Development,Labour Relations and Gender in Papua New Guinea.

This paper examines the relationship between ‘subsistence’ production, simple commodity production and wage labour and the different effects this relationship has on males and females. The peri-urban village of Siar, located a few kilometres north of Madang town in Papua New Guinea, is used as a case study. It is argued that the village as a social group is dependent on wage labour for its reproduction and hence is proletarianized. As part of the proletarianization process, married women in the village have become doubly subordinated: to capital and to men.     

The cultural ecology of dietary change accompanying changing activity patterns among the shipibo

Shipibo Indians, who formed a village to establish a school and health clinic, are gradually depleting local fish and game resources. Men, recently adopting rice as a cash crop, tend to fish and hunt less than other men working only their subsistence gardens. Sale of fish and game in the village is becoming common, and pigs, once raised exclusively for sale to non-Shipibo, are now more regularly eaten and used for attracting agricultural labor. Other research has indicated that cash cropping often competes for workers' time in subsistence and so dietary change usually accompanies changing activity patterns. This paper explores the latter possibility by examining the relationship between cash cropping, wild meat procurement, and diet among the Shipibo. Time allocation and food consumption data are analyzed statistically to test a mathematical theory and model which relates indigenous work patterns to diet.     

Persistence of Swidden Cultivation in the Face of Globalization: A Case Study from Communities in Calakmul, Mexico

Over the last decades, political, economic and environmental pressures have encouraged changes from swidden to more intensive agricultural practices, resulting in the hypothesis that swidden cultivation systems are disappearing. In Calakmul, southeastern Mexico, communities decreased the area under milpa, the traditional maize swidden system, but a collapse did not occur. To document and explain the persistence of swidden we employ a variety of data: (1) 59 standardized household surveys from 2003 and 2010 in five villages, (2) in-depth interviews in one village, and (3) coupled human–environmental timelines in this same village. Droughts, hurricanes, and remittances were important drivers of decreases in milpa cultivation. Market crop profitability and conservation programs were also reported to affect the area under milpa. Off-farm employment and governmental transfers have tended to stabilize household economies and decrease dependency on agricultural production, but have also allowed households to maintain their milpas for subsistence and cultural reproduction. Findings in Calakmul point to the need to consider swidden as an evolving and active response to changing policy, economic, and environmental conditions.     

Subsistence hunting and conservation issues in the game reserve of Gile, Mozambique

Ethnozoological research was conducted to gather information on the hunting activities and their relevance for the subsistence of local people in 8 villages around the game reserve of Gile, Mozambique. Two series of data were gathered by questionnaires to: (a) 510 householders from eight villages located in the outskirts of the Reserve; (b) 10 hunters from the village of Gile, the main centre of the study area. Several hunting techniques were recorded: spears, nets, traps (including gin-traps) and wildfires, while the use of guns did not appear relevant. The importance of subsistence hunting for local people was underlined by the high percentage of respondents who declared that they usually conduct this activity and sell bushmeat. The proportion of hunters per village was related to the village size but not to its geographical location of villages and the household composition. A positive relationship existed between the proportion of hunters, crop production and fishing activities, indicating that hunting is part of an integrated system of subsistence activities. Most animals harvested were mammals (89.5%, of which 46.7% were ungulates) and most were captured within the Reserve (96%). A higher percentage of animals was sold (56%), representing a relevant income source for the villagers. Small animals were mainly captured by traps during solitary hunting, medium-sized animals in collective net hunting; larger prey were captured by gin-traps adopted by both solitary and collective hunting. In the diet of the local people wild animals represented a higher protein source than domestic animals.     

The need for conservation and management of Philippine coral reefs

Synopsis The biological diversity and productivity of Philippine coral reefs are threatened by siltation, destructive fishing methods, coral and shell collecting and overfishing. Destructive fishing includes: the widespread, illegal use of explosives; poisons such as sodium cyanide; muro-ami and kayakas fishing; and trawling. The recent decline in catch rates threatens the livelihood of 700 000 near-shore subsistence fishermen who catch 55% of the total landings. The new government under Corazon Aquino wishes to protect the marine environment through the creation of a viable marine conservation management plan, enforcement of existing laws and through cooperation between government, non-government and international agencies to provide education and research. The Department of Agriculture, which has the authority for fisheries, has designated the International Marinelife Alliance as the lead non-government agency involved with fund raising, net-training and finding alternatives to destructive fishing methods.This essay addresses the societal relationships of village fishery to government, aid organizations, and science. Vadim Vladykov always maintained close relationship with fishermen and devoted over a year of his life to helping develop fisheries in Iran.     

水与村落关系的生态学思考

村落是地表突出且普遍的景观。从生态学角度而言 ,村落系以农村人群为中心 ,伴生生物为主要生物群落 ,建筑设施为重要栖息环境的人工生态系统。村落具有景观、分布、结构、功能、生命过程、新陈代谢和分类区划等生态学特征。从生态学角度对村落生态系统进行研究 ,形成具有特色的生态学分支村落生态学 (ｖｉｌｌａｇｅｅｃｏｌｏｇｙ) ,村落生态学具有确定性定义和研究内容[1 ] 。我国是一个农业大国 ,目前全国分布有 5 0 0多万个村落 ,6万多个集镇 ,市镇人口约占 30 % ,农村人口约占 70 % ,是农村生态系统的重要组成部分。我国 5 5个少数民…     

Managing subsistence hunting in the changing landscape of Neotropical rain forests

Subsistence hunting has been a vital activity for local people across Neotropical rain forests (NRF). While providing a reliable source of protein, subsistence hunting also reflected the strong relationships that connected local people with the species and ecosystems in which they inhabited. However, the social and ecological context in which subsistence hunting can be sustainable has been altered. The relatively small groups that hunted in large and mostly undisturbed forests, using traditional weapons, have been replaced by a growing population using fragmented habitats and modern hunting methods. Thus, subsistence hunting is less likely to be sustainable, threatening the food security of local people and the persistence of species with critical roles in the functioning of NRF. Managing subsistence hunting in this changing context will require a more efficient combination of tools which might include banning the hunting of large and sensitive species, strengthening protected areas, alternatives to reduce the role of wildlife protein on local people's subsistence and, in some cases, voluntary resettlements of local people, from areas that could still be used as refuge for endangered species.     

The time and energy expenditure of indigenous women horticulturalists in the Northwest Amazon

The energy cost of subsistence activities and the daily time and energy budgets of Tatuyo women were assessed as part of a village energy flow study. The Tatuyo are swidden horticulturalists relying on bitter manioc (Manihot esculenta) as a staple crop. Except for the actual felling of new gardens, women are responsible for most of the horticultural work and food preparation. Time budgets were assessed using 24-hour activity diaries. Rates of energy expenditure in typical activities were measured by indirect calorimetry using a Max-Planck respirometer. Daily energy expenditure was calculated using these rates in conjunction with the activity diaries. Rates of energy expenditure in standard activities were moderate and broadly comparable to published values for other populations living in tropical environments. The mean daily energy expenditure was 2,133 kcal (8.9 MJ). This value is similar to that reported for other subsistence horticulturalists and close to the FAO recommendation for energy intake for moderately active individuals.     

The caloric returns to food collecting: Disruption and change among the Batak of the Philippine tropical forest

The changing economy of a group of tropical forest hunter-gatherers is examined. The Batak of the Philippines today earn many calories by participating in an external market system; once they would have earned these calories within the traditional subsistence system. Gathering and selling Manila copal to purchase rice has partially displaced digging wild yams as the major source of subsistence. Data show that this change has reduced the productive efficiency, of human labor. The Batak must work longer and perform more difficult tasks to obtain the same number of calories by collecting copal as they can obtain by digging wild yams, even as they must today work longer hours anyway to earn necessary cash to satisfy new, nonfood consumer wants. The growing dietary importance of rice is only one aspect of changing food consumption patterns that may be having an unfavorable impact on Batak nutrition.An Arizona State University Faculty Research Grant supported research among the Batak between 1 July and 6 August 1975. A short summary of the research results discussed here appears inBorneo Research Bulletin, April 1976.     

Nontimber forest product gathering in Ritigala forest (Sri Lanka): Household strategies and community differentiation

Sri Lanka has a long tradition of forest product use. The relationship of people with a dry zone forest was studied using a sample of 48 households in two villages that varied in distance to the forest and access to the market. All households interviewed collected subsistence forest products and a majority of them also collected commercial products. The daily peak-season income from commercial gathering was 4.5 to 7.7 times the daily labor wage. There is a strong gender specialization, with commercial gathering dominated by men whereas subsistence gathering is almost exclusively the task of women. The average forest-derived household income in the village closer to the forest and with better market access was nearly double that of the other village. Family size as a proxy of labor availability was the main discriminating factor between those households who did and those who did not gather commercial products. A small inverse relationship between forest gathering and size of household agricultural land (particularly paddy rice) was observed. No clear relationship was found between total household income and forest derived income, contradicting the view that commercial forest gathering is an exclusive activity of the poorest households.     

Viliui Sakha Post-Soviet Adaptation: A Subarctic Test of Netting's Smallholder—Householder Theory

The Sakha of northeastern Siberia, Russia, are the highest latitude contemporary agropastoralists practicing horse and cattle husbandry. In the last 100 years their rural livelihood has gone from household-level subsistence food production in clan clusters of single-family homesteads scattered across the landscape, to village-level state agribusiness farm production in compact settlements dependent on Soviet socialist infrastructure, to the present-day post-socialist reliance on household-level subsistence food production. This paper explores how Viliui Sakha are adapting in the post-Soviet context. Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the concomitant dissolution of the centralized state farm system, rural inhabitants have developed household and interhousehold food production capacities based on keeping cows and relying on exchange among kin. One of the basic tenets of Robert Netting's smallholder–householder theory is that in times of change, the household system is the most resilient subsistence production unit because of specific qualities including intimate ecological knowledge and implicit labor contracts. This research shows in what ways Netting's householder theory applies for subarctic agropastoralists.     

Elder knowledge and sustainable livelihoods in post-Soviet Russia: finding dialogue across the generations

Russia's indigenous peoples have been struggling with economic, environmental, and socio-cultural dislocation since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. In northern rural areas, the end of the Soviet Union most often meant the end of agro-industrial state farm operations that employed and fed surrounding rural populations. Most communities adapted to this loss by reinstating some form of pre-Soviet household-level food production based on hunting, fishing, and/or herding. However, mass media, globalization, and modernity challenge the intergenerational knowledge exchange that grounds subsistence practices. Parts of the circumpolar north have been relatively successful in valuing and integrating elder knowledge within their communities. This has not been the case in Russia. This article presents results of an elder knowledge project in northeast Siberia, Russia that shows how rural communities can both document and use elder knowledge to bolster local definitions of sustainability and, at the same time, initiate new modes of communication between village youth and elders.     

Conservation by native peoples

Native peoples have often been portrayed as natural conservationists, living a “balanced” existence with nature. It is argued that this perspective is a result of an imprecise operational definition of conservation. Conservation is defined here in contrast to the predictions of foraging theory, which assumes that foragers will behave to maximize their short-term harvesting rate. A behavior is deemed conservation when a short-term cost is paid by the resource harvester in exchange for long-term benefits in the form of sustainable harvests. An example of the usefulness of such an operational definition is presented using data on patch and prey choice decisions of a group of subsistence hunters, the Piro of Amazonian Peru. Results indicate that the area around the Piro village is depleted of prey, and that hunters allocate more time to patches where return rates are highest. This response is consistent with both a conservation strategy and foraging theory. Contrary to the expectation of the conservation strategy, however, hunters do not restrain from pursing opportunistically encountered prey in the depleted areas. The implications for conservation policy are briefly discussed. Michael Alvard received his Ph.D. at the University of New Mexico in 1993 and is currently an assistant professor of anthropology at Dickinson College. His interests include the impact of traditional hunting on prey species and the evolution of conservation. He is currently pursuing research opportunities with the Wana, a group of subsistence hunters living in the rain forests of Sulawesi, Indonesia.     

Culture and cognition in the Acheulian industry: a case study from Gesher Benot Ya'aqov

The Acheulian presence in the Dead Sea Rift and its environs is characterized by the discontinuity of its cultural manifestations. Nevertheless, the long stratigraphic sequences of the Acheulian Technocomplex provide a unique opportunity for synergetic examination along a temporal trajectory. Hominin cognitive and cultural behaviour are studied at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov through analyses of lithic, palaeontological and palaeobotanical assemblages, as well as the Early-Middle Pleistocene environment, ecology and climate. The study attempts to reconstruct reduction sequences of some major artefact groups at the site, which include raw material acquisition, production, technology, typology, usage and discard. Experimental archaeology illustrates artefact mobility on the palaeo-landscape. Strategies of biomass-exploitation are studied in detail, with other aspects yielding additional information on hominin subsistence and adaptive responses to their environment. The cultural marker of fire and the spatial association of selected categories of finds are integrated in the general synthesis, allowing reconstruction of the cultural and cognitive realm of Acheulian hominins. The synthesis attempts to reassess the abilities, social structure, subsistence and adaptability to the changing environment of hominins in the Levantine Corridor.     

The domestic context of production and reproduction in a Guatemalan community

This paper investigates the relationship between fertility and domestic adjustments that people have made to changing conditions of production and consumption in a rural community in western Guatemala. Present and past systems of production and the domestic factors affecting the timing of family formation and the incidence of sexual activity within unions are described. Analyses of variance for demographic variables among three productive sectors reveals that the greatest changes in fertility over time have occurred in the families of labor-intensive garlic producers and in those of poor basketmaking specialists. The results are discussed as direct and indirect outcomes of earlier family formation due to recurrent labor crises and chronic subsistence stress.     

Village division in lowland South America: The case of the Bakairí Indians of central Brazil

A Brazilian Indian village divided into several settlements during the 1980s. In this article, the political ecology approach is used to account for the process whereby this occurred. Data on ecology, subsistence practices, demography, and regional dynamics are presented. Analysis of results explores the articulation between shifts in population levels both in the region and in the Indian reservation, on one hand, with environmental stresses on reservation resources. The effects on national economic development programs on the regional and local levels are also discussed. The relationship between these policies and programs, on one hand, and alterations in local production systems are made explicit.     

Advanced swine manure treatment and utilization in Brazil

Animal production has changed from subsistence to an industrial model, lowering production costs but giving rise to higher potential environmental impact. When the effluents are not correctly managed, serious pollution events can occur. In Brazil liquid manure is commonly stored in reception pits or covered lagoons (biodigestors), followed by land application as a biofertilizer. In some regions there is an excess of manure due to low soil support capacities, and in these cases new technologies have to be adopted to export or treat the excess effluent. Manure storage time in pits/covered lagoons and new polymers to separate the solid fraction have been studied in Brazil. Treatment technologies, like swine manure treatment systems (SMTS), have been developed from a technical and economical point of view to optimize the processes and give a technological alternative to pork producers increasing production while reducing environmental impact.     

The Function Of The Old Fort In Central Missouri Oneota Subsistence And Settlement Systems

Abstract

The Old Fort is a large Oneota earthwork enclosure situated on a ridge tope overlooking the Missouri River flood-plain. The objective of this inquiry is to determine how the Old Fort functioned in central Missouri Oneota subsistence and settlement systems. Five tenable functions were formulated as hypotheses, then confronted with data from test excavations at the site. Three hypotheses are rejected; the Old Fort was not a fortified village, a redoubt, or a cemetery. Two hypotheses could not be rejected; however, circumstantial evidence supports the tobacco garden hypothesis more than the firebreak refuge hypothesis since the former can account for all of what is currently known about the Oneota enclosure whereas the latter can not. The Old Fort had no direct or obvious role in the subsistence system.     

After the Revolution: Post-Neolithic Subsistence in Northern Mesopotamia

Over the past two decades there has been a proliferation of studies that reveal a far greater diversity in the pathways to food production worldwide than would have been predicted by traditional models of the Neolithic Revolution. It would now appear that, while there are certain universal elements in the origins of food production, each instance of the incorporation of domestic resources into the subsistence economy is shaped by highly localized social and natural forces. It is perhaps not surprising, then, to find that the times after the Neolithic Revolution do not conform to earlier uniformitarian conceptions of the origin of food production as either a technological blessing or an environmental blight that locked people into an economy based solely on domestic resources. This examination of subsistence at Umm Qseir, one small post-Neolithic community in the Khabur Draïnage of Northern Mesopotamia, highlights the remarkable degree of flexibility and individualized response in post-Neolithic economies in the Near East, especially in marginal areas. The incorporation of both domestic and wild resources into the economy of inhabitants of this site is further shown not to be just an isolated curiosity. Rather, Umm Qseir joins a number of other post-Neolithic communities situated in marginal areas, persisting several millennia after the first introduction of domestic crops and animals, that also fashioned highly individualized subsistence economies based on both wild and damestic resources. In the Khabur Drainage, the blending of domestic and wild resources in the subsistence of people situated in more arid areas is replaced by a more "conventional" agropastoral economy only with development of urbanism and the imposition of an agricultural economy of scale on this fragile environment.     

Garden Money Buys Grain: Food Procurement Patterns in a Malian Village

This study of a rural Malian community in West Africa investigates food procurement patterns that combine subsistence grain production with a variety of income generating activities. It finds dependence on food purchases widespread and revenue from the own-account activities of nonhousehold heads essential to food security. Gender and the wealth of households are found to influence some, but not all, income generating activities and expenditures. Three household food procurement profiles are identified: investment in cattle, market gardens and bush extraction, and remittances. The case study village has agroecological characteristics and market proximity, which set it and other urban hinterland villages apart from the more cotton- and cattle-based zones of southern Mali. Own-account income generating activities may be able to increase revenue for women and junior men through a reallocation of household resources without entirely undermining the basis for a larger subsistence-oriented household.