Traditional Subsistence Economy Research Articles

Polymorphism of the genetic determinants of bone mineral metabolism in various groups of the Komi people

The subject of the study is autochthonous population of the Northern and Middle Cis-Urals: Komi-Permyaks, Komi (Zyryans), and Komi-Izhems. The aim of the study is to compare the population frequencies of the LCT (rs4988235) and VDR (FokI rs2228570 and BsmI rs1544410) genes and to consider the contribution of environ-mental and cultural factors to the formation of differences in the genetic determinants of bone tissue metabolism. In total, 181 Komi-Permyak, 223 Komi, and 200 Komi-Izhem subjects were tested clinically and genetically. The evaluation consisted of the determination of polymorphic loci of VDR and LCT genes variants and assessment of clinical and laboratory lactase activity. The information on traditional diet and food composition was obtained from ethnographic materials. The study group of Komi-Izhems differs by a high proportion of C*LCT carriers (0.85) from the other two groups (p < 0.05). The prevalence of hypolactasia, i.e., limited lactase production, is also higher (p < 0.05) in Komi-Izhems (0.64) than in Komi-Permyaks (0.47) and Zyryans (0.41). The T*BsmI allele frequency is higher in Komi-Izems (0.493) in hetero- CT* (0.463) and homozygote TT* (0.261) genotypes, as compared to Zyryans (p < 0.05, where the frequencies are 0.377, 0.329 and 0.212, respectively). The values of BsmI allele and genotype frequencies in Komi-Permyaks are intermediate and do not differ significantly from those in Komi-Izhems and Zyryans. The concentration of T*FokI is highest in Komi-Permyaks (0.528). They are followed by Zyryans (the difference is insignificant, p > 0.05). Komi-Izhems have the smallest proportion of T*FokI allele carriers (0.400) and significantly differ from Komi-Permyaks (p = 0.01). The genotype distributions in FokI locus of VDR in the groups of Komi-Permyaks and Zyryans do not differ, but both show higher CT*FokI genotype frequencies than Komi-Izhems (0.549 and 0.569 against 0.288; p < 0.001). Poor livestock production and a lack of milk in the traditional subsistence economy of the Komi-Permyaks weakened the selection in favor of T*LCT allele and lactase persistence. The low intake of calcium with milk was compensated by an increase in the sensitivity of the target organs to calciferol, the regulator of mineral metabolism, by maintaining the high frequency of carriers of T*BsmI and T*FokI alleles of VDR gene in the population. The more productive dairy farming of Zyryans stimulated selection in favor of lactase persistence. The possibility of continuous consumption of calcium from milk eased the selection pressure on VDR loci. The regulation by T*FokI produced a physiologically sufficient effect and T*BsmI carriership remained low. The diet of the Komi-Izhems, who were accustomed to high-latitude regions, comprised low-lactose dairy products. The population preserved a high carriage of C*LCT and the phenotype of hypolactasia. Moderately intensive selection for vitamin D receptor sensitivity showed up in the increase of VDR T*BsmI frequency only. The high D-vitamin status of the Izhem people was leveraged by the traditional diet with a considerable intake of ergocalciferol-rich venison and fish. The Komi-Permyaks, Komi (Zyryans) and Komi-Izhems occupied different ecological niches and the groups found different ways to adapt to the unfavorable bone-homeorhesis conditions. The flexible responses to the pressure of the environmental factors were imple-mented by the selection of variants of LCT, VDR FokI and VDR BsmI genes, which are located in different chro-mosomes and determine different stages of mineral metabolism. We contend that modern interpopulation differences in distribution of the genotypes and alleles are the manifestations of different strategies of ecological adaptation of anthropologically related groups.

The Inuit archaeology of the Quebec Lower North Shore

This paper summarizes a decade of archaeological research demonstrating evidence for periods of year-round Inuit occupation of the Quebec Lower North Shore in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Excavations at several winter villages replicate settlement patterns at sod house sites in central Labrador, including continuation of a traditional Inuit subsistence and domestic economy while incorporating European materials and artifacts. Finds at the Hare Harbour site on Petit Mécatina Island suggest active Inuit collaboration with a European (probably Basque) whaling and fishing station. The Hare Harbour site is a unique early instance of Inuit-European economic and social enterprise. In the early 1700s the Inuit occupation of the Quebec Lower North Shore came to an abrupt end due to economic competition and hostilities with European and Indian groups that forced Inuit to abandon the coast and retreat north to the core area of Inuit settlement on the central Labrador coast.

Causes of Deforestation and Conservation of Madhupur Sal Forest in Tangail Region

Over the past few decades deforestation has become the issue of global concern for its rapid reduction of biodiversity. The tropical moist deciduous Sal forest ecosystem of central Bangladesh is currently in a critical situation. Destructive anthropogenic and natural impacts coupled with overexploitation of forest resources have caused severe damage to the forest ecosystem. Due to rubber monoculture, expanding commercial fuel wood plantations & expanding agriculture, illegal cutting, encroachment of forest areas, and illegal poaching of wildlife, the Sal forest is losing biodiversity alarmingly. The study is based on intensive literature survey and tries to explore the overall deforestation situation and conservation practices for Madhupur Sal forest that comprises about 5% of the total forests in Bangladesh. The level of destruction of the natural Sal forest has pushed the forest-dwelling indigenous Garo community into cash crop production, forcing them to move away from their traditional subsistence economy. Now we need to address a joint conservation and improved management plan of the forest resources use. Thus all kinds of military establishments, construction of roads and highways for military purposes should be avoided and a policy of planned industrialization should be adopted to mitigate the adverse effect of industrialization. Findings of the study will help to identify the causes of deforestation and conservation of Madhupur Sal forest and also in other national parks in Bangladesh which ultimately conserve the biodiversity and help to maintain natural balance.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jesnr.v6i2.22105 J. Environ. Sci. & Natural Resources, 6(2): 109-114 2013

Life on an Edge among the Changpas of Changthang, Ladakh

The Buddhist Changpas-pastoral nomads of Changthang, Ladakh form an ethnic entity. Like other nomads in the world, the pastoral nomads of Changthang are a minority, suffering problems of under representation, social, economic and geographic marginalisation. The region is extremely poor in conventional energy sources (fossils, fuel and wood) and has almost no industrially exploitable resources. Natural environmental limitations dictate many aspects of traditional life, especially settlement pattern and economic system. Among the Changpas, the pastoral mode of livelihood is an evident attempt to adapt to a natural environment, which provides no plants as food that can support humans and has no potential for growing food crops. Under such conditions, the only solution is to domesticate large herds of various animals, which can feed off the plants and in return, the animals can sustain humans. Since, the ecological conditions of Changthang are not favourable for crop growing, the Changpas raise large herds of sheep and goats as well as transport animals like yaks and horses. These animals provide the Changpas with meat, milk, varieties of wool, which they use themselves and barter for grains and other utilities. This economic interdependence of nomadic pastoral and settled population has been an important characteristic of the society in this area. The Changpas social behaviour is, in part, a response to constraints and opportunities of the natural environment. Both stability and change are outcomes of response to the immediateneeds of daily life. The basic form of social organisation in the area was rural, and social relations among the agriculturalists, nomadic and semi-nomadic groups were based on trade and exchange of essential commodities. The Changpas’ subsistence level pastoral economy, traditional social and religio-cultural systems are composite part of cold desert’s ecological system. Their way of life shows a capacity to adapt themselves to the rugged cold desert environment. The Changpas possess a high degree of specialised knowledge and a flexible social organisation to make viable the mobile mode of production. Despite the ecological constraints, the Changpas were managing their environment for making a living without outside intervention. Their own societal controls like polyandry and cutting of excess animals, helped in turn by their customary rights and equity in resource allocation has helped them. The Changpas are organised using a patrilineal idiom, all members being patrilineal descendants of the founding ancestor. Rangeland, livestock, manpower and the considerable knowledge of the skills necessary to exploit them effectively are the principle economic resources of the Changpas of Changthang. Resource management in a risky environment illustrates the skills of the Changpas for survival. Traditional practices of Changpas, such as the rotation of grazing areas and use of reserve pastures in case of natural calamities help manage the variability of ecosystem and bail out pastures from a state of permanent degradation. Each animal has its own specific characteristics and adaptation to the environment. Rearing together different animals maximised the use of vegetation in the pasture. Different animals graze on different plants. In recent decades, the Changpas of Changthang have been experiencing changes due to external pressures that have altered political, economic and social landscapes. Traditionally, the Changpas were self-sufficient and livestock were providing them with their food and lodging. In recent decades, continuous massive defense investments and improvement in communications; proliferation of government departments; introduction of development plans; provision for basic amenities, alterations in traditional subsistence economy, its commercialisation and extension of know-how through government departments and non-government organisations and tourism has led to a higher motivation among local people for better standards of living. Increasing administrative and market integration and population growth over the years have weakened socio-homeostasis with no functional substitutes for restoring positive social system. For centuries, pastoralists in Changthang have lived in the context of environmental uncertainty and have developed a diverse range of strategies, institutions and network to minimise this unpredict-ability and risk. Pastoral management strategies, which may have worked previously, may or may not be sufficient now. The three communities of Samad, Korzok and Kharnak responded differently to these changes. Various pressures with an ever-increasing rate of change necessitated the adoption of new strategies for survival.

Demonic trade: debt, materiality, and agency in Amazonia

This article examines Amazonian Urarina engagements with the system of debt peonage in light of the conceptual and ontological premises of the traditional subsistence economy. It argues that to view debt as a mechanism for harnessing indigenous labour is inadequate for comprehending the wilfulness with which Urarina indebt themselves to outsiders today, which should instead be considered in terms of local theories of agency and an aversion to immediate, market‐style exchange. This relational and hierarchically distributed view of agency is further implicated in ideas surrounding industrial goods, which are ascribed to the Devil as their putative maker and owner, and who is seen as the source of their power over people in this life and the next. If this brand of commodity ‘fetishism’ expresses moral ambivalence towards capitalism, it also mediates otherwise contradictory forms of production and exchange, repudiating the possibility of total rupture between persons and things.RésuméL’auteur examine ici l’engagement des Unarina d’Amazonie dans un système de servage pour dettes, à la lumière des prémisses conceptuelles et ontologiques de l’économie de subsistance traditionnelle. Il avance que la vision de l’endettement comme d’un mécanisme visant à capturer la main‐d’œuvre indigène ne convient pas pour comprendre la bonne volonté avec laquelle les Unarina s’endettent aujourd’hui vis‐à‐vis de parfaits inconnus. Au lieu de cela, l’approche doit s’appuyer sur les théories locales de l’agent et sur l’aversion des Unarina envers les transactions non différées, de type marchand. Cette notion d’agency relationnelle, distribuée de façon hiérarchique, se retrouve dans les idées liées aux marchandises industrielles, dont le fabricant et le propriétaire supposé serait le Diable, considéré comme la source de leur pouvoir sur les gens dans cette vie et la vie future. Quoique ce mode de « fétichisme » des marchandises exprime une ambivalence morale à l’égard du capitalisme, il médie par ailleurs des formes de production et d’échange qui seraient sinon contradictoires, réfutant la possibilité d’une rupture totale entre les gens et les choses.

The commercialisation of the indigenous economy and its impact on the environment of Modhupur Garh, Bangladesh

The level of destruction of the natural sal (shorea robusta) forest of Modhupur Garh in Bangladesh has pushed the forest-dwelling indigenous Garo community into cash crop production, forcing them to move away from their traditional subsistence economy. Cash crop production started in Modhupur region with pineapple cultivation which, in recent years, has been superceded by Banana monoculture. Environmentalists have identified monoculture cropping as a great threat to the natural environment of Modhupur. Moreover, the excessive use of agrochemicals in commercial plantations of Modhupur has raised serious media concern, and is considered a direct threat to the health status of the producers and consumers. Expansion of the commercial economy has caused landlessness, poverty, gender discrimination among the Garos. People are working hard in plantations, mainly as wage labourers, migrating towards cities in search of petty jobs and thus they are losing their traditional cultural inheritance and economic security.

Education for Hmong Women in Thailand

Abstract The Hmong are the second largest tribal group in Thailand. Hmong society is stratified by both age and gender. Women were considered inferior to men in Hmong traditional society. There was a strong bias against education for Hmong women in the past. Hmong women’s access to education has improved with recent developments in the socio-economy and modern educational system. Today there does not appear to be discrimination against girls in continuing their education beyond the compulsory level. However, the conventional ideas that “marrying early, bearing early, and having many children are blessings” are popular in the Hmong community. Many girls of school age leave school for marriage. These traditional conventions are an obstacle for females in continuing their formal education. Today, the Hmong’s traditional subsistence economy is undergoing change, and many Hmong women are actively involved in business. Adult and vocational education is also an important way for Hmong women to improve their educational level and gain new skills for making a living. This paper is based on anthropological field research carried out in northern Thailand from December 2003 to September 2004, supported by the Asian Scholarship Foundation.

Impact of economic changes on the diet of Chukotka Natives

This paper describes and analyses changes in food composition and nutritional preferences among the Chukchi and Yupik of coastal Chukotka in the last 15 years.The economic collapse of the infrastructure of Chukotka region has resulted in many indigenous northerners reverting to the traditional subsistence economy. Relatively expensive market foods are being replaced by cheaper ones, and by more readily available local foods. Percent contribution of proteins, lipids and carbohydrates to total caloric intake has not changed substantially, but sources of the major nutrients have become different. In 1985, local marine mammals accounted for about half of the consumed meat (55%), while in 2000 the share of it increased to 89 %. Market fats and oils are also being substituted by the fat of marine mammals.However, the contemporary diet of the natives of coastal Chukotka differs significantly from the traditional one. The meat of seals and gray whales (small sized and less dangerous to harvest) remains seasonally accessible, but can not be stored for long times. There is an insufficient amount of walrus and bowhead whale meat, which can be prepared in traditional style by fermentation, and stored for a long time. This probably also provides a specific protection against Helicobacter pylori.The young people today are more oriented towards local food-stuff: 76 % Coastal Chukchee and Yupik under the age of 30 indicated a preference for native foods over European (“Russian”) ones, while this share is lower (66 %) among people older than 30 years.Overall, 86 % of natives consider that whale hunting, as the main source of food, should be increased (in 1985, only 45% suggested so). (Int J Circumpolar Health 2004; 63(3):235–242)

An ethnobotanical study in Central Anatolia (Turkey)

This study examines both edible plants and non-food uses of plants in a limited area to provide clues for archaeologists, to interpret their findings including the reconstruction of former diets. The results are based on an ethnoarchaeological study conducted in 1994-1995 on the traditional subsistence economy of a contemporary village, in close proximity to a pre-ceramic Neolithic site, Asikli, in the Aksaray province of Central Anatolia. As a part of this study, about 600 plant specimens were collected, of which over 300 were considered useful by the villagers. Through this study the floral potential of a limited area, and the richness of the traditional knowledge of plants was documented to provide clues to archaeologists, archaeobotanists, botanists, pharmacologists, economists, and perhaps to the planners of future local development projects.

Recent Developments in the Commerce in Narwhal Ivory from the Canadian Arctic

Inuit in Canada kill several hundred narwhals, Monodon monoceros, in most years. Narwhals supplied various staples in the traditional subsistence economy. Today the main products are muktaaq and ivory. The large tusks of adult males are sold in a specialty souvenir market both inside Canada and in the global marketplace. The price of narwhal ivory has increased substantially over the past 25 yr, with steep increases in 1967, 1972, and the late 1970s to early 1980s. It crashed in 1983/84 due to a ban on importation by the European Economic Community (EEC), but it has recovered since then. Canadian narwhal ivory traditionally was exported to the United Kingdom, then often re-exported. The EEC ban closed the direct link with the United Kingdom. Consequently, new markets developed in Japan and Switzerland. Narwhal hunting remains an important source of food and cash income for residents of some coastal communities in the eastern Canadian Arctic and Greenland. The international ivory trade provides an incentive to procure large tusks, and this may strongly influence the nature and intensity of the hunt. Market intervention and price instability have had serious economic ramifications for Inuit communities in the past, and they are likely to affect the costs and rewards of narwhal hunting in the future as well.

Urban-rural differences in the growth of South African black children

Urbanization is a major migratory process characteristic of developing countries. The majority of comparisons of the growth of urban and rural children from developed countries reflect greater heights and weights, and by implication health, of urban children. Urban-rural comparisons of South African black children are few in number and have concentrated on 'average' children, thereby omitting the factor of socioeconomic status. The present study compares two groups of urban children of high (n = 307) and average (n = 867) socioeconomic status and two groups of rural children. The rural children came from farm labourer's families (n = 392) and traditional subsistence farming environments (n = 420). The children ranged in age from 5 to 19 years. In general the well-off urban children were consistently, but not significantly, larger than all other groups and 'average' urban children were consistently and at times significantly smaller and lighter. The growth of the two rural groups fell between these extremes but were also consistently different in that the children of farm labourers were significantly lighter at all ages than children living in a traditional subsistence economy. It is concluded that the average urban environment in South Africa is not conducive to improved growth and health unless it is accompanied by an improved socioeconomic status.

Cost analysis of modern hunting among the inuit of the Canadian central arctic

Abstract In northern Canada the traditional Inuit subsistence economy and means of transportation have undergone changes through the introduction of such technological innovations as the rifle, the boat motor, and the snowmobile. These innovations and the related changes have influenced hunting and trapping methods as well as the yield from hunting which, today, not only has to provide for the daily needs with regard to food and clothing, but also for the necessary monetary means to acquire and operate modern equipment. The paper presents data that were collected in Repulse Bay, N.W.T., in 1973 in order to arrive at a cost analysis of modern hunting within the superimposed framework of a “mixed economy”; based on both the traditional subsistence economy and wage employment. (The translation is by William Barr, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon.)

Trade and Economic Change on the Gold Coast 1807-1874.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century the Atlantic slave trade had already made inroads into the traditional subsistence economy of the Gold Coast and elements of a modern economy had begun to emerge; but the interdiction of this trade in 1807 rendered the bulk of the existing commerce illegal. Consequently, other products had to be found by stimulating the export of old staples like gold and ivory and by encouraging the cultivation of agricultural produce in exchange for European goods. This meant a process of commercial and economic change, but wars often interrupted this evolution. The peace and security the country enjoyed between 1830 and 1850, social and cultural changes effected by Christianity and education, and increased opportunities for entering trade made these decades a key period of economic change. By 1850 this transformation has led to the rise of a class of African merchants who were sensitive to new commercial opportunities and who had the ability and initiative to exploit new avenues of trade. As these African merchants attained more wealth and influence, they began to assume a position and acquire a power that had once been occupied and held by the traditional rulers, whose social and economic position had been declining since abolition. Conflicts in the wake of the Asante invation of the coast in 1863 and wars in the Volta area affected the country and the trade and commercial operations of the African merchants. This, and the prevailing system of credit led to a number of bankruptcies and to the ruin of many indigenous traders. Although the economy grew, diversified, and made considerable progress towards a modern economy during this period, the formal declaration of the Gold Coast as a Protectorate in 1874 paved the way for a more complete integration of the country's trade into the modern world economy and marked the decline of African initiative in trading enterprises as well as the emergence of a foreign dominated oligopolistic regime. This crucial period of trade and economic change between 1807 and 1874 is an important transitional era that links the economy of the Gold Coast based on slaves with that of the modern based on natural produce.

Economic Development and Conflicting Values: A Social Experiment in Tristan da Cunha1

In the small, utopian community of Tristan da Cunha, the core values of equality, anarchy, and individual integrity find expression and reinforcement in an intricate system of selective reciprocity that takes the form of mutual aid, services, and gifts in a network of overlapping and interlocking personal relationships. This pattern of selective reciprocity is closely tied in with activities connected with the traditional subsistence economy.After the war, South African interests established a commercial fishing industry on the island, introducing a cash economy that supplemented the traditional subsistence economy, resulting in “progress” and an increased material affluence for the community. This new value, however, was only obtainable by submitting to a contract relationship that was soon felt to be an infringement on traditional core values. A conflict of values ensued.In this case, because of a particular awareness of traditional core values among the people of Tristan, the ethos of industrialism was rejected within the community, or accepted only in second place to independence, individual integrity, and selective reciprocity.

Labour Migration in New Guinea: a case study from Northern Papua*

The attitudes of a group of Papuan (New Guinea) villagers to migrant labor and its effects upon them were examined. The Yega a small subgroup of the Orokaiva people living in the Mt. Lamington area of Northern Papua have been subjected to a long process of acculturation as a result of which they have shown a marked willingness to change their traditional subsistence economy and to adopt the techniques attitudes and mores of Europeans. Attempts to increase cash earnings have resulted since 1945 in a series of land use changes including the establishment of an agricultural cooperative the inauguration of a coffee planting scheme and more recently a cocoa project. The people have also shown increased interest in paid employment. As of January 1967 almost 1/3 of them were absent from their home villages working studying or as dependents. The occupations of Yega working in paid employment have undergone considerable change. Postwar change has been towards more highly skilled occupations. Education is the primary factor in the marked improvement in the skills of Yega workers. Some paid labor is available to the Yega within walking distance of their homes. In 1964 30% of the total population of Yega resided outside their home villages. The proportion of working age males living away from the villages was over 50% and of this group 23 men had been away for 10 years or more. 77% of adult unmarried males were absent from their traditional lands. In present day Yega society virtually all young unmarried men seek paid employment away from the village. There are 2 main reasons for their economic behavior as indicated by young Yega employees. There is a desire to conform to an already established pattern and the desire for money and what it can buy and for experience of life outside the village are strongly reinforced by their friends. And there is the influence of older relatives whose unskilled labor now yields so small a return that they no longer consider it worthwhile to go to work. From the perspective of the village the overall effect is that the skills and potential labor of its most active educated members are lost to it except for brief holiday periods. The young men remitted an average of 18% of their total income to relatives and friends who remained in the villages a range between 5-52%. Among the Yega the established pattern is for all young men to leave the village environment to work for wages. At the current stage of development in New Guinea as a whole the Yega are an atypical group. Their opportunities for educational advancement have been greater than those of most other New Guineans. The practice of permanent migration from the traditional rural environment to the sources of cash income is becoming so well established that should economic development begin to lag seriously behind social development serious dissatisfaction and unrest may ensue.

Examples of Changing Peasant Agriculture in Croatia, Yugoslavia

URING the last hundred years new patterns have evolved in the character of rural life and rural economy in Yugoslavia. Undoubtedly the processes and results of change have been modified by two World Wars, economic depressions, and the implementation of different political and economic doctrines. Nevertheless, a fundamental influence has persisted throughout the period. It is the penetration of new and powerful commercial incentives and the decay of traditional subsistence economy. Despite the general development and intensification of agriculture within the Republic of Croatia, comparative statistical data for 1900-1914 and 1953 show