Research on the Efe and Lese populations of the Ituri forest,Zaire

Since 1980, as part of the Ituri Project, researchers have been studying numerous aspects of the biology, health, economy, and social relations of Efe (Pygmies) and Lese villagers living in the Ituri Forest region of north-eastern Zaire. The Efe are seminomadic people who hunt and gather forest resources for their own consumption and for exchange with sedentary subsistence farmers. The Lese are Sudanic-speaking subsistence farmers who practice shifting slash-and-burn horticulture and live in semipermanent villages. Relations between the Efe and Lese have been close for many generations and extend beyond economic exchange to include most aspects of ritual and social life. This paper serves as an introduction to five subsequent papers that report findings from research on these two forest-living populations. It provides background information concerning the ecology and history of human occupation of the Ituri region of central Africa; it describes the study area and the study populations; it discusses how the annual subsistence cycles of the Efe and Lese relate to rainfall and food availability; and it provides further information concerning Ituri Project research during the last 7 years.     

Resource conflicts and the anthropology of the dark and the good in highlands Papua New Guinea

In this article I consider why individuals sacrifice their lives for the collective. In the Porgera Valley of highlands Papua New Guinea, young men who are called ‘Rambos’ engage in sustained tribal conflicts due to increasing social inequalities in an area that is supposedly benefiting from socioeconomic development. The opening of the Porgera Gold Mine in 1990 ushered in an era of anticipated benefits that were hoped to transform the lives of the region's subsistence horticulturalists. Yet, anticipated flows of mining money and social benefits have largely failed to materialise. The abjection experienced by young men eventuated into a series of tribal fights, resulting in deaths, displacements, and the destruction of most infrastructure. I examine the fighting and its aftermath in relation to anthropologies of the dark and the good and argue that these polar opposites can hinder more subtle understandings of value plurality among Porgerans.     

Scaling Humanitarianism: Humanitarian Actions in a Bosnian Town

Through an ethnographic focus on humanitarne akcije in Bosnia and Herzegovina – a local form of raising monetary donations to people who need medical treatments abroad – this paper explores humanitarianism and its understandings of life. Ethnographically tracking the course of a humanitarna akcija organised in one Bosnian town, this paper makes two related points. First, it ethnographically demonstrates that lives of the ‘helpers’ and ‘helped’ in humanitarne akcije were understood as immersed in the intense talk and gossip of the town and as exposed to the sociopolitical environment troubled in the same way. Comparing this understanding of life with the international humanitarianism, this paper suggests that the notion of ‘bare life’ in international humanitarian projects in emergencies may be the product of the separation of infrastructures, which enable and manage lives of the ‘savers’ and ‘saved’. Second, those who needed help through humanitarne akcije strongly criticised the lack of organised health care and social security in Bosnia and Herzegovina that pushed them to initiate humanitarne akcije. They criticised less how other people perceived them (the terms of their sociocultural recognition) and more the shrinking public health-care insurance, unavailability of medical treatments, unequal allocation of medicines, tissues and organs, and so forth (the unjust redistribution of resources). Their dissatisfactions imply that humanitarianism as an industry of aid can be criticised for failing to intervene in the global regimes of unequal redistribution of resources in a transformative way.     

Ideologies of discrimination: personhood and the ‘genetic group’

‘Ideologies of Discrimination’ considers the implications of the new genetics for understandings of personhood and for understandings of the relationship between people in groups. In particular, the essay delineates and examines the emerging notion of a ‘genetic group’ and considers the social implications of redefining families, racial groups and ethnic groups through express, and often exclusive, reference to a shared genome. One consequence of such redefinition has been the justification and elaboration of stigmatizing images of and discrimination against such groups—especially those, such as Jews and African-Americans, that have long been identified with specific somatic characteristics. A few worrisome trends begin to emerge in the response of the American legal system to the notion of genetic groups. Among these is a shift in the locus of privacy and identity from the autonomous individual to the genetic group. This shift challenges (and threatens) long-standing Western values (including equality and liberty) that depend upon the ideological centrality of autonomous individuality.     

Kuku—Yalanji Rainforest Aboriginal People and Carbohydrate Resource Management in the Wet Tropics of Queensland, Australia

Carbohydrate food sources have emerged as a critical factor limiting occupation of rainforests by hunter—gatherer peoples globally. In the wet tropics bioregion of northeastern Australia, Kuku–Yalanji aboriginal people occupied the rainforests through a hunter–gatherer subsistence economy prior to European occupation. Collaborative environmental research between a researcher at the James Cook University and Kuku–Yalanji people has established that their fire management protected carbohydrate resources in the fire-sensitive rainforests and their margins, and ensured ongoing access to the critical dry season carbohydrate resource, Cycas media, growing in patches of fire-prone open forest on each clan estate. Carbohydrate resources in the wet season were obtained predominantly from seeds of rainforest tree nuts, a high proportion of which are wet tropics endemic species. Several of the genera utilized by aboriginal people in the wet tropics bioregion also occur in the rainforests of eastern Cape York Peninsula, where they were not utilized as foods. It is hypothesized that use of rainforest seeds for carbohydrate is a cultural adaptation that occurred in the wet tropics bioregion, stimulated by the unique availability of the substantial number of large-seeded rainforest trees that are wet tropics endemics. The implications of these data for concepts about the impact of aboriginal fires on Australian rainforests are considered. Aboriginal fires imposed a fine patterning on the vegetation at the local scale, with little effect on the vegetation at the regional scale, which is determined by environmental factors.     

Coping with drought: Responses of herders and livestock in contrasting savanna environments in Southern Zimbabwe

This paper examines the contrasting responses to short- and long-term droughts shown by cattle populations in two different savanna ecosystems in a communal area in southern Zimbabwe. It illustrates how ecological responses are modified by differential management inputs—herding, transhumant movement, and supplementary feeding. The impacts of drought on cattle herds can thus be understood only with insight into this interaction of ecological and socioeconomic factors. Such detailed study of drought response can most effectively inform development planning.     

Public attitudes and needs around Kasungu National Park,Malawi

A survey of people's needs and attitudes around Kasungu National Park shows that there are 11 resources that the people want to utilize from the Park. Bee-keeping is the most popular activity. Others include collection of caterpillars, firewood, building materials and mushrooms. There is no significant difference in demand for all these resources between subsistence and commercial farmers (t=3.26, n=11, p>0.01). Also, the difference between commercial farmers and urban respondents is not significant (t=1.92, n=11, p>0.01). On the other hand significantly more commercial than subsistence farmers need land from the Park, while more subsistence than commercial farmers wish to harvest resources that satisfy basic needs (t=3.34, n=11, p<0.01). Therefore, we recommend that the Department should extend the resource use programme and diversify its activities. The main target communities should be the subsistence farmers in Chulu and Kaphaizi villages.Most respondents to the survey believe that bee-keeping and tree caterpillar collection are beneficial as a source of food and income. About 90% of the respondents would like to participate in these activities. This is a reflection of positive attitudes towards these activities and it is enough justification for encouragement of bee-keeping and caterpillar collection. Although the respondents' attitudes towards the project are not negative, we recommend the involvement of local people in all stages of future activities.     

Bears,pigs, and Plio-Pleistocene hominids: A case for the exploitation of belowground food resources

Belowground plant parts were important potential food resources in the habitats associated with Pliocene and early Pleistocene hominids. The food gathering and dental adaptations of three groups of modem mammals — bears, pigs, and humans — testify to the earlier convergence of these animals on this resource. Since belowground food reserves are relatively unaffected by the factors controlling aboveground food supply (fire, drought, and grazing stress), exploitation of this stable nutritional bank had distinct energetic and behavioral advantages for hominids.     

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.     

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.     

Subsistence settlement systems in the prehistory of southwestern Zambia

Humans participate in ecological systems as one means of extracting and distributing environmental resources. Such ecosystems manifest themselves in the archeological record. Settlement systems represent subsistence systems latent with information relevant to explaining the spatial organization of people and change through time. Three subsistence settlement systems were segregated from the record of prehistoric farmers in southwestern Zambia. One is associated with the practice of pioneer populations successively occupying and abandoning favored microenvironments. The second is associated with the cyclical swiddening of a few opportunities within a single microenvironment. The third set spreads centers of production throughout several environmental segments. It is suggested that swiddening the marginal soils of the Zambezi periphery enabled the colonization but did not permit a burgeoning population. It is further suggested that internal networks were crucial to equalization of access to necessary resources and that these were incorporated in the segmentary, descent group.     

"All I eat is ARVs": the paradox of AIDS treatment interventions in central Mozambique

The number of people on antiretroviral treatment in Mozambique has increased by over 1,500 percent since it first became free and publicly available in 2004. The rising count of "lives saved" seems to portray a success story of high-tech treatment being provided in one of the poorest contexts in the world, as people with AIDS experience dramatic recoveries and live longer. The "scale-up" has had significant social effects, however, as it unfolds in a region with a complicated history and persistent problems related to poverty. Hunger is the principal complaint of people on antiretroviral treatment. The inability of current interventions to adequately address this issue leads to intense competition among people living with HIV/AIDS for the scarce resources available, undermining social solidarity and the potential for further community action around HIV/AIDS issues. Discourses of hunger serve as a critique of these shortcomings, and of the wider political economy underlying the HIV/AIDS epidemic.     

Long-Term Resilience of Late Holocene Coastal Subsistence System in Southeastern South America

Isotopic and molecular analysis on human, fauna and pottery remains can provide valuable new insights into the diets and subsistence practices of prehistoric populations. These are crucial to elucidate the resilience of social-ecological systems to cultural and environmental change. Bulk collagen carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis of 82 human individuals from mid to late Holocene Brazilian archaeological sites (∼6,700 to ∼1,000 cal BP) reveal an adequate protein incorporation and, on the coast, the continuation in subsistence strategies based on the exploitation of aquatic resources despite the introduction of pottery and domesticated plant foods. These results are supported by carbon isotope analysis of single amino acid extracted from bone collagen. Chemical and isotopic analysis also shows that pottery technology was used to process marine foods and therefore assimilated into the existing subsistence strategy. Our multidisciplinary results demonstrate the resilient character of the coastal economy to cultural change during the late Holocene in southern Brazil.     

After the 'affluent society': cost of living in the Papua New Guinea highlands according to time and energy expenditure-income

What is the cost of living in the Papua New Guinea highlands? An answer is sought using a time and energy accounting approach. The subsistence regime of Wola-speaking highlanders, the subjects of this investigation, comprises three components. The principal one is horticulture: people clearing gardens from forest and grassland, with tuberous crops predominating, notably sweet potato. The second component comprises animal rearing, notably of domestic pigs. The third, and least important, is hunting and gathering for food in the forest. The calculated returns on investments in these subsistence domains vary considerably. Gardens return in their crops between ten and fifteen times the energy expended in cultivation. Pigs may also give a good return, of four to five times the energy invested in rearing them, if slaughtered when adult, but people regularly keep animals for years and may incur negative energy returns on their labour investments. This relates to the high cultural premium put on pigs. Foraging for food is also energetically costly, the Wola expending four times more energy on these activities than they gain in return from the food they secure. This analysis of energy gains and losses challenges the relative notion of affluence as applied to foragers, by reviewing it in the comparative context of subsistence horticulture.     

Urban Kampongs in Ambon: Whose Domain? Whose Desa?

A devastating fire in a poor quarter of the city of Ambon, Eastern Indonesia, provided the context in which a number of the social, cultural and historical factors shaping the lives of the city's residents came to the fore. The paper argues that to comprehend the experiences of people whose lives were touched by the fire, and to appreciate its significance, the meanings ascribed to the event, it is necessary to comprehend those multiple factors in all their complexity and interpenetration. The paper argues that the symbolic construction of urban space and its constitution as ‘place’ are continuously emergent out of processes which appear in transformational moments, such as this fire. Physical changes to the quarter through time are examined to demonstrate their relevance to understanding the contemporary social processes and their local interpretations. The migratory origins of the people; continuing divisions between Christian and Muslim populations; the ongoing relevance of ancestral spirits and magic; the role of colonial and postcolonial states, and Ambon's strategic position, are all argued to be important to understanding the meaning of the place and the use of space in the city. The implications of the intersection of at least four clusters of ideas about space and place are considered critical to any adequate account of the contemporary lives of Ambonese and to explaining how it comes to be that some residents can become permanently displaced. The argument emphasises the processual nature of the understandings of space in the urban context.     

Metaphysiological and evolutionary dynamics of populations exploiting constant and interactive resources:R—K selection revisited

Summary I begin by reviewing the derivation of continuous logistic growth and dynamic consumer—resource interaction equations in terms of specific resource extraction and biomass conversion functions that are considered to hold at a population level. Evolutionary stable strategy (ESS) methods are discussed for analysing populations modelled by these equations. The question of selection trade-offs is then considered, particularly in the context of populations being efficient at extracting resources versus converting resources to their own biomass. Questions relating to single populations with high versus low conversion rates and interacting populations with high versus low self-interference rates are also considered. The models discussed here demonstrate conclusively that self-interference is an essential part of any consumption process: without it population growth and interaction processes do not make any sense. The analysis clarifies concepts relating to the somewhat discredited notion ofr—K selection.     

Univalent behaviour at anaphase I in desynaptic rye

The Anaphase-I behaviour of univalents produced by desynapsis has been studied in four inbred lines of rye. — The analyses show that the distribution of numbers of equationally dividing univalents per cell at anaphase-I does not conform to the statistical expectation of randomness. The pattern of this distribution leads us to the assumption that two types of univalent pairs are present at metaphase I: in type I both members of the pair can divide equationally or reductionally, independent of one another. In type II both members of the pair always divide reductionally. Under this assumption a theoretical model was made which fits the observed distribution of the number of equationally dividing univalents per cell. — It is suggested that the difference of anaphase-I behaviour between these two types of univalent pairs is determined by the moment of metaphase I at which they are formed.     

To Know One's Place: Belonging and Differentiation in Alice Springs Town

Based on research in the town of Alice Springs in Central Australia the article explores how social and material aspects of the town generate meaningful understandings of oneself and differentiated others. Drawing on anthropology of place and space and analytical notions of belonging, I explore shared and divergent ways in which a range of people in town come to ‘know their place’ both in a socio-cultural sense and in the sense of relating to the built environment. Paying just as detailed attention to non-indigenous experience as scholars have long paid to indigenous lives, the article suggests that a focus on how people form material and social attachments to place can facilitate more open-ended understandings of changing forms of indigenous-settler relations than the more common focus on difference and division between categories of indigenous and non-indigenous people and domains of life.     

Food Resource Characteristics in Two Nocturnal Lemurs with Different Social Behavior: Avahi occidentalis and Lepilemur edwardsi

I present results from a comparative field study on the feeding behavior of the gregarious Avahi occidentalis and the solitary-but-social Lepilemur edwardsi to evaluate hypotheses relating to social organization and food resources. While Avahi and Lepilemur are both nocturnal, have comparable body weights and positional behaviors, and are both folivorous, they differ in their social organization. Therefore, they present an ideal model for assessing food resource characteristics through comparisons of food selection in both species with regard to forest composition. The monogamous Avahi tend to select under-represented resources. They are repeatedly exploited, which suggests that their location must be known. It is worthwhile and probably imperative to defend those resources. Such defense imposes ranging limitations on male Avahi. Females may prefer familiar mates that will share their knowledge of resource location and defend the resources. A stable monogamous pattern could be the optimal strategy. In contrast, food selection by Lepilemur is based on common resources to a higher degree, but they show a lower degree of exploitation. Lepilemur males would be less restricted and could potentially opt for a different strategy, e.g., a dispersed harem. It is unclear whether this strategy is realized or not. I discuss other possible correlates of monogamy—infanticide protection, predation avoidance—but the gregarious pattern in Avahi may best be seen as a retention, and its nocturnal activity as a secondary adaptation.     

Sovereignty at what price? Existential displacement at the Lebanese/Syrian border

In 2014, Islamist jihadist groups overran a Lebanese border town and besieged it for four days, spreading terror across the town and the country as a whole. In response, the Lebanese army launched a violent counterattack on these groups with the aid of Hizbullah in what became known as the Battle of Arsal. Declaring the area a security zone, the army restricted mobility and placed Lebanese citizens and Syrian refugees under military confinement. While the battle ended with a government-declared victory that celebrated the ‘reclamation of state sovereignty’, these events disrupted social life in unprecedented ways. This article focuses on the phenomenological experience of sovereignty and the price paid for the desire for this state. I explore the ruptures people experienced in their existence (their right to life, subsistence, and movement under indiscriminate shelling) and existentiality (their reflections on their human existence in time, place, and relationship to others in a social world that is no longer recognizable). I argue for a concept of existential displacement that focuses on the experience of citizens as well as refugees for a broader understanding of the ruptures and dispossessions taking place in conflict.