beneficial adjustment to an available environment and the result of that process-the characteristics of organisms that fit them to the particular environmental conditions in which they are found |
| horticulture | cultivation of crops using hand tools such as digging sticks or hoes |
| ecosystem | a system, or a functioning whole, composed of both the physical environment and the organisms living within it |
| convergent evolution | in cultural evolution, the development of similar adaptations to similar environmental conditions by peoples whose ancestral cultures were quite different |
| parallel evolution | in cultural evolution, the development of similar adaptations to similar environmental conditions by peoples whose ancestral cultures were similar |
| culture area | a geographic region in which a number of different societies follow similar patterns of life |
| culture type | the view of a culture in terms of the relation of its particular technology to the environment exploited by that technology |
| culture core | the features of a culture that play a part in matters relating to the society's way of making a living |
| cultural ecology | the study of the interaction of specific human cultures with their environment |
| ethnoscientists | anthropologists who seek to understand the principles behind native idea systems and the ways those principles inform a people about their environment and help them survive |
| carrying capacity | the number of people who can be supported by the available resources at a given level of technology |
| density of social relations | roughly, the number and intensity of interactions among the members of a camp or other residential unit |
| swidden farming | an extensive form of horticulture in which the natural vegetation is cut, the slash is subsequently burned, and the crops then planted amongst the ashes |
| pastoralist | member of a society in which the herding of grazing animals is regarded as the ideal way of making a living, and in which movement of all of part of the society is considered normal and natural way of life |
| transhumance | pattern of strict seasonal movement between different environmental zones |
| preindustrial cities | the kinds of urban settlements that are characteristic of nonindustrial civilizations |
Combine with other sets
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