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Showing papers on "Subsistence agriculture published in 1981"



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the Plan Chontalpa in Tabasco, Mexico, a nutrition survey of 149 families demonstrated that dietary diversity, dietary quality, and nutritional status of preschool children are negatively associated with lower crop diversity and increased dependence on purchased foods as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Recent changes in the area of the Plan Chontalpa in Tabasco have greatly reduced the production of subsistence crops by rural families, resulting in decreased crop diversity and a concomitant increase in the degree of dependence on outside sources of food. Results from a nutrition survey of 149 families demonstrate that dietary diversity, dietary quality, and nutritional status of preschool children are negatively associated with lower crop diversity and increased dependence on purchased foods. Dietary deterioration is illustrated by the negative relationship found between nutritional status and increased sugar consumption. The assumption that a rise in income accompanying the adoption of commercial production will automatically lead to improved nutrition is challenged: income levels were not found to be consistently related to nutritional status. Children of families that have converted to cattle production, despite greater land availability and family incomes, do not have improved nutritional status. In the study area, where wages are low and food prices are very high, the value of a higher degree of self-sufficiency in food is recognized, yet families continue to switch to cash crops due to the environmental, economic, and time constraints imposed by the system of commercial agriculture in which they participate. The solution is not to return to traditional subsistence farming, however, but to determine under what conditions a more progressive form of agricultural change can occur.

122 citations


01 Jan 1981
TL;DR: In the Plan Chontalpa in Tabasco, Mexico, a nutrition survey of 149 families demonstrated that dietary diversity, dietary quality, and nutritional status of preschool children are negatively associated with lower crop diversity and increased dependence on purchased foods as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Recent changes in the area of the Plan Chontalpa in Tabasco have greatly reduced the production of subsistence crops by rural families, resulting in decreased crop diversity and a concomitant increase in the degree of dependence on outside sources of food. Results from a nutrition survey of 149 families demonstrate that dietary diversity, dietary quality, and nutritional status of preschool children are negatively associated with lower crop diversity and increased dependence on purchased foods. Dietary deterioration is illustrated by the negative relationship found between nutritional status and increased sugar consumption. The assumption that a rise in income accompanying the adoption of commercial production will automatically lead to improved nutrition is challenged: income levels were not found to be consistently related to nutritional status. Children of families that have converted to cattle production, despite greater land availability and family incomes, do not have improved nutritional status. In the study area, where wages are low andfood prices are very high, the value of a higher degree of self-sufficiency in food is recognized, yet families continue to switch to cash crops due to the environmental, economic, and time constraints imposed by the system of commercial agriculture in which they participate. The solution is not to return to traditional subsistence farming, however, but to determine under what conditions a more progressive form of agricultural change can occur.

118 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examines the two alternative hypotheses of the maritime and agricultural foundations of state society on the coast of Peru, and by reference to limiting factors affecting the Peru Coastal Current, argues that coastal maritime groups never advanced beyond an egalitarian tribal stage.
Abstract: The adaptation of preindustrial band and tribal groups to environments subject to aperiodic downturns of long duration can often be understood by reference to limiting factors affecting the productivity of the subsistence system. This paper examines the two alternative hypotheses of the maritime and agricultural foundations of state society on the coast of Peru, and by reference to limiting factors affecting the Peru Coastal Current, argues that coastal maritime groups never advanced beyond an egalitarian tribal stage. Support for the acceptance of the alternative agricultural hypothesis of state origins is provided by an ecological analysis of relevant features of the marine and terrestrial biomes, ethnographic data on marine subsistence villages, and archaeological data for the Late Archaic and Formative periods. [Central Andes, state origins, coastal adaptations, ecological anthropology, limiting factors]

74 citations


Book
01 Jan 1981
TL;DR: The Necessity to Transform Traditional Agriculture Natural Resources - Land and Water Land Use in Subsistence Agriculture and Potentials for Development The Deterioration of Natural Resources Human Resources Generation of New Technology The 'Green Revolution' Human Labour, Animal Traction and Mechanization Provision of Essential Conditions for Modernization Development Planning and Strategy.
Abstract: The Necessity to Transform Traditional Agriculture Natural Resources - Land and Water Land-Use in Subsistence Agriculture and Potentials for Development The Deterioration of Natural Resources Human Resources Generation of New Technology The 'Green Revolution' Human Labour, Animal Traction and Mechanization Provision of Essential Conditions for Modernization Development Planning and Strategy.

58 citations


Book
01 Oct 1981
TL;DR: Somalia is a developing country whose modern image is marked by a struggling economy, a largely nomadic population, and a history of serious conflict with neighboring states as discussed by the authors, which has been sorely tested in its efforts to achieve and maintain political stability and economic development in the strategically important and volatile Horn of Africa.
Abstract: : Known in Ancient times as the Land of Punt and renowned for is frankincense and myrrh-which it still exports-Somalia is a developing country whose modern image is marked by a struggling economy, a largely nomadic population, and a history of serious conflict with neighboring states. Beset by periodic drought and the burden of roughly 1 million refugees, the nation has been sorely tested in its efforts to achieve-and maintain-political stability and economic development in the strategically important and volatile Horn of Africa. In newly independent Somalia the land was poor, and commercially exploitable natural resources were limited. As they had for centuries, most Somalis relied for their livelihood on pastoral nomadism or seminomadism in a harsh, arid environment. Pursuing the pragmatic tradition they and their forebears had always adhered to, they followed their livestock in a seasonal search for pasture, paying little attention to national frontiers. A minority of the people along the Juba and Shabeelle rivers in the south and a smaller number in the northwest depdended for all or part of their subsistence on irrigated or rainfed cultivation. (Author)

56 citations



Book
01 Jun 1981
TL;DR: In this paper, a prima facie case for the argument that industrial growth was induced and promoted by population growth is presented. But the authors do not consider the relationship between the two.
Abstract: During the century preceding the beginning of modem industrialization, several regions of Europe experienced an impressive growth in traditional rural handicrafts and, concurrently, an acceleration in their rate of population growth. What were the relationships between what I call "proto-industrialization" and the acceleration of population growth during this period? In eighteenth-century Flanders, particularly after 1740, we find an increased rate of growth in the output of the part-time (seasonal) rural linen industry which had settled there since the Middle Ages. First of all, there is a prima facie case for the argument that industrial growth was induced and promoted by population growth. Evidence for this relationship is found in the writings of numerous contemporaries pointing out that rural work, outside agriculture proper, was a necessity for the support of a large fraction of the peasants. The highest levels of rural industrialization in Flanders were found in areas with the highest population density and land fragmentation. Further changes in the eighteenth century in terms of population growth, land fragmentation and industrialization only reinforced these contrasts. It is easily shown that the rural industry was in the hands of the most impoverished peasants; those who were closest to the margin of subsistence. Probate inventories show that the looms and spinning wheels were concentrated in the hands of those peasants who owned or farmed the smallest parcels of land.1 Finally, studies by Belgian scholars show a higher and rising baptismmarriage ratio in the industrial areas and a lower and falling age of first marriage while there was apparently no significant long run change in mortality rates. Since this evidence is equally consistent with the hypothesis that population growth was stimulated by the growth of rural industry as with the hypothesis that population change itself led to the growth of handicrafts, there is a need to use somewhat more rigorous methods of analysis to derive statements of causation. To study in greater detail the interaction of population and the economy, focus is brought to the separate geographic-economic areas that compose Flanders. The largest urban centers did not show rapid industrialization or demographic growth. On the contrary, there was even an important population decline in the first

46 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Nov 1981-Americas
TL;DR: In this case, internal developments need to be articulated with external ones if headway is to be made on the problem of cultural change in a new conceptual straightjacket.
Abstract: economies, for example, such a framework only seems to stand in the way. In this case, internal developments need to be articulated with external ones if headway is to be made on the problem. One risk of Barker's approach is that it might place the study of cultural change in a new conceptual straightjacket. It is difficult to evaluate the primacy given to subsistence in Barker's work. This is in part for practical reasons. Sites with evidence of the quality and quantity needed for the detailed reconstruction of subsistence patterns are still in short supply in central Italy. One way of getting around this shortage has been to look to the landscape. My own view is that a more critical approach is needed to employ the modern landscape in archeological studies. There is not enough space here to elaborate on the issues involved, but in most parts of Italy, today's landscape is not some timeless, natural "given" but the product in part of human behavior. Rather than simply projecting the modern landscape back into the past and seeing it as shaping early human behavior, we need first to understand it as a consequence of a long history of human action. Otherwise, we are likely to confound cause and effect.

45 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the impact of the introduction of cattle raising and coffee production in the highlands of Papua New Guinea has been analyzed and the potential integration of subsistence and cash earning has been examined.
Abstract: The conventional approach to economic development assumes that if a surplus of land and labor exists in village systems, the introduction of commercial activities will not be detrimental to the subsistence system. A cultural-ecological perspective on economic development reveals a more complex process of change in human-environment relationships than the conventional approach. An analysis of the impact of the introduction of cattle raising and coffee production in the highlands of Papua New Guinea indicates that the relative location of activities, the linkages within the local ecosystem, the seasonality of labor inputs, the sociocultural context, and the patterns of cash expenditure must be considered in examining the potential integration of subsistence and cash earning. Cash earning can have a detrimental impact on subsistence systems, even when surplus land and labor exist. Loss of autonomy in relation to outside commercial networks reduces the resilience of village systems.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, archaeological and ethnological evidence strongly supports the view that intensification of plant exploitation was the critical subsistence change in the southern Columbia plateau by 4300 years before present, and demographic changes accompanying this event included a major shift in human population dispersion.
Abstract: Semi-sedentary villages were established on the southern Columbia plateau by 4300 years before present. Demographic changes accompanying this event included a major shift in human population dispersion. While previous archaeological explanations have emphasized salmon productivity as the major variable in these changes, archaeological and ethnological evidence strongly supports the view that intensification of plant exploitation was the critical subsistence change. Subsistence intensification, sedentism and demographic change in this region are directly relevant to more general questions concerning sedentism among foragers.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Investigating the dietary changes that accompanied the development of agriculture in the Middle East suggests that agriculture did not provide a new food source, but rather, was an economic change which enabled human populations to continue, with increased control and reliability, subsistence systems that had been developed previously.
Abstract: The reason that people accepted the responsibility of agriculture is still a subject of controversy. Most explanations include the inherent assumption that a change occurred in the subsistence base. This study investigated the dietary changes that accompanied the development of agriculture in the Middle East. Human and faunal bone samples were taken from three Epipaleolithic period levels at Kebara and el-Wad in the Levant and two Neolithic period sites (Ganj Dareh and Hajji Firuz) in Iran. The proportion of meat to vegetable materials in the diet was estimated by means of trace element analysis for strontium levels in bone. The trace element results from the Levantine sites indicate that human diet changed to include more plant products long before the development of agriculture. The results from the two Iranian sites indicate that the human diet contained relatively high amounts of meat in addition to cultivated plants. Considered together, the results suggest that agriculture did not provide a new food source, but rather, was an economic change which enabled human populations to continue, with increased control and reliability, subsistence systems that had been developed previously.

Posted Content
TL;DR: A survey of risk-related issues confronting practitioners who make microscopic decisions on technological policy in developing countries can be found in this article, where a case study on risk and adoption of maize is presented.
Abstract: An enduring concern in economic development is the extent to which risk impedes adoption of new technologies and slows the rate of yield expansion in the production of food crops. Almost by definition, poor farmers in developing countries are associated with a reluctance to take risks, presumably because risk taking would jeopardize their subsistence. This association implies that lowincome farmers will not change their more stable, lower-return traditional techniques for riskier, more profitable practices and varieties. What J. A. Roumasset (1979c) calls the conventional wisdom that risk retards adoption has been proposed in several variations, and it seems to have lasting appeal in the development literature. Several contributors to a book edited by C. R. Wharton, Jr. formally advanced the risk-inhibits-innovation hypothesis in 1969, J. c. Scott constructed a political theory of moral economy on the subsistence ethic in 1976, and J. K. Galbraith in 1979 concluded that aversion to risk represents an important explanation for poverty in the developing nations. Until recently, knowledge about the relation among poverty, risk, and adoption was founded on a concensus of speculation, casual observation, and hypothetical intuition. In the last ten years, speculation has gradually given way to an embryonic but rapidly expanding body of empirical measurement. This paper begins with a brief summary of some of the recent empirical work relevant to risk and the development and transfer of technology. The discussion in the survey embraces two risk-related issues confronting practitioners who make "microscopic" decisions on technological policy in developing countries. Should technical scientists in national agricultural research programs design fundamentally different technologies to accommodate different risk attitudes of farmers? Should corrective policy such as a crop insurance scheme be carried out when the adoption of technical recommendations falls short of expectations.? The literature review accents some of the dimensions to these questions and thus builds an analytical framework for a case study on risk and adoption of maize


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A recent identification of ramon in Miranda's sixteenth-century relacion of Alta Verapaz more likely describes achiote as mentioned in this paper suggests that it was more than a famine food in ancient Maya times.
Abstract: A recent identification of ramon in Miranda's sixteenth-century relacion of Alta Verapaz more likely describes achiote. There is very little archaeological evidence to suggest that ramon was more than a famine food in ancient Maya times.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Prevalence of infection in the indigenous peoples is compared with that in migrant farm laborers from the Ethiopian highlands and the physical and cultural environment of the schemes and the Awash flood plains is examined to assess disease hazards created by the new farms and to make recommendations for parasitic disease control.


01 Jan 1981
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used the A tlas codes to evaluate hypotheses as to the relative contribution of men versus women to hunter· gatherer subsistence, and found that the data were systematically biased in favor of hunting and fishing resources at the expense of gathering resources.
Abstract: The subsistence dependence codes in Murdock's EthnographicAtlas have been used to evaluate hypotheses as to the relative contribution of men versus women to hunter· gatherer subsistence. The A tlas codes are based in most cases on impressionistic ethnographic summaries of the role of gathering, hunting;and fishing in the societies of the sample. The validity of these coded data is evaluated for representative North American Indian cases by comparison with estimates of the c.aloric and protein contributions of the major subsistence resource types based on ethnohistorical and ethnobiological research. The Atlas data are shown to be systematically biased in favor of hunting and fishing resources at the expense of gathering resources.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors studied the effect of labor migration in the context of subsistence agriculture in the llakia Awa region of Melanesia and found that the intensification of effort required by both the men and the women remaining in the village to maintain sufficient subsistence production is an important factor for understanding the subsequent reduction in the level of participation in wage-labor migration.
Abstract: During the initial phase of participation in a cash economy, labor is diverted from local production as people leave the village to enter the wage-labor market. Given the particular organization of subsistence agriculture among the llakia Awa, periodic undersupply of labor results. Resident villagers respond by altering household gardening strategies to accommodate the loss of local labor. This accommodation, however, becomes burdensome when the number of migrants, especially married men, is high. The intensification of effort required by both the men and the women remaining in the village to maintain sufficient subsistence production is an important factor for understanding the subsequent reduction in the level of participation in wage-labor migration. [subsistence agriculture, labor migration, domestic economy, sociocultural change, Melanesia]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, two forms of social relationship, broker and dyadic contract, and their role in managing risk in the shift from subsistence to cash cropping and the reaction of peasants to the 1969 Agrarian Reform are analyzed.
Abstract: Analytical approaches to economic change among peasants are marked by a dichotomy between orthodox decision‐making and Marxian surplus appropriation. These approaches are combined in this paper in an examination of the response of Peruvian peasants to new economic opportunities. First, the mechanics of surplus appropriation and the economic logic of peasant households are addressed. The discussion then turns to the nature of risk and uncertainty and describes economic and social strategies for risk management. Two forms of social relationship, the broker and the dyadic contract, and their role in managing risk in the shift from subsistence to cash cropping and the reaction of peasants to the 1969 Agrarian Reform are analyzed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) occupation of the Western Negev desert of the southern Levant is investigated and an economic model based on several lines of evidence is presented.
Abstract: gions where Neolithic technologies can be documented without a concomitant food production subsistence base. Indeed, the concept of a nonfood-producing Neolithic society appears antithetical to the very notion of the term "Neolithic." Yet is is rapidly becoming evident that our conception of the "Neolithic" oftentimes has been simplistic and is in need of modification. Evidence is accumulating to suggest that in some instances prehistoric groups possessing Neolithic technologies did not participate in an economic network based on food production. This paper will investigate one such instance: the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) occupation of the Western Negev desert of the southern Levant. After briefly discussing the data base, attention will be turned to one technique of assessing paleosubsistence patterns. Following this, an economic model based on several lines of evidence will be presented. The purpose of this work is not to present a definitive answer to one aspect of early Neolithic economy in the Near East. Indeed, many of the conclusions and assumptions presented herein may be challenged. The data base is weak, having been long neglected, and is susceptible to several interpretations. A major objective of this paper is to present an alternate view of early Neolithic adaptations in one area. If this perspective stimulates discussion and debate about the nature of early Neolithic societies on the threshold of food production, it will have served a purpose.





Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For example, the authors pointed out that "far less attention has been given to traditional agriculture, the subsistence base of agrarian folk societies.' This has been true even for studies of southern folklife, though the South has always been a rural, agricultural society.
Abstract: DURING THE PAST TWO DECADES, American folklorists have begun to study such material aspects of folklife as foodways, artifacts, architecture, and even settlement patterns. Far less attention has been given to traditional agriculture, the subsistence base of agrarian folk societies.' This has been true even for studies of southern folklife, though the South has always been a rural, agricultural society.2 In 1860, for example, at least 80% of the southern labor force was employed in agriculture.3


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors reported that fishermen ranked gillnets and castnets as their most effective fishing gears, and the annual fish catch, estimated by extrapolation from experimental gillnet samples, was 54 000 to 76 000 kg.

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present evidence for increased use of shellfish and fish during the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic in Vasco-Cantabrian Spain, in order to understand the stress-related role marine resources can play in a specific, geographically circumscribed region.
Abstract: * Department of Anthropology. University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131. U.S.A. A recent Current Anthropology article by Yesner (1980), while not without weaknesses and contradictions as noted by the commentators, constitutes another important contribution to ongoing discussions of maritime adaptations, huntergatherer subsistence and population pressures in prehistory. It is my purpose to briefly supply added evidence suggestive of subsistence intensification resulting from population increase and including utilization of shellfish and fish during the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic in Vasco-Cantabrian Spain. Although factors such as environmental and sea level change, population control and decimation are important to any general consideration of hunter-gatherer subsistence behavior and change, the Cantabrian data provide a useful example of the stress-related role marine resources can play in a specific, geographically circumscribed region, as alluded to by my colleague Gonzalez Morales in his CA* comment and by Yesner in his reply.