Female subsistence strategies among Ache hunter-gatherers of Eastern Paraguay

Anthropologists have frequently proposed that sexual division of labor is produced by childcare constraints on women's subsistence work. We present data on the forest activities of Ache women that show that differences in parental investment partially account for variation in food acquisition among individual women. Data also suggest that childcare constraints are important in understanding the sexual division of labor.     

Net hunters vs. archers: Variation in women's subsistence strategies in the Ituri Forest

BaMbuti of the Ituri Forest, Zaire, employ two primary hunting techniques: net hunting, in which women routinely participate, and bow hunting, in which women rarely participate. We hypothesize that the value of women's labor devoted to different subsistence activities, combined with the exchange value of meat, will determine whether women participate in hunts. Field observations were conducted in four different areas: two exploited by archers and two by net hunters. Results indicate that women in nethunting areas earn more calories per unit time by hunting than by working in agriculturalists' gardens; whereas women in archer areas earn more calories by working for agriculturalists than by hunting. We found no significant difference in the composition or diversity of the forests exploited by net hunters and archers. The results are discussed in light of the longstanding debate concerning the factors that account for distribution of net hunting and archery in the Ituri Forest.     

Subsistence productivity and hunting effort in native South America

The question of why people work more or less at various activities is an old one in anthropology and recently has surfaced in studies of native South American societies. Growing out of debates about protein scarcity, arguments have arisen over the reasons why people spend time on hunting and fishing. Some authors suggest that labor allocation and other societal features can be explained with reference to absolute minimum requirements for specific nutrients (e.g., protein). This study presents data from four native Central Brazilian societies on the time spent at various subsistence tasks and the productivity of those tasks. The evidence suggests that decisions to allocate labor to hunting and fishing are influenced more by the overall possibilities for production in an area than by the availability of animal proteins alone. Satisfaction of calorie requirements appears to take precedence over satisfaction of protein requirements. In those societies in which gardening is highly productive, people can spend more time on hunting and fishing and improve the overall quality of their diet.     

Sexual dimorphism in stature and women's work: a phylogenetic cross-cultural analysis.

The following cultural variables were tested for their association with sexual dimorphism: sexual division of labor, type of subsistence (hunting and agriculture), and polygyny. The transmission of these traits among populations was investigated. All the traits were found to be associated with phylogeny, indicating that they are inherited from mother to daughter populations. A cross-cultural comparative method was used which controls for the statistical effects of similarity due to common ancestry (Galton's problem). Cross-cultural variation in sexual dimorphism in stature is negatively associated with women's contribution to subsistence. Women are taller, relative to men, in societies where women contribute more to food production. This may be because female nutritional status is better in these societies. No relationship was found between sexual dimorphism and other aspects of subsistence or polygyny. These results are discussed in relation to other studies of sexual dimorphism in modern and archaeological populations, and in relation to cross-cultural variation in sex-biased parental investment.     

Hunting and fishing focus among the Miskito Indians,eastern Nicaragua

The amounts of native animals taken in hunting and fishing by Amerind peoples are almost unknown. The interrelationships of cultural and ecological systems determine to a large extent hunting and fishing returns, focus, and strategies. This study presents data obtained in a coastal Miskito Indian village in eastern Nicaragua. Measurements were made of meat yields by species and of the time and distance inputs involved in securing fish and game. Hunting and fishing focus and strategies are adaptive mechanisms enabling the Miskito to achieve high and dependable returns from a limited number of species. Several factors are examined which influence hunting and fishing focus: dietary preferences and prohibitions, costs involved, differential productivity and dependability of particular species, seasonality and scheduling, and the impact of cash market opportunities for faunal resources. Under the impetus of population growth and rising aspirations, the Miskito's efforts to secure increasing numbers of animals for both subsistence and market are leading to severe pressures on selected species and to cultural and ecological disruptions.This study is part of a larger project on Miskito subsistence ecology carried out in 1968–1969 with a grant from the Foreign Area Fellowship Program. Additional data were obtained May through August 1971, supported by a Social Science Research Council grant.     

Overview of Fish Consumption Rates in the United States

Contaminants that accumulate in fish may pose health risks and have raised concerns among consumers. Contaminated finfish and shellfish are possible routes of human exposure to toxic chemicals. Fish advisories are established to protect local populations from the consumption of contaminated commercial and non-commercially caught fish. Children, women of childbearing age, and subsistence fishermen or other highly exposed individuals who for socioeconomic or cultural reasons consume more fish than the general population are among the populations of concern from the ingestion of contaminated fish. Estimating exposure to a toxic chemical among fish-consuming populations requires knowledge about intake rates of fish and shellfish. Data on fish consumption rates come from various sources, including national, state, and local government studies. Although these data have their limitations, they serve as a source for deriving fish consumption rates that may be used by exposure assessors. Data on specific populations of concern are critical. Studies presented here show that ethnicity, age, and geographical region play an important role in fishing behavior and consumption. Results from studies on Native American populations show that this ethnic group eats fish at a higher rate than recreational anglers. This article summarizes data on fish consumption for various populations and provides a framework for evaluating data from these studies for exposure assessment applications.     

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON THE FISH POPULATIONS OF THE RECENTLY-IMPOUNDED KATSE RESERVOIR,LESOTHO

Summary

Katse is a new 35 km long impoundment on the Malibamatso River, a highland tributary of the Orange River in Lesotho. Two fishing surveys in 1996 yielded Barbus aeneus, Labeo capensis, Oncorhynchus mykiss and the occasional Austroglanis sclateri. Length frequency data for the first three species show modes which may represent year classes, although gillnet selectivity also plays a role. Barbus aeneus is abundant throughout the reservoir and could support a subsistence fishery. Labeo capensis is segregated by sex in the breeding season, with males remaining on the spawning grounds at the river mouths while females visit the spawning grounds for a short time to shed their eggs. The absence of small-sized Oncorhynchus mykiss in the catch may be due to pollution from mining and construction affecting the spawning grounds. The catches of larger trout and the outstanding scenery suggest that a tourist sport fishery could be developed on the reservoir based on natural recruitment supplemented, if necessary, by stocking hatchery-reared fish. As the three species are potamodromous, subsistence fishing zones will need to be clearly demarcated to prevent fishing in the vulnerable river mouth areas.     

Fishing and the Sexual Division of Labor among the Meriam

Do men and women forage differently because they are cooperatively responding to children's requirements for care or because they are differentially sensitive to variance? In this article, I examine how care trade-offs and variance contribute to gender differences in fishing strategies among Torres Strait Islanders (Meriam). Women's fishing had lower failure rates, coefficients of variation, and frequencies of sharing than men's fishing. Men and women responded to trade-offs between mean and variance differently: Women spent less time on high mean–high variance activities, men less time on high mean–low variance activities. Although child-care trade-offs affected time allocation to different fishing activities among women, they did not affect differences in time allocation between the sexes. These results support previous work implicating variance and sharing frequency as important resource currencies shaping gender differences in subsistence decisions, and they offer challenges to a general model of the division of labor predicated on economic notions of specialization as increasing production efficiency.     

Early dry season subsistence ecology of Cuiva (Hiwi) foragers of Venezuela

The subsistence ecology of Venezuelan Cuiva foragers during the early dry season is described. Data on diet, time allocation, demography, and physical measurements are presented. Analyses show that the Cuiva depend primarily on game and wild roots during the early dry season for their subsistence. Sex differentials in productive efficiency, total contribution to the diet, and time allocation to food acquisition and other activities are also examined. As in most other foraging societies, men specialize in hunting while women specialize in gathering. During the early dry season, men provide more calories than women and are the more efficient food producers. However, men spend slightly less time than women in food acquisition. Demographic data show that child mortality rates, female infertility rates, female infanticide rates,and the sex ratio among juveniles are high in the Cuiva population. Comparisons between the patterns found among the Cuiva and other foraging populations are made.     

Question of Mutual Security: Exploring Interactions between the Health of Coral Reef Ecosystems and Coastal Communities

Coral reefs are the worlds most celebrated indicators of ocean health. While the global trajectory of coral reef degradation is now well documented, and the accompanying loss of economic benefits increasingly demonstrated, the consequences in terms of human health have been largely ignored. Reefs provide a wide array of benefits to humans, contributing most directly to the health of subsistence fishing communities located on adjacent coasts and islands. Interactions between human and marine ecosystem health are complex, bidirectional and nonlinear. We draw on a broad range of data and experience to identify key links in the ecological chain from the coral polyp to the human society. Our conclusions are that humans are components of coral reef ecosystems, few studies of reef health incorporate human health, few data are available to quantify the health services reefs provide to people, and human health security is essential to the preservation of coral reef ecosystems.     

Dynamics of artisanal fisheries in two Brazilian Amazonian reserves: implications to co-management

In this study we compare the dynamics of artisanal fishery in two adjacent reserves located in the Brazilian Amazon, Mamirauá (being managed for more than 12 years) and Amanã (initiating a management process), through the record of 485 fish landings in one fishing community in each reserve during high and low water seasons in 2003. Our goals were, first, to make a rapid and comparative assessment of some main aspects of fisheries in these two communities (fish species caught, CPUE, fishing gear and habitats exploited). Second, we used such data to evaluate if management strategies already in place in Mamirauá would be also valid for Amanã. Third, we compared fishing CPUE between the two communities, in order to check if co-management measures have contributed, at least partially, to preclude over-fishing, maintaining a higher fishing reward in Mamirauá reserve. We analyzed fisheries directed to the two most important marketable fishes in the region: the pirarucu (Arapaimas gigas) and the tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum), besides those fisheries aimed to subsistence and lower valued fishes. Our results indicated that the tambaqui was intensively fished year-round in Mamirauá, while Amanã fishers caught a higher variety of fishes, including catfishes and migratory scale fishes. Such differences might reflect differences in gear used and habitat exploited by fishers during the high water season. Mamirauá fishers caught a higher fish biomass considering both marketable and all fishes. Differences in gear used, habitats exploited and fishes caught during high water season indicate that distinct management initiatives might apply for each reserve. Notwithstanding their differences, both communities exploited the commercial fishes (tambaqui and pirarucu) in a similar way during the low water season. Therefore, the higher mean fishing yield (CPUE) observed in Mamirauá may be partially attributable to co-management measures, considering that Mamirauá has possibly been experiencing a higher fishing intensity than Amanã. Fishing related data are seldom available in Brazil and other tropical developing countries. We thus provided a framework of fast assessment of fishing dynamics, which may represent a first and useful step for management initiatives in the absence of more detailed data.     

Blood and Nerves Revisited: Menopause and the Privatization of the Body in a Newfoundland Postindustrial Fishery

Ethnographic data from a longitudinal, interpretive study of women's changing social and cultural constructions of menopause in a postindustrial, Newfoundland fishing village indicate that three major changes have taken place in the way women conceptualize female, reproductive life-cycle events and processes. First, folk idioms of nerves and blood that once linked soma, psyche, place, and tradition are now trivialized and have been superseded by biomedical models of menopause. Second, physicians, television, magazines, and school teachers have replaced the community's middle-aged women and the mutual communication of shared experience as major sources of information and advice on reproduction and aging. Third, women's bodies have become privatized, and bodily metaphors that once linked women in complex individual and collective assessments of shared, highly valued traditions and mutual judgment of moral character have lost their dominance in village life. [menopause, Newfoundland, body image, sociocultural change, fishing]     

Control tactics and partner violence in heterosexual relationships

This study investigated sex-specific predictors of violent and nonviolent mate guarding used by men (n=399) and women (n=951) in heterosexual relationships, using both self-reports and reports on partners. We found, contrary to some previous evolutionary assumptions, that men and women showed similar degrees of controlling behavior, and that this predicted physical aggression to partners in both sexes. We also predicted from evolutionarily based studies that men's and women's control and aggression would vary as a function of female fecundity and mate value (relative to peer group and to partner). Fecundity was associated with men's and women's controlling behavior, but not their physical aggression: relationships where the woman was fecund showed higher rates of control. According to partners' reports, men and women who had lower mate values showed more controlling behavior and (to a lesser extent) more physical aggression. There was no support for the prediction that higher mate-value partners would be guarded more than lower mate-value ones. The following limitations are discussed: the sample and method of data collection, and the lack of information on the women's hormonal status.     

The association of sexual interest and sexual behaviors among adolescent women: a daily diary perspective

Theoretical and empirical linkages of adult women's sexual interest and sexual behaviors are relatively well-established, but few data address similar issues in adolescent women. This paper reviews data from published reports of associations of adolescent women's sexual interest and various sexual behaviors. All of the papers reported data collected from a single longitudinal cohort of young women. The primary source of data collection was daily diaries, allowing close temporal pairing of sexual interest with sexual behaviors. Young women's sexual interest on a given day was consistently and independently associated with sexual activity on that day, whether the behavior was first lifetime coitus, coitus, fellatio, cunnilingus, anal intercourse, or coitus during menses. We also found no evidence of influence of hormonal contraceptives on young women's sexual interest. Taken together, these data demonstrate the relevance of sexual interest as a key factor in young women's sexuality and sexual behavior.     

The Relative Decline in Women's Contribution to Agriculture with Intensification

This paper suggests why the intensification of agriculture is associated with a relative decline in women's participation in agriculture. The statistical evidence described here is consistent with the theory that women contribute relatively less to agriculture when it becomes intensive because their domestic work and fertility have increased. It is also argued that most men may be able to contribute more to agriculture in societies cultivating intensively because hunting, warfare, and trade are not so likely to pull them away from crop production [women's contribution to subsistence, agricultural intensification, time allocation, fertility, cross-cultural]     

Longitudinal study of breastfeeding structure and women's work in the Brazilian Amazon

It is well established that breast milk is the ideal food for infants and that breastfeeding has short‐ and long‐term health benefits for the mother and child. However, there is variation in breastfeeding patterns between populations. Women's work is thought to influence breastfeeding patterns and timing of supplementation and it is often assumed that women in subsistence‐oriented societies can more easily integrate their productive and reproductive activities. This article reports longitudinal data, collected in three rounds (resguardo [<40 days], peak [2–4 months], and late [14–16 months] lactation), on breastfeeding structure, infant care, and work patterns of 17 rural Amazonian women in an effort to understand how breastfeeding structure and maternal time allocation changed over time, as well as the strategies women used to integrate their productive and reproductive roles. Women breastfed 10.6 ± 3.1, 9.4 ± 3.4, and 9.6 ± 5.5 times per 9‐h period in the three rounds, respectively. Breastfeeding structure, specifically session duration, changed over time (P < 0.05). As lactation progressed, women spent less time breastfeeding and in infant care and more time in subsistence work. In peak lactation, subsistence work was negatively correlated with infant care (r = ?0.4, P = 0.01), breastfeeding (r = ?0.29, P = 0.05) and session duration (r = ?0.39, P < 0.01) and in late lactation was negatively correlated with time spent breastfeeding (r = ?0.39, P < 0.01) and in infant care (r = ?0.50, P < 0.01) and positively correlated with inter‐session interval (r = 0.40, P < 0.01). Generally, women reduced time in subsistence work when breastfeeding was more intense and returned to normal activity patterns once infants were being supplemented. The costs and benefits associated with women's strategies are discussed. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Biomass and productivity of fishes in estuaries: a South African case study

Estuaries are well known for their role as nutrient and detrital sinks that stimulate high levels of both primary and secondary production which, in turn, support a large biomass of fishes per unit area. This study reviews available information on coastal fish biomasses (g m^?2 wet mass) and productivity (g m^?2 wet mass year^?1) in order to place South African data on these topics into a global perspective. Using biogeographic fish productivity estimates, together with estuarine water area, the approximate annual teleost production in South African estuaries was calculated at 585, 1706 and 13 904 t in the cool temperate, warm temperate and subtropical regions, respectively. Total annual fish production in estuaries on the subcontinent is conservatively estimated at 16 195 t, but this figure is likely to fluctuate widely, depending on recruitment success and annual environmental conditions pertaining to these systems. Approximately 2000 t of fish are estimated to be harvested by fishing activities in South African estuaries each year, which represents c. 12% of annual fish production. Although this figure may appear sustainable, the reality is that there are a few heavily targeted estuary‐associated marine species at the top of the food chain that are being overexploited by both anglers and subsistence fishermen. Natural mortalities due to piscivorous fish and bird predation has been estimated at c. 3% of total fish biomass per month in the East Kleinemonde Estuary, but this figure will vary considerably depending on bird abundance and foraging patterns along the coast. In contrast to catches made by the fishermen, piscivorous fishes and birds are targeting mainly juvenile marine fish and small estuarine resident species that are very abundant and generally low down in the food web.     

Farming,fishing, and fire in the history of the upper Río Negro region of Venezuela

Studies of Río Negro subsistence farming and fishing activities are used to estimate the human carrying capacity for the region and the likely pattern of human land-use during prehistory. Ceramic evidence suggests human presence in the region more than 3000 years ago. Traditional farming is labor intensive and relatively unproductive. Nevertheless, farmers achieve an energy return of 15.21, and produce 2600 kcal per work hour. Fish are the major protein source, but fish catch per unit of effort and fish yield per hectare of floodplain are very low; fishermen are probably exploiting local fish resources very close to their limit. The low human population density would suggest that the Río Negro forest has been relatively undisturbed. Nevertheless, charcoal is widespread and abundant in forest soils. This charcoal is probably from anthropogenic or natural wildfires. These results suggest a much more complex history for Amazonia than previously thought.K. Clark is a free-lance biologist residing in Lima, Peru     

Strategic procurement of fish by the pumé: A South American “fishing culture”

Information is presented on fishing effort, efficiency, techniques, and catch composition for Pumé men, women, and children along with a conceptual model of fishing as a food procurement strategy. The Pumé are a native lowland South American group living in the topical savanna region of southwestern Venezuela characterized by seasonal flooding. Results are discussed in relation to the Pumé environmental and social situation, and briefly compared with results from other lowland South American groups.