article
Labor specialization and the formation of markets for food in a Shipibo subsistance economy
Human ecology • 20 (4) • Published In 1992 • Pages: 435-462
By: Behrens, Clifford A..
Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between food production and exchange, and the manner in which this relationship is affected by a shift from a subsistence to a market-oriented economy. Analysis of Shipibo production and exchange data reveals that cash cropping has produced two groups of specialists within the formerly subsistence economy. The first group produces rice for regional markets and includes households with fewer women, but continues to exchange food within the traditional kin-based exchange system when it can. The second group contains men whose superior abilities as fishers and hunters are well recognized, and who now frequently sell wild food (fish and game) to rice producers, rather than distribute it freely. To better understand this specialization, a formal theory that replicated the formation of cash markets for food and labor in a subsistence economy is developed based on the ethnographic literature for the Amazon and on the theory of time allocation (pp. 435-436).
- HRAF PubDate
- 2002
- Region
- South America
- Sub Region
- Amazon and Orinoco
- Document Type
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- John Beierle ; 2001
- Field Date
- June 1980-August 1981
- Coverage Date
- 1980-1981
- Coverage Place
- village of Nuevo Eden, headwaters of the Pisqui River, Peru
- Notes
- Clifford A. Behrens
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 460-462)
- LCCN
- 72623826
- LCSH
- Shipibo-Conibo Indians