Showing papers on "Subsistence agriculture published in 1987"

In situ conservation of crop genetic resources through maintenance of traditional farming systems

Abstract: A strategy is suggested for in situ conservation of crop genetic resources whereby conservation efforts are linked to rural development projects in Third World countries. We describe development projects that emphasize preservation of traditional farming systems and succeed in sustaining production by relying on the maintenance of biological and genetic diversity in these systems. Basing agricultural development efforts on indigenous knowledge, technology, and social organization can provide important guidelines for the design of cropping systems that allow lowincome farmers to produce subsistence and cash crops without dependence on external inputs and seed supplies. By incorporating landraces and wild relatives of crops into these cropping systems, major achievements in the conservation of crop genetic resources can be obtained.

Emigration to South Africa's Mines

Abstract: This paper presents a simultaneous econometric model of both the determinants of international migration to the South African mines and of some of the economic consequences for each of the labor supplying countries. Not only are the short-run effects of labor withdrawal on traditional crop cultivation and the domestic wage labor markets considered but also the long-term effects of savings from mine earnings invested in crops and cattle in the home countries. The experiences of Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mozambique and the South African homelands are compared. It is shown that "emigration to the South African mines has...reduced crop production in the subsistence sectors of Botswana Lesotho Malawi and the South African homelands in the short run. But the results also suggest that earnings of migrants have enhanced both crop productivity and cattle accumulation in the longer run except in Lesotho." (EXCERPT)

Women's fishing in Oceania

Abstract: Women's fishing in Oceania has been overlooked in most subsistence studies in the region and, as a consequence, there are few quantitative data available upon which to base an assessment of its importance. However, in the present study, the few data available on women's fishing in Oceania are examined, and these show that women contribute significantly to marine food yields in the region. Also, it is suggested that the highly regular nature of women's fishing makes women more reliable, and therefore more effective than men as suppliers of protein for subsistence. The implications of these findings for future development policies in the region are then discussed.

Prehistoric lowland Maya environment and subsistence economy

Abstract: A collection of essays presenting original data that have allowed the author to reconstruct prehistoric Maya environment and subsistence.

Australian Aboriginal subsistence in the Western desert

Abstract: This paper describes Aboriginal subsistance patterns in the northern part of the Western Desert, Western Australia. It describes the seasonal round of the Aboriginal people living in this area, provides a quantified description of the plant and animal resources, and concludes by drawing attention to specific aspects of Aboriginal subsistence in this area.

Early settlement and subsistence in the Casma Valley, Peru

Abstract: The Casma Valley of PeruOCOs north central coast contains the largest New World structure of its time period---2500 to 200 BC---as well as one of the densest concentrations of early sites. In this detailed and thought-provoking volume, Sheila and Thomas Pozorski date each major early site, assess this important valleyOCOs diet and subsistence changes through time, and begin to reconstruct the development of Casma Valley society.Fifteen sites are surveyed, including Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke, the earliest planned city in the New World. The Pozorskis then synthesize their own fieldwork and previous work in the Casma Valley to chart its development during the critical time when civilization was emerging. The result: a scenario which is somewhat revolutionary in the context of more traditional views of Andean prehistory.Early Settlement and Subsistence in the Casma Valley, Peru adds substantially to the growing body of evidence that the earliest development of Andean civilization occurred on the coast rather than in the highlands. This volume presents comparative data for students of emerging civilizations worldwide and will be of value not only to Andean and New World archaeologists but also to everyone interested in the emergence of complex societies."

The Dynamics of Productive Relationships: African Share Contracts in Comparative Perspective

Abstract: In recent years empirical enquiry has indicated that share contracts in agriculture often take the form of complex but relatively efficient and equitable working relationships among small farmers, allowing them to assemble the resources to secure subsistence and to develop and expand agricultural production when the vagaries of weather, market and policy are favourable. This book examines four African cases - Ghana, Sudan, Lesotho and Senegambia - in the light of the long-standing debates about sharecropping.

Class gender and the household: the developmental cycle in Southern Africa.

Abstract: This article evaluates the anthropological concept of "developmental cycle of domestic groups" circa 1949 as applied to the small nation-state around South Africa: Lesotho Botswana and the Bantustans. The areas are complicated by extreme diversity of social structure which survey data based on conceptual paradigms may not grasp to be a dynamic process. Lesotho is still an undeveloped subsistence peasant society. Migrant mine workers usually older men bought land with their wages. Younger men are squeezed out of restricted mine jobs and women obtain irregular low paid work. There is a small urban welfare class. In Botswana there is simultaneously in time and concurrently households migration to jobs in mines industry or urban civil service and investment in farmland. There are class strata in these "worker-peasant" households depending on income. Rapid restructuring of family life is stressful and devastating. Neither male or female-extended nor individual-lead family models should be considered typical since either or both spouses may at one time have migrated to find work. In The Bantustans the situation is bewilderingly complex. There is acute poverty malnutrition overcrowding utter dependence on wage earning in white South Africa or welfare. 3.5 million persons have been forcibly relocated in 20 years. New towns black-owned farms reservations squatter sites and refugee camps alternate with pockets of old established residents. Given the need for 3 generations of consistent data and stable classes any conceptual models will be difficult to test.

The Archaeology of Social Complexity in South-east Queensland

Abstract: The widespread alliance systems of Australian Aboriginal society had an economic and survival value in harsh environments, but in resource-rich areas such as South-east Queensland it is more a question of strategies for increasing regional carrying capacity. Recent archaeological results in the area, with evidence of increases in site numbers and artefact deposition rates and diversification of subsistence resources to include small-bodied species, show the development of new patterns of technology, economy and demography following major environmental changes in the post-Pleistocene period. Widespread changes in Australian prehistory around 4000 years ago may have been triggered in certain key areas such as South-east Queensland.

Early Dry Season Subsistence Ecology of Cuiva (Hiwi) Foragers of Venezuela

Abstract: The subsistence ecology of Venezuelan Cuiva foragers during the early dry season is described. Data on diet, time allocation, demography, and physical measurements are presented. Analyses show that the Cuiva depend primarily on game and wild roots during the early dry season for their subsistence. Sex differentials in productive efficiency, total contribution to the diet, and time allocation to food acquisition and other activities are also examined. As in most other foraging societies, men specialize in hunting while women specialize in gathering. During the early dry season, men provide more calories than women and are the more efficient food producers. However, men spend slightly less time than women in food acquisition. Demographic data show that child mortality rates, female infertility rates, female infanticide rates,and the sex ratio among juveniles are high in the Cuiva population. Comparisons between the patterns found among the Cuiva and other foraging populations are made.

Prey as Bait: the Deep Bay Example

Abstract: This paper introduces the concept of "prey as bait" in which human groups exploit predatory relations among economically important species in a food chain The food resource procurement strategy based on this concept is seen as an alternative to specialized acquisition of generally abundant species such as Pacific salmon The Deep Bay site illustrates how predatorprey relationships were exploited by a prehistoric Northwest Coast group, and the implications of this strategy for understanding subsistence systems and Northwest Coast prehistory are discussed

Human impacts on some forests of the Middle Hills of Nepal. Part 3. Forests in the subsistence economy of Sindhu Palchok and Kabhre Palanchok.

Abstract: Features of subsistence agriculture in two districts of Nepal, Sindhu Palchok and Kabhre Palanchok, are outlined, includ- ing population, land use and levels of agricultural production, cropping patterns employed, and animal husbandry. Some features of the forests, including types and area, are reviewed before considering impacts of subsistence agriculture on these forests and their effects in recent historical time. While the nature of these impacts can be described, the exact determination of usage and productivity of the forest is very difficult, if not impossible, to quantify so that many of the published estimations are known to be subject to error. The use of fuelwood and timber for buildings and implements has undoubtedly had adverse impacts which, although quite serious, cannot be seen as the prime cause for much of the deforestation in recent historical time. Gathering of leaf material for fodder and for animal bedding is the main impact of subsistence agriculture on the forested land. In the historical past timber cutting for the building of Kathmandu and other urban areas nearby as well as ore smelting for military purposes impacted very adversely on the forests, but these uses ceased many decades ago. The main strategy of development activities must be aimed at increasing the capacity of the non-cultivated land to produce fodder and bedding materials for animals if the present agro-ecosystem is to be sustained.

The Emergence of Capitalist Relations in South Asante Cocoa-Farming, c.1916-1933

Abstract: The notion of capitalist relations in Ghanaian cocoa-farming is familiar, yet their development has been relatively little studied. In Amansie district, Asante, capitalist relations of production developed as a result rather than as a cause of the cocoa ‘take-off’, c. 1900–16. This paper examines their emergence, which occurred largely during the subsequent period of much slower growth and generally lower prices. The introduction and spread of regular wage-labour, the widening and deepening burden of rent on ‘stranger’ cocoa farms, the proliferation of ‘advances’, and the introduction of farm mortgaging are described, together with the accompanying decline of slavery, pawning, and other non-wage forms of labour. Colonial officials ineffectually deplored the growth of money-lending and, to a lesser extent, that of wage-labour. From the mid-1930s, however, the tendency towards greater separation of labour from control of the farm was partly reversed by a new insistence by northern labourers on the replacement of annual wage contracts by a managerial form of share-cropping. This demand was sustained against the opposition of farmowners and despite persistent unemployment, an achievement made possible by the migrants continued foothold in subsistence agriculture in their home areas. This case of migrant labourers successfully challenging the extension of wage relations raises questions concerning the relationships between commercial agriculture and ‘precapitalist’ social relations of production in Africa generally.

Mexico's Conflictual Inshore Pacific Fisheries: Problem Analysis and Policy Recommendations

Abstract: This article examines chronic conflict arising from a dual and contradictory management policy in an inshore fishery of Pacific Mexico. The dual policy is summarized as follows: first and foremost, the Mexican federal government strives to maximize shrimp exports while dissociating the rural populace from the resource; yet, on the other hand, it still permits the rural populace access to the resource for subsistence purposes. Widespread conflict among various components of the local rural populace as well as conflicts between that population and its government is the result. After analyzing the dynamics of contention underlying these conflicts policy recommendations are made which are applicable to this and similar fisheries.1

Dimensions of deforestation in the himalaya: the historical setting

Abstract: The causes of forest depletion in the Himalayan region are complex, and they vary from one local setting to another, as the result of long historical trends. This paper traces three major factors: the intrusion of modern political and economic systems into the mountains; the growth of modern resource management agencies, notably the Indian Forest Service; and the pressures of rural subsistence and population migrations.

Forces and influences behind the development of upland cash cropping in north-east thailand

Abstract: systems. This paper traces the spread of cash cropping in the North-Eastern region of Thailand since the end of the Second World War and attempts to identify the forces that have driven the development. The impact of infrastructural improvements upon the desire and the ability of farmers to engage in cash cropping is examined, and the government role in this process is assessed. In addition, changes in the cropping pattern are looked at in relation to varying relative prices for the crops in question. Finally, the role of the private sector in the commercialization of agriculture is examined. It is argued that the spread of cash cropping would have been far less rapid and pervasive in the absence of the private sector. WHEN SIR JOHN BOWRING visited Thailand in 1855 he found a kingdom which had studiously shunned contact with the West, deliberately avoiding both commercial and diplomatic relations (Bowring, 1969). The economy ofthe nation and the well-being of its inhabitants was founded upon the cultivation of rice, almost entirely for subsistence consumption or local barter. In the vicinity of the capital, Bangkok (Fig. 1). there had evolved a limited commercial sector supplying the court and population of that city, and the kingdom had been intermittently exporting rice from at least the beginning of the seventeenth century (Ingram, 1971). However, Siam had few trading links, and even villages close to Bangkok were enclosed and self-sufficient communities surrounded by a 'wilderness' of forest and swamp (Sharp

Prehistoric Life on the Mississippi Floodplain: Stone Tool Use, Settlement Organization, and Subsistence Practices at the Labras Lake Site, Illinois

Abstract: At the confluence of the Illinois, the Missouri, and the Mississippi Rivers lies the "American Bottom," a broad floodplain that prehistoric peoples inhabited for millennia. Precisely how did they live? What were their ties to the natural world around them? In this study, based upon some six years of intensive archeological and geological research at Labras Lake in St. Clair County, Illinois, Richard W. Yerkes interprets a wealth of important new data in a stimulating and original fashion. With a fine-tuned control of the data, Yerkes challenges prevailing theories based on simple classifications of stone tools according to shape or on simple models of diffuse and focal economies. He views environment as a dynamic factor in economic and cultural life, rather than as merely a backdrop to it. Using incident light microscopy, he examines wear patterns on stone tools to determine what activities were performed during each period the site was inhabited-the Late Archaic, the Late Woodland, and the Mississippian. As he documents environmental change at Labras Lake, he analyzes plant and animal remains in context to explore diet and seasonal patterns of subsistence and settlement. The result is a more accurate and detailed picture than ever before what prehistoric life on the Mississippi floodplain was like. Yerkes shows how to assess the duration and size of occupations and how to determine where and when true permanent settlements arose. What others call "sedentary encampments" he reveals as sequences of small residental occupations for a narrow range of activities during shorter, seasonal periods. His contribution to the study of the development of sedentism is potentially far-reaching and will interest many North American anthropologists and archeologists.

Neolithic Settlement and Subsistence in the Wetlands of the Rhine/Meuse Delta

Abstract: Settlement sites of the earliest inhabitants of the extensive marshes along the estuaries of the Rhine and Meuse are scarce. In spite of a dense modern population, intensive prospection, and many large scale commercial digging operations, only a few sites have been discovered, and these almost entirely in the last thirty years. Well-excavated sites, äs opposed to small groups of pottery sherds and flint artefacts which provide only very limited Information, number less than ten. Fortunately, because of the excellent conditions for preservation of organic material and the protection against later disturbance by layers of young deposits, these few sites are very informative. As a result, although it is not possible to make detailed studies of spatial distribution patterns on a regional level, the lack of sites is compensated for by a few spectacular results. This allows us to gain some insight into former settlement Systems and organization of Neolithic communities in the extreme wetland conditions. In this contribution I have chosen to restrict myself first to the estuarine and peat zones of the delta, and secondly to two phases for which detailed knowledge has recently been acquired. First, the phase of the initial Neolithic in the delta, c.3300 bc (4000 BC) with Hazendonk, Swifterbant, and Bergschenhoek äs key sites, and secondly the phase of the Vlaardingen Group, about one thousand years later (2700-2100 bc/3200-2600 BC) with Hazendonk (again), Hekelingen III, and Vlaardingen äs key sites. We have to Start, however, with some general remarks on the peculiarities of the conditions in the delta area.

Population and technology in preindustrial Europe.

Abstract: Most of the production in preindustrial European villages and towns was organized in family enterprises. This organization and the marriage system in these families resulted in a fertility rate that was low enough and a rate of savings that was high enough to secure the amount of investment necessary to accommodate the increasing population. Concentration of specialized producers and the intellectual elite in towns facilitated technology transfer from more advanced regions and later the invention of new technologies. Because of these developments the large demographic setbacks were not as often assumed subsistence crises due to population pressure on land; rather they were the result of internecine warfare and epidemics which were endemic in preindustrial Europe. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA) (EXCERPT)

Agrarian crisis and social differentiation in Mexico

Abstract: This article explores the double crisis of Mexican agriculture: one relating to the capitalist sector, the other to the peasant economy. An analysis of cash crops in contrast with subsistence crops is provided, using production and prices data for the 940–83 period. Then, based on the 1970 census, we present a spectrum of social differentiation of agrarian producers in Mexico which reflects the extent to which the peasant economy had been eroded by that year. By contrasting these data with those of 1960, we illustrate how the middle peasantry tends to disappear.

Irrigation and imperialism: The causes and consequences of a shift from subsistence to cash cropping

Abstract: Dependency theorists and others have suggested that villagers in British India were compelled to grow cash crops under canal irrigation and this made them more vulnerable to famines. Evidence on cropping patterns in western India c. 1900 shows that cultivators had good technical reasons for not irrigating subsistence crops. In response to fiscal pressures and cultivators’ choices, the government turned from a policy favouring subsistence crop irrigation to one favouring sugarcane. Paradoxically, this new policy also stimulated foodgrain production, providing greater subsistence security for the region.

The Impact of Rice on Human Civilization and Population Expansion

Abstract: The rice plant was basically a tropical semiaquatic grass. Before the advent of agriculture, it served as a food supplement to people who depended on hunting, fishing, and gathering of other food plants for subsistence living. Even today in many areas of the humid tropics where the environment is harsh, rice farming provides a subsistence level of livelihood. However, in areas outside its home habitat where water control, soil fertilization, tillage and weeding, and plant selection were well managed or practiced, rice yields steadily rose and food surpluses from farms served as the main source in supporting rapid increases in human population. Expansion in rice acreage, rises in rice yield, and multiple cropping have fueled flourishing civilizations of several Asian countries. This paper summarizes the fascinating pathway along which a lowly swamp plant has provided the impetus for accelerated progress in national economy, cultural improvements, and population increases in many Asian countries du...

Magdalenian Settlement and Subsistence in South-west Germany.

Abstract: Magdalenian settlement systems and man/land relationships in South-west Germany are reconstructed, using archaeological evidence and modern ethnographic observation. Archaeological sites are divided into four size categories, each with distinctive structural and artefactual records, and assigned to different seasonal and functional uses in the annual subsistence cycle. Hunting of reindeer and horse dominated and, in contrast to previous theories of long-distance reindeer following, a territorial model of land-use is proposed.