Experimental Studies of Tool Efficiency among Machiguenga Women and Implications for Root-Digging Foragers

Abstract

Experimental measurements of the efficiencies of traditional wooden versus modern metal tools among Machiguenga women of the Manú River Basin indicate that individuals using wooden tools spend two to three times as many minutes digging and peeling one kilogram of manioc as they spend when using machetes and knives. However, because Machiguenga women can acquire enough manioc in one hour to feed twenty-five adults for one day, a two- to threefold adjustment in the time spent digging and peeling with traditional tools to compensate for lower efficiency leads to only a minor difference in the absolute time spent daily in subsistence tasks. On the other hand, the adoption of metal tools by indigenous women may lead to important changes in women's time allocation to subsistence work and their dietary contribution when root digging and peeling rates are significantly lower than the ones found among Machiguenga women; for example, in foraging societies dependent upon wild tubers. This study shows that experimentation is a useful tool for measuring and predicting the effects of modern technology on the sexual division of labor across ecological contexts.