ANTH class gives ideas
I find this kinda funny, but I was motivated to listen and pay attachention and really understand what my professor was disscusing today in my ANTH100 class today because it is relavant to this story thing I've been taking about - aka the sarila/catreena world thing and stuff.
Anyway, he was lecturing about agiculture and horiculture, the two systems on our planet for food production. Because of the way the humans and such on world I'm creating are confined to these villages or cities, foraging is not an option, they are going to be forced into farming and their own food production and domestation of animals.
Anyway, horiculture he seems to be a fan of since it works with the natural way plants grow. it take s long time, and it allows plants and such to fallow the natural course and looks more like a big mess than what you'ld probably expect for a normal "farm". Many different plants all growing next to each other, when you first starts it's mostly simple grasses, but after just a year or two, you move into more complex grasses. during the next 20 years, you build up to bigger plants and hit things like possible corn or maize. Over the next like 70 years or more you build up into trees and other plants where you eat the roots. eventually it reach a cridical point, sometime over 100 years after you started, then you let it go for maybe 20 more years, then burn it to the ground and start over. This is also commonly used in the tropics, since what most of use westerner would call normal farming doesn't work, it distroyes the soil and makes it unfarmable. While horiculture takes a long time, and that might make it sound like it require lots of work, it actually doesn't. as the right size or variaty or plant starts to grow, you simp[le nudge your fields in the direction you want by planting the specific plants you want. Like for example, when trees start to pop up, you plant banana trees if you want bananas.
on the other end, we also covered what western types would call normal farming, aka agriculture. You plant anual plants in nice neat little rolls and columns in nice neat little squares. Every year you harvest the food grown by these anual plants, and then plow the land, which actually rests is back to the begining of the natural cycle every year, instead of letting nature take it's course like horiculture. How intesive the labor for these crops are does vary by different types or areas. Like in the western parts of eurasia (also known as like europe and parts of africa) they would grow mostly wheats. Wheat doesn't really respond to intensifying the labor.... it's really about the same either way. On the other hand, in more eastern areas, like china or so, they grow more rices. Rice responds very very well to intensifing the labor. By intensifying I mean like pulling weeds, being more attantave to watering and how much you water the plants, and by things like planting each idividual seed. When it's not intensified, also known as being extensive, you do things like just throw some seeds down, or you're not diligent about pulling weeds or somethings like that. In the americas (aka New World) they have lots of maize or corn, which responds to intensifying, however doesn't need it. He also metioned how the intensifying lends to specization, or trading, and state enforcement of fairness, and how it leads to less animals or time ot raise animals by farmers.
To me this is highly relvant because one the main characters, Sarila, is born and raised on a farm. Also, I want the species the lives with the humans to been very important to the work done on a farm, which makes me favor intensive types of farming, since harder workers would be very important there, since they can work harder than the humans can, being stronger and such. Not too much, but some. It also would fit how I want large farming families to be needed. Lastly, I was agiculture not horiculture, because it requires more work for the most part and because i don't want them to live in a tropical area. Part of it is sticking to what I know or have been around or lived in, and part of it just makes sense to me. I'm not that sure how to explain it. Maybe I mean more that it just makes sense with how i want the story to work, ie that one species being important to daily life on a farm.
Though as for just which crops, I'm not sure. If they have wheats, it won't be a major crop, since it doesn't respond to intensifying and I want that to be something important, since I want that species to be a big asset to the house they live in. It also proves a reason for more of them to live on the outer parts of the cities/towns/villages/etc (probably about the size of a town.... not like little villages, but I'm not sure). And not be very common torwads the inner parts of towns/villages, where your crafters and such would probably live, along with higher up's, since the closer you are to the center, the safer you are from the killing spieces. Verses like Sarila lives on a farm near the very outer edge, putting it in a dangous spot, and making them likely to be of lower class.
~ darn it, class is starting soon, so i need to leave the comp lab... so this si the end at least fro now... I should get on and finish these sometime ~ (note - didn't spell check or read through at all)
Anyway, he was lecturing about agiculture and horiculture, the two systems on our planet for food production. Because of the way the humans and such on world I'm creating are confined to these villages or cities, foraging is not an option, they are going to be forced into farming and their own food production and domestation of animals.
Anyway, horiculture he seems to be a fan of since it works with the natural way plants grow. it take s long time, and it allows plants and such to fallow the natural course and looks more like a big mess than what you'ld probably expect for a normal "farm". Many different plants all growing next to each other, when you first starts it's mostly simple grasses, but after just a year or two, you move into more complex grasses. during the next 20 years, you build up to bigger plants and hit things like possible corn or maize. Over the next like 70 years or more you build up into trees and other plants where you eat the roots. eventually it reach a cridical point, sometime over 100 years after you started, then you let it go for maybe 20 more years, then burn it to the ground and start over. This is also commonly used in the tropics, since what most of use westerner would call normal farming doesn't work, it distroyes the soil and makes it unfarmable. While horiculture takes a long time, and that might make it sound like it require lots of work, it actually doesn't. as the right size or variaty or plant starts to grow, you simp[le nudge your fields in the direction you want by planting the specific plants you want. Like for example, when trees start to pop up, you plant banana trees if you want bananas.
on the other end, we also covered what western types would call normal farming, aka agriculture. You plant anual plants in nice neat little rolls and columns in nice neat little squares. Every year you harvest the food grown by these anual plants, and then plow the land, which actually rests is back to the begining of the natural cycle every year, instead of letting nature take it's course like horiculture. How intesive the labor for these crops are does vary by different types or areas. Like in the western parts of eurasia (also known as like europe and parts of africa) they would grow mostly wheats. Wheat doesn't really respond to intensifying the labor.... it's really about the same either way. On the other hand, in more eastern areas, like china or so, they grow more rices. Rice responds very very well to intensifing the labor. By intensifying I mean like pulling weeds, being more attantave to watering and how much you water the plants, and by things like planting each idividual seed. When it's not intensified, also known as being extensive, you do things like just throw some seeds down, or you're not diligent about pulling weeds or somethings like that. In the americas (aka New World) they have lots of maize or corn, which responds to intensifying, however doesn't need it. He also metioned how the intensifying lends to specization, or trading, and state enforcement of fairness, and how it leads to less animals or time ot raise animals by farmers.
To me this is highly relvant because one the main characters, Sarila, is born and raised on a farm. Also, I want the species the lives with the humans to been very important to the work done on a farm, which makes me favor intensive types of farming, since harder workers would be very important there, since they can work harder than the humans can, being stronger and such. Not too much, but some. It also would fit how I want large farming families to be needed. Lastly, I was agiculture not horiculture, because it requires more work for the most part and because i don't want them to live in a tropical area. Part of it is sticking to what I know or have been around or lived in, and part of it just makes sense to me. I'm not that sure how to explain it. Maybe I mean more that it just makes sense with how i want the story to work, ie that one species being important to daily life on a farm.
Though as for just which crops, I'm not sure. If they have wheats, it won't be a major crop, since it doesn't respond to intensifying and I want that to be something important, since I want that species to be a big asset to the house they live in. It also proves a reason for more of them to live on the outer parts of the cities/towns/villages/etc (probably about the size of a town.... not like little villages, but I'm not sure). And not be very common torwads the inner parts of towns/villages, where your crafters and such would probably live, along with higher up's, since the closer you are to the center, the safer you are from the killing spieces. Verses like Sarila lives on a farm near the very outer edge, putting it in a dangous spot, and making them likely to be of lower class.
~ darn it, class is starting soon, so i need to leave the comp lab... so this si the end at least fro now... I should get on and finish these sometime ~ (note - didn't spell check or read through at all)