The Articulated Peasant: Household Economies in the Andes.

The Articulated Peasant: Household Economies in the Andes. Enrique Mayer. Boulder: Wesrview Press, 2002. 390 pp.     

Changing Fortunes: Biodiversity and Peasant Livelihood in the Peruvian Andes

Changing Fortunes: Biodiversity and Peasant Livelihood in the Peruvian Andes. Karl S. Zimmerer. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. 308 pp.     

Household Archeology: Testing Models of Zonal Complementarity in the South Central Andes

Defining ethnicity in archeological settlements is a major methodological problem in the South Central Andes. In this region, pre-Hispanic political and economic organization has been understood within the theoretical framework known as zonal complementarity or verticality. Due to a process of direct colonization by independent polities in key ecological zones, these models are characterized by a striking regional ethnic heterogeneity in space and time. The use of the household as an analytical unit is proposed as the most successful means of defining ethnically distinct populations in pre-Hispanic contexts. This methodology is applied to Late Intermediate period (ca. A.D. 1000–1475) sites in the Osmore Drainage of southern Peru. Two domestic architectural types are defined that are hypothesized to correspond to ethnically distinct groups. Excavation data are analyzed to further differentiate these household types and provide a framework for addressing the dynamics of pre-Hispanic cultural process in the South Central Andes.     

Agricultural Intensification, Market Participation, and Household Demography in the Peruvian Andes

The causes of agricultural intensification in a peasant community in the north central Andes are explored using a methodology derived from the tradition of Systems Ecology. Hypotheses derived from different research traditions??mainly development economics and anthropology??regarding the causes of intensification are integrated and evaluated for their relative effects. It is found that among the variables, household size is better at explaining the degree of intensity with which labor and technology are employed. The results suggest that technologically-driven agricultural intensification is generally forced upon households by the diminishing returns of their labor, and that this process is normally accompanied by increased financial debt for those peasant households who remain in agriculture and do not completely migrate to regional urban centers.     

The Cities of the Ancient Andes

The Cities of the Ancient Andes. Adriana von Hagan and Craig Morris. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1998.240pp.     

Evolution in the High Andes: The Phylogenetics of Muscisaxicola Ground-Tyrants

Phylogenetic relationships within the genus Muscisaxicola, a primarily Andean group of tyrant-flycatchers, were studied using complete sequences of the mitochondrial genes COII and ND3. Relationships among Muscisaxicola species were found to differ substantially from those of previous views, suggesting convergence in traditional avian taxonomic characters within the genus. The 11 species of large, gray, “typical” Muscisaxicola flycatchers (including M. grisea, newly restored to species status) formed a distinct clade, consisting of two major groups: a clade of 6 species breeding primarily in the central Andes and a clade of 5 species breeding primarily in the southern Andes. The other 2 species traditionally placed in this genus, M. fluviatilis, an Amazonian species, and M. maculirostris, were both rather divergent genetically from the typical species, although M. maculirostris may be the sister taxon to the typical clade. The patterns of sympatry exhibited by Muscisaxicola species in the high Andes appear to be the consequence of speciation and secondary contact within regions of the Andes, rather than a result of dispersal between regions. Diversification of the typical Muscisaxicola species appears to have occurred during the middle and late Pleistocene, suggesting generally that taxa of the high Andes and Patagonia may have been greatly influenced by mid-to-late Pleistocene events. There were likely several independent developments of migration within this genus, but migration is probably ancestral in the southern clade, with subsequent loss of migration in two taxa.     

The Structure of the Peasant Family

An examination of community studies of peasant life reveals consistencies and variations in family structure. The findings demonstrate a strong patri-orientation, the rarity of polygyny, and the absence or weakness of larger kin-based corporate structures in the forty-six communities analyzed. Three patterns of family structure, each closely associated with a particular mode of inheritance, were found: (1) patrilocal stem with patrilineal impartible inheritance, (2) patrilocal joint with patrilineal partible, and (3) nuclear with bilateral inheritance. Proceeding from ecological presuppositions, the factors of (1) land scarcity and (2) the dominant state organization were examined as potentially salient influences. The data indicate that while land scarcity appears to be a contributory influence in the development of stem families, the variations in family structure are best accounted for not simply by the existence of the larger political community, but more specifically by the social and political forces emanating from the centers of power .     

Medical Pluralism in the Andes

Medical Pluralism in the Andes . Joan D. Koss-Chioino, Thomas Leatherman, and Christine Greenway. New York: Routledge, 2003. xix + 256 pp.