Mortar and Pestle, Angola Mortars and pestles are used in tasks ranging from pounding straw for bricks to pulverizing grains into meal and flour. This mortar from Angola mashed tubers like cassava and yams. African Americans in the Southern United States still use mortars and pestles to hull rice and pound dried corn meal or grits. (Africa exhibition) © 2010 The Field Museum, Photographer Geneva Morris/208096, 209534 Earthenware Water Cooler, Yoruba People, Nigeria The Yoruba people of Nigeria have developed innovative solutions to living in their particular environment. Earthenware pots like this one were made to store water and keep it cool in a hot, arid land. © 2001 The Field Museum, A114158c_209294, Photographer Diane Alexander White/209294 Carved Hook, Huon Gulf, Papua New Guinea Women of the Huon Gulf used hooks like this one for storing food. Food was placed in baskets or bowls, tucked into string bags and hung from hooks like these on the house rafters—high, dry, and safely out of reach of animals. (Traveling the Pacific exhibition) © 1961 The Field Museum, A98284/140040 Innovators—FINDING FOOD First Stop: Immediately after the Ice Age, most cultures in the Americas were relatively similar, as people subsisted on big game. But as the ice sheets receded and the climate changed, the game disappeared, and people had to find new food sources. They acted and adapted by looking at the land around them and using creativity to survive. Changing their lifestyles to respond to local conditions led to diversity, a “mosaic of lifeways.” As people experimented with resources in new environments, they transformed existing tools, such as fish hooks and nets, and invented more effective techniques and tools to meet their needs. When faced with natural disasters or changing food resources, innovation was even more critical. Some peoples moved to new areas; others fought neighbors over land and resources. But many figured out new ways to get what they needed from their territories—including some that blazed a radical new path: farming. Cross-Cultural Examples: One quality that people everywhere have in common is the ability to solve problems by thinking creatively. Here are some examples from other Field Museum collections of how people have used creativity to provide sustenance by adapting to local environments across the world. Learning from the Past in The Ancient Americas Comparing Cultures: www.gogreenila.info 1
ComparingCultures_Food
Mar 21, 2016
Cross-Cultural Examples: Immediately after the Ice Age, most cultures in the Americas were relatively similar, as people subsisted on big game. But as the ice sheets receded and the climate changed, the game disappeared, and people had to find new food sources. They acted and adapted by looking at the land around them and using creativity to survive. Changing their lifestyles to respond to local conditions led to diversity, a “mosaic of lifeways.” www.gogreenila.info 1
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Mortar and Pestle, AngolaMortars and pestles are used in tasks ranging from pounding straw for bricks to pulverizing grains into meal and flour. This mortar from Angola mashed tubers like cassava and yams. African Americans in the Southern United States still use mortars and pestles to hull rice and pound dried corn meal or grits. (Africa exhibition) © 2010 The Field
Museum, Photographer Geneva Morris/208096, 209534
Earthenware Water Cooler, Yoruba People, Nigeria The Yoruba people of Nigeria have developed innovative solutions to living in their particular environment. Earthenware pots like this one were made to store water and keep it cool in a hot, arid land. © 2001 The Field Museum, A114158c_209294, Photographer
Diane Alexander White/209294
Carved Hook, Huon Gulf, Papua New Guinea Women of the Huon Gulf used hooks like this one for storing food. Food was placed in baskets or bowls, tucked into string bags and hung from hooks like these on the house rafters—high, dry, and safely out of reach of animals. (Traveling the Pacific exhibition) © 1961 The Field Museum, A98284/140040
Innovators—FINDING FOODFirst Stop:
Immediately after the Ice Age, most cultures in the Americas were relatively similar, as people subsisted on big game. But as the ice sheets receded and the climate changed, the game disappeared, and people had to find new food sources. They acted and adapted by looking at the land around them and using creativity to survive. Changing their lifestyles to respond to local conditions led to diversity, a “mosaic of lifeways.”
As people experimented with resources in new environments, they transformed existing tools, such as fish hooks and nets, and invented more effective techniques and tools to meet their needs. When faced with natural disasters or changing food resources, innovation was even more critical. Some peoples moved to new areas; others fought neighbors over land and resources. But many figured out new ways to get what they needed from their territories—including some that blazed a radical new path: farming.
Cross-Cultural Examples:One quality that people everywhere have in common is the ability to solve problems by thinking creatively. Here are some examples from other Field Museum collections of how people have used creativity to provide sustenance by adapting to local environments across the world.
Learning from the Past in The Ancient Americas Comparing Cultures:
ww
w.g
ogre
enila
.info
1
Innovators—FINDING FOOD Page 2
Contemporary Illinois Examples:Like the first people of the ancient Americas, we in the contemporary United States are also facing a changing climate. For ancient Americans, changes in climate were due to natural processes of receding ice sheets, while today, climate change is largely the result of human activity. Like the ancient Americans, people today are creating local, innovative approaches to using resources to meet the challenge of producing food—in a way that is environmentally sustainable.
Illinois Local Food, Farms, and Jobs Act The Illinois Local Food, Farms, and Jobs Act of 2009 supports an Illinois-based food system to move food production back into the hands of local farmers, for the dual purpose of revitalizing farming communities and providing fresh, local food to surrounding urban areas. A focus on growing food to be distributed locally will help to address connected issues such as climate change, energy production, and health.
Watch The Talking Farm video to learn more (see LEARN/Collaborating for the Future with New Allies)
City FarmInnovative models such as City Farm in Chicago turn vacant city lots into organic farms that offer job training opportunities along with fresh produce. Ken Dunn (pictured) started City Farm in 1968 to establish a program of sustainable agriculture in impoverished areas. © 2007 The Field Museum, Photographer Hannah Anderson
Watch the City Farm video to learn more (see LEARN/Collaborating for the Future with New Allies)
Learning from the Past in The Ancient Americas Comparing Cultures:
www.gogreenila.info 2
Reduce . Reuse . Recycle . Rethink . Relatewww.gogreenila.info
GoGreen@ Illinois
Library