Humans use four main modes of subsistence to meet their needs: gathering-hunting, pastoralism, plant cultivation, and industrialism. Plant cultivators are settled peoples who practice either extensive horticulture or intensive agriculture.

In intensive agriculture and industrialism, the market economy based on money forms the dominant mode of exchange Anthropologists take a human-centered approach to studying economic issues, examining how social and cultural features relate to economic production, markets, and consumption.

extensive horticulture — a form of plant cultivation in which new plots are regularly cleared, prepared with digging sticks or hoes, and fertilized with animal dung, ash, or other natural products. intensive agriculture — a form of plant cultivation in which one plot is farmed over and over again using labor-intensive methods such as plowing, terracing, and irrigation. gathering-hunting — the mode of subsistence in which people rely on resources readily available in their environment. Gathering-hunting peoples collect fruits, nuts, berries, and roots and harvest…. industrialism — the mode of subsistence that uses wage labor, machines, and chemical processes to mass-produce commodities.