Overlapping Patchworks of Mountain Agriculture in Peru and Bolivia: Toward a Regional-Global Landscape Model
01 Jan 1999-Human Ecology (Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers)-Vol. 27, Iss: 1, pp 135-165
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors apply a naming system to farm spatial units based primarily on topographic features in order to serve their cultural, social, and political purposes, and show the role of landscape flexibility and uncertainty in conservation with development.
Abstract: Overlapping patchworks of farm spatial units are characteristic of the mountain landscapes of Andean regions of Peru and Bolivia. Patchiness and overlap (200-600 m) are shaped by the broad tolerances of major crops, high variability/low predictability of habitat factors, multifaceted cropping rationales of cultivators including their linkages to extraregional influences, and, to varying extents, the sociospatial coordination of crop choice among farmers. Indian peasant farmers manage overlapping patchworks using a concept of farm spaces as loosely bounded. They apply a naming system to farm spatial units based primarily on topographic features in order to serve their cultural, social, and political purposes. Key processes suggest a regionalglobal model of overlapping patchworks. The model elucidates the roles of landscape flexibility and uncertainty in conservation-with-development. Implications are shown by farm units of diverse food plants and prospects for in situ conservation. Findings caution against universality of the zone model of mountain agriculture.
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TL;DR: Arnabelski et al. as discussed by the authors have published a book entitled "Empirical Approaches to the Future of Medicine" (2005) 10.1191/0309132505ph530pr
Abstract: © 2005 Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd 10.1191/0309132505ph530pr
475 citations
TL;DR: The Reworking of conservation geographies: Nonequilibrium landscapes and NatureSociety Hybrids as discussed by the authors is an example of such a work, with a focus on nonequilibrium landscapes.
Abstract: (2000). The Reworking of Conservation Geographies: Nonequilibrium Landscapes and Nature-Society Hybrids. Annals of the Association of American Geographers: Vol. 90, No. 2, pp. 356-369.
401 citations
Cites background from "Overlapping Patchworks of Mountain ..."
...…with the ideas of nature and the concept- The Reworking of Conservation Geographies 367 and theory-building that stems from social theory and ecological theory (Bassett and Zimmerer 1999; Butzer 1989; Grossman 1998; Peet and Watts 1996; Turner 1997; Zimmerer 1996b; Zimmerer and Young 1998)....
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...In concrete examples, such as conservation schemes being carried out in Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico, the zone scale is applied to land-use and biogeophysical factors as the spatial backbone of conservation management (Zimmerer 1999, 2000)....
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...Social criticisms derive from the common practice of scaling the use areas so that they are static and relatively homogeneous (Peluso 1993; Vandergeest 1996; Zerner 1994; Zimmerer 1999)....
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...The dynamics of overlapping patchworks is one concept that is being proposed as an alternative to the rigid scaling of areas of land or resource use (Zimmerer 1996a, 1999)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how mining activities are affecting land-tenure patterns and livelihoods in the Cajamarca region of Peru and evaluate how Minera Yanacocha's transnational gold-mining operations are transforming landtenure institutions, land values, and spatial distribution of land-use patterns throughout the region.
Abstract: Peru has been transformed over the course of the past decade into a neoliberal, mineral-based, export-oriented, country. The author evaluates the neoliberal transformation of the country in three parts. First he examines the economic and political transformation of the country in the early 1990s, particularly in terms of how the Peruvian state and economy were rapidly restructured according to neoliberal principles. He then illustrates how, both through privatization and through transnationalization, the mining sector has become a key element for future development opportunities. This discussion is then contextualised by an examination of how mining activities are affecting land-tenure patterns and livelihoods in the Cajamarca region of Peru. In particular, drawing upon case-study research, the author evaluates how Minera Yanacocha's transnational gold-mining operations are transforming land-tenure institutions, land values, and the spatial distribution of land-use patterns throughout the region. In addit...
233 citations
Cites background from "Overlapping Patchworks of Mountain ..."
...…the conceptual and definitional criteria concerning the extent and classification of ecological production zones in the Andean region (for example, Zimmerer, 1999), households produce crops and engage in other livelihood activities across, as Mayer (2002) states, `real' production zones in the…...
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TL;DR: This article reviews the ways in which drawn maps as a mode of analysis and representation have been exploited especially in human geography and discusses how mapping might bridge human and natural sciences into landscape research.
140 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a case study of a society in transition, in the northwestern Himalayas of India, in which local knowledge-combining aspects of traditional knowledge and practice-is used by farmers to cognize and cope with the uncertainty in their environment.
Abstract: Human societies in mountainous areas have evolved specific ways of dealing with the constraints imposed by the environment. A number of anthropological studies have documented the existence of practices that can be considered adaptive in the context of mountain environments. In this paper, I present a case study of a society in transition, in the northwestern Himalayas of India, in which local knowledge-combining aspects of traditional knowledge and practice-is used by farmers to cognize and cope with the uncertainty in their environment. Focusing on the perception of changes in the amount and timing of snowfall over the last three decades, I present a non-reductionist and nested model of human-environment interaction that explains the perception and knowledge of climate as a function of micro-level livelihood practices, as well as enduring and widely shared cultural notions of risk and vulnerability. The model being proposed encompasses agency and cognition at multiple levels, ranging from the local to the regional, and is explicated with ethnographic information, which demonstrates the resilient and dynamic nature of local knowledge. The paper's major finding is that the perceptions of climate change in the region are shaped both by the local knowledge of crop-climate linkages, as well as the broader historical relationship with the environment. Introduction Kullu Valley in the state of Himachal Pradesh in northwestern India has experienced a number of crop failures in the last 15 years that apple growers blame on a changing climate no longer suitable for apple production. Growers' perceptions of climate correspond closely with the meteorological record in the valley (Vedwan and Rhoades 2001). Not only the aspects of climate but even the climate categories, which are perceived as having changed, are those that scientifically affect apple production the most. How are these perceptions of climate change and the adverse impact of climate change on apple production to be understood? How do farmers think about climate, and what may be causing the climate to deteriorate as far as they are concerned? Do these perceptions of climate change facilitate action aimed at ameliorating the perceived negative effect on apple production? If this is the case, then how does this occur? This paper links these questions together and answers them by offering a nested model of the perception of climate change. The model situates perceptions of climate change within the context of both local-level practices and the broader system of human-environment interactions, ultimately facilitating growers' response to the decline in apple production. While avoiding both environmental and socio-cultural determinism, the model is dynamic and capable of accounting for change over time in the system. It demonstrates how local knowledge of risk and vulnerability combines aspects of local knowledge-which is inter-generational and related to apple growers' traditional agricultural occupation, as well as identity as paharis (hill people)-with the more recent understanding of climatic impact on apple. An important goal of the model is to bridge the dichotomies-thought vs. action, natural vs. cultural realms, and practical vs. abstract knowledge-that often characterize anthropological accounts of human-environment relations in mountainous areas and elsewhere. A formulation of human-environment interaction such as the one being presented here has implications for our understanding of the cultural perceptions of risk and environmental vulnerability and their role in facilitating adaptive responses. Situating Perceptions In this section, I provide a summary of the literature relevant to answering the questions posed earlier. The relevant literature, mirroring the synthetic nature of the model, consists of several areas of theoretical research that are often seen as distinct and unconnected, but which must be brought together in this paper to account for the apple growers' perceptions and responses. …
130 citations
Cites background from "Overlapping Patchworks of Mountain ..."
...…includes similar suites of risk minimization strategies that develop independently in these widely separated regions of the world, attesting to the existence of something akin to a characteristic pattern of human-environment interaction in mountains (Kuznar 2001; Trawick 2001a; Zimmerer 1999)....
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...The environment, or more specifically, the climate, is not just encountered as a tabula rasa, but as embodying a set of constraints and opportunities for apple growing (Zimmerer 1999)....
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References
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a plan of the present work, from absolute space to abstract space, from the Contradictions of Space to Differential Space, and from Contradictory Space to Social Space.
Abstract: Translatora s Acknowledgements. 1. Plan of the Present Work. 2. Social Space. 3. Spatial Architectonics. 4. From Absolute Space to Abstract Space. 5. Contradictory Space. 6. From the Contradictions of Space to Differential Space. 7. Openings and Conclusions. Afterword by David Harvey. Index.
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TL;DR: This article argued that we are modern as long as we split our political process in two - between politics proper, and science and technology, which allowed the formidable expansion of the Western empires.
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01 Jan 1992TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the anti-conquest and the mystique of reciprocity in the contact zone of science and sentiment, 1750-1800, and the reinvention of America, 1800-50.
Abstract: 1st edition contents List of Illustrations Preface Introduction: Criticism in the contact zone Part I Science and sentiment, 1750-1800 Science, planetary consciousness, interiors Narrating the anti-conquest Anti-conquest II: The mystique of reciprocity Eros and Abolition Part II The reinvention of America, 1800-50 Alexander von Humboldt and the reinvention of America Reinventing America II: The capitalist vanguard and the exploratrices sociales Reinventing America/Reinventing Europe: Creole self-fashioning Part III Imperial Stylistics, 1860-1980 From the Victoria N'yanza to the Sheraton San Salvador Notes Index
5,015 citations
"Overlapping Patchworks of Mountain ..." refers background in this paper
...Its rami® cations reach well beyond landscapes per se since the zone model informs broad cultural-historical interpretations, including self-representations, of peoples and societies (Godoy, 1984; Murra, 1972; Orlove, 1977a; Platt, 1982; Pratt 1992, pp. 141 ± 143; Salomon, 1985)....
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1,581 citations
"Overlapping Patchworks of Mountain ..." refers background in this paper
...The widespread impact of life zone ecology is generated through applications of the Holdridge system of climate-based vegetation classi® cation ( Holdridge, 1947 )....
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