The Experts below are selected from a list of 192 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Oliver T. Coomes - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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what fate for swidden agriculture under land constraint in tropical forests lessons from a long term study in an amazonian Peasant Community
Journal of Rural Studies, 2017Co-Authors: Oliver T. Coomes, Yoshito Takasaki, Jeanine M RhemtullaAbstract:Abstract What happens when swidden cultivation systems in tropical forests become land-constrained? In this paper we report the findings of a long-term, interdisciplinary project on swidden farming, swidden farming households, and the forest landscape in a Peruvian Amazonian Peasant Community that has faced growing land scarcity over the past 35 years. Data were gathered at the household and plot level in 1994/95 and 2007 on land use, land cover, demographics, income and assets. By employing ‘retrospective field history assessment’, we reconstructed the historical land portfolios and demographic profiles of households since inception, enabling us to track changes in cropping and fallowing as well as land cover change and household composition through time. These data were combined with aerial photograph and satellite imagery interpretation to independently assess change in forest cover and type. We find that farmers confronted growing land scarcity through outmigration, diversification of land holdings, increased use of fallow products and of orchards as both an income source and as fallows, and agricultural innovation through the use of biochar on charcoal kiln sites and home gardens. The forest surrounding the Community has become younger over time and more heterogeneous in age but more homogeneous in biodiversity. The paper concludes with five general lessons: (1) forest Peasants are highly resilient to land scarcity; (2) forests play an overlooked role in agricultural intensification; (3) the ‘modal’ forest farmer does not exist; (4) early land endowment is key to understanding farmer land use and poverty dynamics; and, (5) swidden forests are social landscapes.
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Rain forest ‘conservation-through-use’? Chambira palm fibre extraction and handicraft production in a land-constrained Community, Peruvian Amazon
Biodiversity & Conservation, 2004Co-Authors: Oliver T. CoomesAbstract:Does the use of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) lead to species conservation and protection of the tropical rain forest? This paper examines the use and fate of the chambira palm ( Astrocaryum chambira ) – a prime candidate for ‘conservation-through-use’– around a traditional Peasant Community in northeastern Peru where land scarcity has forced households to draw increasingly on NTFPs to supplement their incomes, including palm fibre for the production of handicrafts. Using household survey data ( n = 36), we identify the specific factors that influence handicraft production, household use and economic reliance on palm fibre-based handicrafts, and the planting (semi-domestification) of the chambira palm. Our findings question the promise of rain forest ‘conservation-through-use’ and indicate the scope of challenges for species conservation, particularly among the rural poor.
Andres Camouguerrero - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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traditional climate knowledge a case study in a Peasant Community of tlaxcala mexico
Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 2016Co-Authors: Alexis Daniela Riveroromero, Ana Isabel Morenocalles, Alejandro Casas, Alicia Castillo, Andres CamouguerreroAbstract:Background Traditional climate knowledge is a comprehensive system of insights, experiences and practices used by Peasant communities to deal with the uncertainties of climate conditions affecting their livelihood. This knowledge is today as relevant in the Mesoamerican and Andean regions as it is in Europe and Asia. Our research sought to analyze the traditional knowledge about the weather and climate in a rural village of the state of Tlaxcala, Mexico, and its importance in decision-making in agriculture.
Robert M Malina - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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marriage patterns in a mesoamerican Peasant Community are biologically adaptive
American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2010Co-Authors: Bertis B Little, Robert M MalinaAbstract:Differential investment in offspring by parental and progeny gender has been discussed and periodically analyzed for the past 80 years as an evolutionary adaptive strategy. Parental investment theory suggests that parents in poor condition have offspring in poor condition. Conversely, parents in good condition give rise to offspring in good condition. As formalized in the Trivers-Willard hypothesis (TWH), investment in daughters will be greater under poor conditions while sons receive greater parental investment under good conditions. Condition is ultimately equated to offspring reproductive fitness, with parents apparently using a strategy to maximize their genetic contribution to future generations. Analyses of sex ratio have been used to support parental investment theory and in many instances, though not all, results provide support for TWH. In the present investigation, economic strategies were analyzed in the context of offspring sex ratio and survival to reproductive age in a Zapotec-speaking Community in the Valley of Oaxaca, southern Mexico. Growth status of children, adult stature, and agricultural resources were analyzed as proxies for parental and progeny condition in present and prior generations. Traditional marriage practice in Mesoamerican Peasant communities is patrilocal postnuptial residence with investments largely favoring sons. The alternative, practiced by ∼25% of parents, is matrilocal postnuptial residence which is an investment favoring daughters. Results indicated that sex ratio of offspring survival to reproductive age was related to economic strategy and differed significantly between the patrilocal and matrilocal strategies. Variance in sex ratio was affected by condition of parents and significant differences in survival to reproductive age were strongly associated with economic strategy. While the results strongly support TWH, further studies in traditional anthropological populations are needed. Am J Phys Anthropol 143:501–511, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Alexis Daniela Riveroromero - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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traditional climate knowledge a case study in a Peasant Community of tlaxcala mexico
Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 2016Co-Authors: Alexis Daniela Riveroromero, Ana Isabel Morenocalles, Alejandro Casas, Alicia Castillo, Andres CamouguerreroAbstract:Background Traditional climate knowledge is a comprehensive system of insights, experiences and practices used by Peasant communities to deal with the uncertainties of climate conditions affecting their livelihood. This knowledge is today as relevant in the Mesoamerican and Andean regions as it is in Europe and Asia. Our research sought to analyze the traditional knowledge about the weather and climate in a rural village of the state of Tlaxcala, Mexico, and its importance in decision-making in agriculture.
Sunil K. Khanna - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Shahri Jat and Dehati Jatni: the Indian Peasant Community in
2020Co-Authors: Sunil K. KhannaAbstract:This paper seeks to understand the gender-speciec consequences of the Shahar- gaon Jat Community's increasing urban contact with New Delhi. It examines the conse- quences of a quick assimilation of Jat men into income-generating activities in the urban market and a corresponding loss of Jat women's economic roles, leading to their further seclusion and marginalization within the household and Community. By providing a histori- cally contextualized account of shifts in gender identity and relations in Shahargaon, the paper considers the ways in which the newly constructed urban patriarchal gender ideology and its asymmetric power relations reinforce gender disparity and marginalize women in an urbanizing Community. The Shahargaon Jat Community's particular historical and patriar- chal context, kinship and marriage rules, and the present state of urbanization constitutes an example of the overall failure of urban exposure to improve economic participation and the overall quality of life for women in urbanizing communities in north India. It appears that the Community's economic well-being has not worked in tandem with the women's social well-being in Shahargaon, in the sense that the Jat patriarchal system and its rules have largely remained unaltered despite exposure to the urban environment of New Delhi. Instead, Shahargaon's increasing urban context has intensieed patriarchal control and the corre- sponding marginalization of Jat women. The Shahargaon case may illustrate a widespread pattern of the increasing gender asymmetry in several other urbanizing village communities in north India.
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shahri jat and dehati jatni the indian Peasant Community in transition
Contemporary South Asia, 2001Co-Authors: Sunil K. KhannaAbstract:This paper seeks to understand the gender-specific consequences of the Shahargaon Jat Community's increasing urban contact with New Delhi. It examines the consequences of a quick assimilation of Jat men into income-generating activities in the urban market and a corresponding loss of Jat women's economic roles, leading to their further seclusion and marginalization within the household and Community. By providing a historically contextualized account of shifts in gender identity and relations in Shahargaon, the paper considers the ways in which the newly constructed urban patriarchal gender ideology and its asymmetric power relations reinforce gender disparity and marginalize women in an urbanizing Community. The Shahargaon Jat Community's particular historical and patriarchal context, kinship and marriage rules, and the present state of urbanization constitutes an example of the overall failure of urban exposure to improve economic participation and the overall quality of life for women in urbanizing com...
