Migration and Agricultural Change: The Case of Smallholder Agriculture in Highland Ecuador

A large and growing number of agricultural households in less developed countries are also engaged in international migration. Thousands of farmers from the highland provinces of Cañar and Azuay, Ecuador, have immigrated to metropolitan New York, where they work in menial jobs and remit, as a group, millions of dollars annually. This paper examines the effects of international migration on agricultural production and land-use in two regions of Cañar Province. An agricultural survey was administered in two communities to determine land-use and agricultural production of migrant and nonmigrant households. Contrary to most reports on the subject, migration has neither led to agricultural abandonment nor have remittances been dedicated to agricultural improvements. Semisubsistence agriculture remains an important riskaverse economic and cultural activity, but cultivation is a poor investment. A large investment in housing and land has converted much of the region into a peri-urban landscape of cultivated real estate.     

International NGOs and Land Use Change in a Southern Highland Region of Ecuador

Nongovernmental organizations are increasingly influencing resource management and land use in areas of small farm agriculture in Latin America. A field study of NGOs working in upper Canar, a region in the southern highlands of Ecuador, documents the changing human environment relations in an indigenous area and the influence of NGOs in the change process. Case studies of PLAN International and CARE indicate that the NGOs are helping marginalized producers shift land use away from traditional grains and tubers toward dairying and vegetables. Given current needs and resource constraints, the new land uses represent effective adaptive strategies. However, the NGO work is having notable consequences for land use intensity and labor utilization patterns.     

Onchocerciasis in Ecuador: the situation in 1989.

Details are given of the prevalence rates of onchocerciasis from the most recent surveys (1989) conducted in northern Ecuador. The disease has intensified and dispersed considerably due to migration of infected individuals and the presence of a highly efficient vector. Comparison of these data with those from two previous surveys carried out in 1982/83 and 1986 and correlated with entomological findings highlight the danger of the formation of new foci of onchocerciasis in areas currently free of the disease. Recommendations are made for further entomological studies in areas either recently or likely to be affected by the disease where potential vectors are unknown or different to those registered in the Santiago focus. Ivermectin treatment with local vector control in specific areas is advocated to reduce the disease to a low level of public health importance.     

Assisted existence: an ethnography of being in Ecuador

In Ecuador, reproductive assistance, whether from God, extended family, or medical technologies, is emphasized and desirable in a precarious and unequal world with a minimal social safety net and chronic economic insecurity. Assistance is the very grounds of being. In better‐resourced realities like parts of the United States, assisted reproductive technologies can trouble the biological and social autonomy of individual heterosexual couples. Juxtaposing assisted reproduction in these divergent sites demonstrates that resources can make autonomy easier to establish and assistance between people and things difficult to perceive. Through an insistence on the material specificity of assisted reproduction itself, this ethnographic contrast contributes to anthropological approaches to ontological questions of being. In particular, ethnographic observation of the material realities of reproductive treatments in Ecuador demonstrates that medical care is one means to instantiate race. Private assisted reproduction makes whiter babies and patients in the face of a crumbling public health care infrastructure whose patients are by definition poor and Indian. The framework of assistance might serve then as a means to ethnographically trace the constitution of racial being in better‐resourced nations, as well as allow for a more comprehensive recognition of the interdependence of existence.     

Ethnoveterinary treatments by dromedary camel herders in the Suleiman Mountainous Region in Pakistan: an observation and questionnaire study

Background

The Suleiman mountainous region is an important cradle of animal domestication and the habitat of many indigenous livestock breeds. The dromedary camel is a highly appreciated and valued animal and represents an important genetic resource. Camel herders, living in remote areas, have developed their own ways to treat diseases in camels, based on a long time of experience.

Methods

Information about the diseases and the ethnoveterinary practices performed was collected from a total of 90 herders and healers by interviews and participant observations.

Results

The respondents classified the diseased in major and minor fractions. Clinical signs were given in detail. Mange followed by trypanosomosis and orf were considered the most prevalent diseases, and also caused the greatest economic losses. Orf was regarded the most complex disease. The season was considered to have great influence on the occurrence of the diseases. A variety of different treatments were described, such as medicinal plants, cauterization, odorant/fly repellents, pesticides, larvicides, cold drink, yogurt and supportive therapy (hot food, hot drink).

Conclusions

There is paramount need to document and validate the indigenous knowledge about animal agriculture in general and ethnoveterinary practices in particular. This knowledge is rapidly disappearing and represents a cultural heritage as well as a valuable resource for attaining food security and sovereignty.

     

Circulating Cults in Highland New Guinea: Pointers for Research

Trance and dreams become emphasized in inverse proportion to the emphasis on achieved leadership by means of exchange. That is, trance and dream are less emphasized as a means of establishing political leadership when they are replaced by leadership based on competitive exchange activities. The hypothesis is intended to apply regionally in the first instance.     

Dance and glance: Visualizing tribal identity in Highland Yemen

This paper is a study in the ways that esthetic markers—dancing, poetry, clothing, food—underlie, define, and construct conceptions of the tribe in the northern highlands of Yemen. As the rural Yemeni economy has changed from economic and political self‐sufficiency to dependence on the world market and a strong central government, so has the significance of tribalism. Ironically, nationalism is presented by the Yemeni media in tribal terms. While rural expressions of tribal identity have declined, use of tribal markers has intensified in towns and cities even by those who were not formerly defined as tribal. The significance of esthetic phenomena in the formation of identity and the construction of culture is addressed.¹     

Seroprevalence of arboviruses in Ecuador: Implications for improved surveillance

Introduction:Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) cause morbidity and mortality in humans and domestic animals worldwide. The percentage of population immunity or susceptibility to these viruses in Ecuador is unknown.Objectives:To investigate the proportion of Ecuadorian populations with IgG antibodies (Abs) (past exposure/immunity) and IgM Abs (current exposure) against flaviviruses and alphaviruses and to study the activity of these viruses in Ecuador.Materials and methods:During 2009-2011, we conducted a serosurvey for selected arboviruses in humans (n=1,842), equines (n=149), and sentinel hamsters (n=84) at two coastal locations and one in the Amazon basin (Eastern Ecuador) using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and hemagglutination inhibition test.Results:From 20.63% to 63.61% of humans showed IgG-antibodies for the flaviviruses: Dengue virus (DENV), yellow fever virus (YFV) Saint Louis encephalitis virus, and West Nile virus (WNV); from 4.67% to 8.63% showed IgG-Abs for the alphaviruses: Venezuelanequine encephalitis virus, eastern equine encephalitis virus, and western equine encephalitis virus. IgM-Abs were found for DENV and WNV. Equines and hamsters showed antibodies to alphaviruses in all locations; two hamsters seroconverted to YFV in the Amazonia.Conclusions:The results show a YFV vaccination history and suggest the activity of arboviruses not included in the current surveillance scheme. Enhanced arbovirus and mosquito surveillance, as well as continued YFV vaccination and evaluation of its coverage/ effectiveness, are recommended.     

Developmental biology in Ecuador: a 30-year teaching experience

Developmental biology has been taught at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, in Quito for 30 years by the author. The experience of teaching development is described within the broader context of science in Latin America. It is recognized that developmental biology is poorly represented in research and teaching in this part of the world. The teaching of developmental biology to Ecuadorian students contributes to their intellectual training, by helping them to integrate concepts derived from various branches of biology. Moreover, the highly conserved molecular mechanisms of development provide extraordinary examples of the unity of biology, and many complex biological processes can be more easily grasped when studying embryos.     

High tree alpha-diversity in Amazonian Ecuador

In a 1 ha square plot of terra firme forest at 260 m elevation in Amazonian Ecuador, all trees with diameter at breast height (dbh) 5 cm were studied. There were 1561 individuals, 473 species, 187 genera and 54 families. Of these, 693 individuals, 307 species, 138 genera and 46 families had a dbh 10 cm. This is the highest number of tree species ever recorded for a tropical rain forest sample of this size. In both dbh classes, the most species-rich families were: Fabaceae sensu lato (including Mimosaceae and Caesalpiniaceae), Lauraceae and Sapotaceae; the most species-rich genera, were Pouteria, Inga and Protium. The vertical space was partitioned among species: 166 species were found only in the 5–10 dbh cm class and were mostly sub-canopy treelets, and 307 species with dbh 10 cm were mostly large canopy trees.     

The lichen genus Umbilicaria in Ecuador

Nine species of the saxicolous lichen genus Umbilicaria from Ecuador are reported and a key is provided: U. africana, U. aprina, U. cinereorufescens, U. decussata, U. dendrophora, U. haplocarpa, U. leprosa, U. nylanderiana and U. vellea. The species diversity of this genus on the equatorial high mountains of South America is low compared to North America and Eurasia, but similar to that found on high African peaks close to the equator. The species mostly belong to a high‐alpine element with worldwide distribution. Two species belong to an Andean endemic element, viz U. haplocarpa and U. leprosa. The low diversity and low percentage of endemism may reflect the fairly recent uplift of the Andes and the comparatively small geographic extent of the alpine Andean biota. The dense rainforests of Ecuador leave few suitable open rock habitats for the establishment of these light‐craving lichens below the tree‐line (4000–4200 m a.s.l.), and thus their equatorial habitat is almost exclusively restricted to the alpine zone between the tree‐line and the snow‐line (4700–4800 m a.s.l.). The equatorial species mainly reproduce asexually by thalloconidia, and the adaptive significance of this type of reproduction in high altitude habitats is discussed.     

Mayan Voices for Human Rights: Displaced Catholics in Highland Chiapas

Mayan Voices for Human Rights: Displaced Catholics in Highland Chiapas. Christine Kovic. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005. 238 pp.