subsistence living
Meeting basic needs
Subsistence living is a mode of existence focused on meeting basic survival needs rather than accumulating wealth or participating in market economies.
People engaged in subsistence living typically grow their own food, build their own shelter, and produce what they need to survive: They left the city for subsistence living in rural Alaska.
The term can describe both traditional indigenous lifestyles and modern choices to live off the land with minimal cash income.
- huntingPursuing wild game
- homesteadingSelf-reliant land-based lifestyle
- fishingCatching aquatic creatures
- barterDirect goods-for-goods exchange
- hardscrabbleMarked by poverty, toil
trapping · foraging · self-reliance · folk wisdom · gathering · indigenous knowledge · sustainability · farming · hand-to-mouth · bare bones · lean times · hunter-gatherer · resource scarcity · food preservation · wild game · wild harvest · animal husbandry · water management
- AlaskaFairbanks, Juneau, Denali, Sitka, Kodiak
- Canadian ArcticNunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Baffin Island, Yellowknife
- Alaska NativesAleut, Unangan, Athabaskan, Athabascan, Haida
- Dene culturetea dance, drum dance, drum dancing, hand games, traditional territory
- povertypoverty line, poor, poverty rate, impoverished, generational poverty
- folk traditionsfolk songs, folk dance, folk dances, folk tunes, folklore
subsistence livingcommercial farming
Profit-driven food production
industrial agriculture · agribusiness · commercial enterprise · factory farming · large-scale production
subsistence livingaffluence
Abundance of money
wealth · luxury · prosperity · opulence · abundance