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The economic, socio-political, and cultural significance of camelids in the Andean region is well-recognized, yet an understanding of their management evolution over pre-historical periods remains limited. This study aims to fill this gap by conducting the first cross-regional assessment of camelid pastoralism in Peru from 900 BCE to 1470 CE, using stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions from the bone collagen and fibers of 577archaeological camelids across 21 sites. This research investigates the spatio-temporal shifts in camelid dietary habits, focusing on how the rise of intensive agriculture may have influenced change and led to the evolution of distinct roles for camelids in coastal versus non-coastal Andean economies. Our analysis indicates an increase in δ13C values over time on the coast, suggesting a shift towards maize-based camelid diets. Conversely, δ13C values decrease over time in highland environments, suggesting camelids consumed relatively more wild C3 forage and/or cultivated crops such as tubers. The study also reveals a significant positive relationship between latitude and δ15N values, suggesting increasing environmental aridity enriches δ15N in bone collagen. After controlling for this latitudinal effect, we observe a rise in δ15N values in both coastal and non-coastal camelids, suggesting that in later periods camelids may have been foddered in agricultural fields that were enriched with guano or dung fertilizer used to intensify production. Importantly, this research uncovers a distinct dietary divergence between coastal and inland camelids. The observed divergence in diets suggests contrasting socio-economic uses of camelids, where coastal camelids were predominantly involved in ceremonial and political activities, while those in non-coastal areas were crucial to the subsistence economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Neolithic (i.e., farming and stockbreeding) spread from the Near East across Europe since about 9000 years before the common era (BCE) until about 4000 yr BCE. It followed two main routes, namely a sea route along the northern Mediterranean coast and an inland one across the Balkans and central Europe. It is known that the dispersive behavior of farmers depended on geography, with longer movements along the Mediterranean coast than along the inland route. In sharp contrast, here we show that for both routes the percentage of farmers who interbred with hunter-gatherers and/or acculturated one of them was strikingly the same (about 3.6%). Therefore, whereas the dispersive behavior depended on the proximity to the Mediterranean sea, the interaction behavior (incorporation of hunter-gatherers) did not depend on geographical constraints but only on the transition in the subsistence economy (from hunting and gathering to farming) and its associated way of life. These conclusions are reached by analyzing the clines of haplogroup K, which was virtually absent in hunter-gatherers and the most frequent mitochondrial haplogroup in early farmers. Similarly, the most frequent Y-chromosome Neolithic haplogroup (G2a) displays an inland cline that agrees with the percentage of interbreeding reported above. The Neolithic transition spread across Europe via a coastal, southern route and an inland, central route. Here, the authors use haplogroup clines and space-time simulations to show that interbreeding between farmers and hunter-gatherers was the same along both routes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a broad overview of excavated animal taxa and methods of procurement at the Middle Iron Age site of Schroda (AD 900–1100), located in the Mapungubwe National Park. Here, a diverse animal resource base was exploited through various strategies – some of which drew on individual participation, while others relied on group effort and resource pooling. Cattle, sheep and goat herds provided a reliable supply of meat, milk and skins throughout the year, while a range of wild mammals, birds, reptiles and fish were also hunted, trapped and collected. Although procurement strategies and animals targeted generally remained unchanged for about 200 years, there is a small shift in the proportion of livestock relative to other animals and a related increase in the exploitation of wild animals. Reliance on a broad spectrum of subsistence strategies is often done as a risk management strategy in areas with unpredictable environmental conditions. Erratic rainfall patterns, evident at the end of the first millennium in the middle Limpopo Valley, would have necessitated such an approach. In addition, the updated taxonomic list for Schroda provides a deep-time record of animal presence and expands the former distribution ranges for some taxa in the Mapungubwe National Park area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a broad overview of excavated animal taxa and methods of procurement at the Middle Iron Age site of Schroda (AD 900–1100), located in the Mapungubwe National Park. Here, a diverse animal resource base was exploited through various strategies – some of which drew on individual participation, while others relied on group effort and resource pooling. Cattle, sheep and goat herds provided a reliable supply of meat, milk and skins throughout the year, while a range of wild mammals, birds, reptiles and fish were also hunted, trapped and collected. Although procurement strategies and animals targeted generally remained unchanged for about 200 years, there is a small shift in the proportion of livestock relative to other animals and a related increase in the exploitation of wild animals. Reliance on a broad spectrum of subsistence strategies is often done as a risk management strategy in areas with unpredictable environmental conditions. Erratic rainfall patterns, evident at the end of the first millennium in the middle Limpopo Valley, would have necessitated such an approach. In addition, the updated taxonomic list for Schroda provides a deep-time record of animal presence and expands the former distribution ranges for some taxa in the Mapungubwe National Park area.

This document is a correction notice for an article titled "The Myth of Man the Hunter: Women's contribution to the hunt across ethnographic contexts." The authors acknowledge concerns about the reliability and replicability of the results and provide additional methodological information to address these concerns. They clarify the definition of "forager" and explain the selection criteria for the included societies. The authors also outline the procedure for assessing the content and reliability of the research reports and describe the methods used for determining hunting behavior, game size categories, and game types. The updated data table with page numbers is provided as supporting information. [Extracted from the article]

Criminal capitalism, fuelled mainly by drug trafficking, creates social consensus and determines a social order that plays a not-always marginal role in the fragmented social reality of the contemporary capitalist mode of production. Drug trafficking not only feeds the sophisticated machine of corruption that reaches the highest institutional spheres, but, in some regions, also represents the only form of subsistence economy. The growing importance of criminal capitalism is in large part the consequence of financial liberalisation, which has facilitated the mechanisms for the laundering and illegal investment of accumulated wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a robust radiocarbon (14C) chronology for burials at Sakhtysh, in European Russia, where nearly 180 inhumations of Lyalovo and Volosovo pottery-using hunter-gatherer- fishers represent the largest known populations of both groups. Past dating attempts were restricted by poor understanding of dietary 14C reservoir effects (DREs). We developed a DRE correction approach that uses multiple linear regression of differences in 14C, d13C, and d15N between bones and teeth of the same individuals to predict DREs of up to approximately 900 years. Our chronological model dates Lyalovo burials to the early fifth millennium BCE, and Volosovo burials to the mid-fourth to early third millennium. It reveals a change in the subsistence economy at approximately 3300 BCE, coinciding with a reorientation of trade networks, and dates the final burial to the early Fatyanovo period, the regional expression of the Yamnaya/Corded Ware expansion. Our approach is applicable when freshwater 14C reservoir effects are poorly constrained and grave goods cannot be dated directly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current models of early human subsistence economies suggest a focus on large mammal hunting. To evaluate this hypothesis, we examine human bone stable isotope chemistry of 24 individuals from the early Holocene sites of Wilamaya Patjxa (9.0–8.7 cal. ka) and Soro Mik'aya Patjxa (8.0–6.5 cal. ka) located at 3800 meters above sea level on the Andean Altiplano, Peru. Contrary to expectation, Bayesian mixing models based on the isotope chemistry reveal that plants dominated the diet, comprising 70–95% of the average diet. Paleoethnobotanical data further show that tubers may have been the most prominent subsistence resource. These findings update our understanding of earliest forager economies and the pathway to agricultural economies in the Andean highlands. The findings furthermore suggest that the initial subsistence economies of early human populations adapting to new landscapes may have been more plant oriented than current models suggest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Through a preliminary analysis of animal remains from the large settlement site of Yucun, located east of the Longshan Mountain and associated with the Zhou people during the first half of the first millennium BC, the authors investigated the subsistence practices in relation to the exploitation of animal resources by the site's residents. The examination of animal species representation and the mortality profiles of major domesticates suggest similarities between Yucun and sites associated with the Qin people, located to the west of the Longshan Mountain. However, differences were observed when comparing Yucun to other contemporaneous sites in the middle and lower Yellow River valley. These patterns in animal use strategies appear to have been influenced by local environmental conditions. The first millennium BC saw the expansion of the Western Zhou dynasty in its northwestern frontier, alongside the rise and development of the Qin State in the Longshan Mountain region of northern China. Exploring the subsistence practices of these communities is crucial to gaining a better understanding of the social, cultural, and political landscape in this region at the time. While much of the research to date has focused on the Qin people, the subsistence practices of the Zhou people remain poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed animal remains from Yucun, a large settlement site associated with the Zhou people, located to the east of the Longshan Mountain. These animal remains were recovered in the excavation seasons of 2018–2020. Our results show that pigs, dogs, cattle, caprines, and horses, which were the major domestic animals at Yucun, accounted for over 90.8% of the animal remains examined in terms of the number of identified specimens (NISP) and 72.8% in terms of the minimum number of individuals (MNI), with cattle and caprines playing dominant roles. In terms of the taxonomic composition and the mortality profiles of pigs, caprines, and cattle, Yucun shared similarities with Maojiaping and Xishan, two contemporaneous Qin cultural sites located to the west of the Longshan Mountain, and differ from other farming societies in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River valley. Considering the cultural attributes and topographic conditions of these various sites, these findings imply that environmental conditions may have played a more significant role than cultural factors in shaping the animal-related subsistence practices in northern China during the first millennium BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical scholarship on twenty-first century capitalist development has called attention to certain structural limits on employment growth. Large populations excluded from formal employment are seen to eke out a precarious subsistence in informal economies, seemingly "surplus" to the needs of capital. This article, by contrast, aims to recast labor in the "peripheries," not as an externalized quantity redundant to emerging economic formations, but rather as integral if often hidden features of capitalist value extraction. Rethinking, in this way, "surplus populations," we argue for particular attention to the heterogeneity of contemporary capitalist labor arrangements and to associated patterns of ideological devaluation, which underpin capitalist markets in the South and East as well as in peripheralized spaces in the North and West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropologists have long studied how small-scale societies manage climate variation. Here, we investigate how Yucatec Maya subsistence farmers respond to climate stress, and the ways in which market integration may enhance or disturb response stategies. Using information on harvest returns, climate perceptions, household economics and helping networks, modelling results show that as farmers rely more on market inputs (e.g. seed, tractors, fertilizer) for a successful yield, the reasons given for a bad harvest shift from climate variables to access to quality inputs. We also find that social and economic diversification is key to mediating a household's experience of climate and market shocks. The Maya are astute stewards of climate knowledge, and have effective social and economic means to mitigate potential fluctuations in food availability. In the transition from a subsistence to a market integrated economy, these traditional strategies become strained. Reliance on market inputs forges a more rigid food production system that conflicts with the diversity and flexibility on which traditional strategies depend to manage climate variation. Moving forward, the best policies would be those that facilitate maintaining an equal footing in both a subsistence maize economy, while incorporating new market opportunities. This article is part of the theme issue 'Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural–urban migration is the most adopted strategy in rural areas to overcome the risk associated with subsistence economy and to diversify income. The Garhwal Himalaya has the highest rate of rural–urban migration in India, which has serious repercussions. Despite this, there is a dearth of literature on the implications of rural–urban migration in the region. This paper attempts to fill this void. The objectives of the paper are to investigate various types, patterns, determinants, and implications of rural–urban migration in the Garhwal Himalaya. In order to meet the objectives, 15 villages were studied from five districts of the Garhwal Himalaya. A comprehensive questionnaire with diverse set of questions from various dimensions was employed in the study. Several migration related questions from both origin and destination were considered while framing and conducting the survey. Several focused group discussions and interviews were conducted in the study villages to understand the real drivers and implications of rural–urban migration in the region. The study reveals that rural–urban migration is a serious issue in Garhwal Himalayas, posing various socio-economic problems. Without immediate action, it will have serious repercussions. Finally, this study suggests minimizing the current rate of rural–urban migration in the Garhwal Himalaya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indigenous village of Bykovskiy is located 40 km from Tiksi, the administrative center of Bulunskiy District (Ulus), in the northern part of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutiya), Russia. Founded as a Soviet fishing cooperative, it became home to Indigenous Sakha, Evenkis, Evens, as well as to Russian settlers and political prisoners from the Baltic states. Post-Soviet transformations, coupled with escalating environmental change processes, has been altering the local economy and subsistence activities since the 1990s. Although our interlocutors directly observed and experienced such changes, they seemed to ignore the visible problem of severe coastal erosion that was destroying a local cemetery. This article is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the study region in 2019, and combines approaches from the anthropology of climate change with reception and communication studies. It examines "ignorance" as a strategy of adaptation to multiple stressors under historically reproduced colonial structures of governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a comprehensive evaluation of stables and pens in settlements of the Urartian Kingdom period. Urartian royal inscriptions contain references to such structures; however, the interpretation of their functions, the translation, and the meaning of these words remain ambiguous. Considering that the subsistence economy in the landscape ruled over by this kingdom was mainly based on animal husbandry, evidence for stables/corrals and sheepfolds/pens in the archaeological record appears elusive. For this reason, this study first evaluates textual evidence and then moves on to reanalyze archaeological remains obtained from Urartian royal settlements and lower towns together with the results of ethnographic research conducted in the region, and it suggests new interpretations for the functions of relevant architectural remains at Urartian settlements to identify the structures that may have served as pens and stables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mundo Agrario is the property of Universidad Nacional de La Plata and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Forest-steppe fires (i.e., wildfires on grassland or forest) have serious impacts on ecosystems and economies in many countries. Many researchers, such as ecologists, meteorologists, geographers, and economists, have studied the causes and results of such wildfires from macro viewpoints. However, prior studies on the social impacts of disasters in Mongolia have mainly focused on zuds, which are harsh snow storms that occur regularly and affect the entire country. In contrast, forest-steppe fires have a limited range and are generally restricted to a certain part of the country, specifically the forest-steppe zone. This study describes the impact of fires and firefighting activities in Mongolia, focusing on the eastern borderland between Russia and China.The main case study was conducted in Eastern Mongolia bordering Russia; however, as forest-steppe fires are moving disasters, fires occasionally cross social boundaries and both domestic and international borders. Additionally, as fires move with the wind, some fires that impact Mongolia originate in Russia.We found a high contrast between damaged and non-damaged places in terms of the loss incurred as a result of the fire. Whether an area is affected depends not only on its distance from fires’ points of origin but also on fire path and speed, which are influenced by wind direction, geography, road network (which can operate as natural and human-made firebreak or fire blocker) and human efforts.

Long considered on the margins, far from the major cultural traditions, the Sechura Desert is situated at the crossroads between the cultures of southern Ecuador and those of the northern Peruvian coast and preserves a large number of varied archaeological sites. Despite this evidence, little is known about the societies that inhabited this region during the Holocene. Exposed to natural hazards, including El Niño events, and to major climatic changes, they were able to adapt and exploit the scarce resources that this extreme environment offered them. Because of this rich history, we have been conducting archaeological research in this region since 2012 in order to clarify the dynamics of human occupation and their links with climate oscillations and environmental changes. This paper present the results of a multidisciplinary study of Huaca Grande, a mound located on Nunura Bay, 300 m from the Pacific Ocean. The nature of the human occupations at Huaca Grande was varied, and several adjustments occurred over time. The subsistence economy was based mainly on local marine resources and a continual use of terrestrial vegetal resources. However, a major change occurred in the more recent occupations, with the apparition of non-local resources (maize and cotton) indicating that Huaca Grande was connected to trade networks. The results show two main phases of occupation separated by a long abandonment (mid-5th century CE to mid-7th century CE and mid-13th century to mid-15th century CE). The occupation of the site appears to have been influenced by changes in the local climate and by extreme El Niño events. Our results highlight the great adaptability of these human groups over the span of a millennium and their capacity to react to the climatic changes and hazards that characterise this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of the Mostiștea River Project in the 1960s, Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic lowland dwelling sites were searched for in the vicinity of the Sultana-Malu Roșu tell. On the plateau, structures were excavated again in 2021 in Sultana-Ghețărie, which provide corresponding evidence for BoianVidra and Gumelniţa connections. Of great interest here are, on the one hand, the evidence for settlement activities on the terrace plateau before and during the tell settlement of Sultana, and on the other hand, in particular, a Cernavodă III feature (ca. 3600–3500 BCE). Compared to find assemblages of the mid-5th millennium (Boian-Vidra), the material culture from this context is characterised by reduced decoration rates and a reduced range of decoration techniques in pottery and probably primary flint tool production on site. The composition of the archaeozoological assemblage from the Cernavodă III feature, compared to the final Tell Sultana-Malu Roşu phase (ca. 4200 BCE), indicates that hunting played only a very minor role in securing subsistence and that the communities living here may have had a rather mobile (semi-nomadic) settlement behaviour. This would fit with the frequent occurrence of Stipa Awns, which seems to indicate a greater openness of the landscape and the associated spread of steppe vegetation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Selcuk University Social Sciences Institute Journal is the property of Selcuk University Social Sciences Institute Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The first millennium BC saw the expansion of the Western Zhou dynasty in its northwestern frontier, alongside the rise and development of the Qin State in the Longshan Mountain region of northern China. Exploring the subsistence practices of these communities is crucial to gaining a better understanding of the social, cultural, and political landscape in this region at the time. While much of the research to date has focused on the Qin people, the subsistence practices of the Zhou people remain poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed animal remains from Yucun, a large settlement site associated with the Zhou people, located to the east of the Longshan Mountain. These animal remains were recovered in the excavation seasons of 2018–2020. Our results show that pigs, dogs, cattle, caprines, and horses, which were the major domestic animals at Yucun, accounted for over 90.8% of the animal remains examined in terms of the number of identified specimens (NISP) and 72.8% in terms of the minimum number of individuals (MNI), with cattle and caprines playing dominant roles. In terms of the taxonomic composition and the mortality profiles of pigs, caprines, and cattle, Yucun shared similarities with Maojiaping and Xishan, two contemporaneous Qin cultural sites located to the west of the Longshan Mountain, and differ from other farming societies in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River valley. Considering the cultural attributes and topographic conditions of these various sites, these findings imply that environmental conditions may have played a more significant role than cultural factors in shaping the animal-related subsistence practices in northern China during the first millennium BC.

Zooarchaeological approach has been effective in providing insights into human subsistence practices, which laid essential economic foundation for social, cultural, and political developments in the past. The Guanzhong region in northern China played a crucial role in the origins and evolution of ancient Chinese civilization. Previous research on subsistence economies of ancient societies in the Guanzhong region, human exploitation of animal resources in particular, has largely focused on the late Neolithic period or the Bronze Age. Insufficient work has been done for historical periods post-dating the end of the first millennium BCE. There is also a dearth of research on the long-term chronological changes. Here, we present a preliminary analysis of animal remains from the Nantou Locale of the Xitou site, a large settlement located in the northern Guanzhong region. Results show that pigs played a dominant role in the site’s animal economy during the Neolithic Yangshao and Longshan periods (ca. 5000–2000 BCE). The growing importance of cattle and caprines was documented for the Bronze Age Western Zhou period (ca. 11th-8th centuries BCE). In the Han-Tang periods (ca. second century BCE-tenth century CE), pigs regained their significance in local subsistence practices. Differences in the strategies for animal resource exploitation were possibly associated with changing social and environmental factors. Alongside other relevant archaeological evidence, our zooarchaeological data demonstrate the contribution of diversified animal use strategies to sustained development of subsistence economy in the northern Guanzhong region across millennia. The examination of long-term human-animal interactions in the Guanzhong region allows for a better understanding of changing economic, social, and political landscapes in ancient China.

Alaska Native corporations face a dilemma. They own land of immense and significant cultural and ecological value. Their lands are critical for maintaining the Alaska Natives' subsistence needs. But they are also corporations established under the law to maximize the economic value of their land holdings to provide financial dividends to their Native shareholders. This paper explores the enhanced federal tax incentive for donations of perpetual conservation easements that became available in 2015 to Alaska Native corporations. The tax incentive offers Alaska Native corporations a way to protect the aboriginal lands conveyed to them under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act while reaping the potential economic value of those lands. This paper also summarizes certain legal issues that are likely to occur in donated conservation easement transactions and offers guidance on how to address each issue. These issues include, among others: (1) how to qualify the conservation easement under state and federal law; (2) whether to have a nonprofit land trust, government agency or an Alaska Native tribal entity hold the conservation easement and how to make them eligible to do so; (3) how to handle the fee estates split between the Alaska Native village corporation (typical owner of the surface estate) and the Alaska Native regional corporation (typical owner of the subsurface estate); (4) whether to include subsistence uses as a conservation value to be permanently protected under the conservation easement; (5) how to address certain appraisal rules to properly substantiate the value of the conservation easement for federal charitable deduction purposes; and (6) if some funding is available for the conservation easement, whether and how to structure and substantiate the transaction as a bargain sale under applicable federal tax rules. The authors conclude that under the right circumstances, making use of the enhanced federal tax incentive for conservation easements may be just the tool Alaska Native corporations need to protect the subsistence value of their lands while also boosting their bottom lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Money has been portrayed by major theorists as an agent of individualism, an instrument of freedom, a currency that removes personal values attached to things, and a generator of avarice. Regardless, the impact of money varies greatly with the cultural turf of the recipient societies. For traditional subsistence economies based on gifting and sharing, surplus perishable resources foraged from the environment carry low costs to the giver compared with the benefits to the receiver.With cash, costs to the giver are usually the same as benefits to the receiver, making sharing expensive and introducing new choices. Using quantitative data on possessions and expenditures collected over a 44-y period from 1974 to 2018 among the Ju/’hoansi (!Kung) in southern Africa, former hunter-gatherers, we look at how individuals spend monetary income, how a partial monetary economy alters traditional norms and institutions (egalitarianism, gifting, and sharing), and how institutions from the past steer change. Results show that gifting declines as cash is spent to increase the well-being of individual families and that gifting and sharing decrease and networks narrow. The sharing of meals and casual gifting hold fast. Substantial material inequalities develop, even between neighbors, but social, gender, and political equalities persist. A strong tradition for individual autonomy combined with monetary income allows individuals to spend their money as they choose, adapt to modern conditions, and pursue new options. However, new challenges are emerging to develop greater community cooperation and build substantial and sustainable economies in the face of such centrifugal forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Turkish Journal of Public Health is the property of Turkish Journal of Public Health and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Taihu Lake region is an important area where China's rice agriculture originated and where early Chinese civilisation formed. Knowing how this ecologically sensitive area's Neolithic residents adapted to environmental changes and utilised natural resources is key to understanding the origins of their agricultural practices and civilisation. Focusing on food resources, we systematically organised data from archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological research, human bone stable isotopic analyses, and fatty acid and proteome residue analyses on the Taihu Lake area's Neolithic findings to explore the interrelationships between subsistence, the environment, and society through qualitative and quantitative analysis supported by paleoenvironmental and archaeological evidence. The results showed that during the Neolithic era (7.0–4.3 ka BP), under a suitable climate with stable freshwater wetland environments, 38 varieties of edible animals and plants were available to humans in the Taihu Lake area. Despite agriculture being an important food source, rice cultivation and husbandry developed at different paces. Paddy rice cultivation began in wetlands and had always dominated the subsistence economy, as although gathering was universal and diverse, it produced a relatively low volume of food. In contrast, husbandry did not provide sufficient meat throughout the 2000 years of the Majiabang and Songze Cultures. Thus, fishing for freshwater organisms and hunting for wild mammals were the main meat sources before the domestication of pigs became the primary source of meat during the Liangzhu Cultural period. With the available wetland ecological resources and paddy rice farming (the sole crop), the Taihu Lake area transformed into an agricultural society in which rice cultivation dominated the Songze Culture's subsistence economy, which was also the first to exhibit social complexity. Then, finally, early civilisation developed in the Liangzhu Cultural period. This study contributes to understanding the unique evolutionary path of early Chinese civilisation and has important implications on sustainable resource utilisation for constructing ecological civilisations in present-day societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest-steppe fires (i.e., wildfires on grassland or forest) have serious impacts on ecosystems and economies in many countries. Many researchers, such as ecologists, meteorologists, geographers, and economists, have studied the causes and results of such wildfires from macro viewpoints. However, prior studies on the social impacts of disasters in Mongolia have mainly focused on zuds, which are harsh snow storms that occur regularly and affect the entire country. In contrast, forest-steppe fires have a limited range and are generally restricted to a certain part of the country, specifically the forest-steppe zone. This study describes the impact of fires and firefighting activities in Mongolia, focusing on the eastern borderland between Russia and China. The main case study was conducted in Eastern Mongolia bordering Russia; however, as forest-steppe fires are moving disasters, fires occasionally cross social boundaries and both domestic and international borders. Additionally, as fires move with the wind, some fires that impact Mongolia originate in Russia. We found a high contrast between damaged and non-damaged places in terms of the loss incurred as a result of the fire. Whether an area is affected depends not only on its distance from fires' points of origin but also on fire path and speed, which are influenced by wind direction, geography, road network (which can operate as natural and human-made firebreak or fire blocker) and human efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inter-personal violence (whether intra- or inter-group) is a pervasive yet highly variable human behavior. Evolutionary anthropologists suggest that the abundance and distribution of resources play an important role in influencing differences in rates of violence, with implications for how resource conditions structure adaptive payoffs. Here, we assess whether differences in large-scale ecological conditions explain variability in levels of inter-personal human violence. Model results reveal a significant relationship between resource conditions and violence that is mediated by subsistence economy. Specifically, we find that interpersonal violence is highest: (1) among foragers and mixed forager/farmers (horticulturalists) in productive, homogeneous environments, and (2) among agriculturalists in unproductive, heterogeneous environments. We argue that the trend reversal between foragers and agriculturalists represents differing competitive pathways to enhanced reproductive success. These alternative pathways may be driven by features of subsistence (i.e., surplus, storage, mobility, privatization), in which foragers use violence to directly acquire fitness-linked social payoffs (i.e., status, mating opportunities, alliances), and agriculturalists use violence to acquire material resources that can be transformed into social payoffs. We suggest that as societies transition from immediate return economies (e.g., foragers) to delayed return economies (e.g., agriculturalists) material resources become an increasingly important adaptive payoff for inter-personal, especially inter-group, violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of salt in human and animal diets suggests that the local resources of saline soils, watercourses, and marshes with saline water had to be well known to past populations. Based on the analysis of the environs of a large number of Late Neolithic and Early Eneolithic sites, this research assumes the great importance of such resources. This paper examines the spatial relationships between settlements and these resources, in the example of five Late Neolithic settlements from the territories of the Pannonian Plain and the Central Balkans. The goals of the research are to provide an initial step in the reconstruction of potential locations for salt exploitation, and provide a better understanding of each settlement and, subsequently, its role and function in the local Neolithic settlement system. The research considers previously published results of the pedological analysis of the settlement environments and archaeological investigations of the settlements. If certain micro-regions and regions did not provide possibilities for the extraction of salt for both animal and human utilisation, salt, and probably cattle, had to be procured through exchange networks. However, if livestock could not be grazed in areas abundant in salt, then salt would have to be added to the animals’ diet. We conclude that Late Neolithic settlements should not be observed in isolation, but rather аs parts of wider settlement systems including exchange networks with salt as a major commodity. This represents one of the crucial factors for the understanding of cultural development during the 5th millennium BC.

Zooarchaeology studies the human-animal interactions over long periods, and can be used to evaluate the sustainable exploitation of animal resources. Sika deer (Cervus nippon), a National Class Ⅰ protected wild animal species of China, used to be commonly found at Neolithic sites across China. In the Yangtze River region, although the Neolithic faunal assemblages show diversity in deer species, sika deer has always been one of the most important components. This research aims at discussing the exploitation of the environmental resources via the hunting strategy of sika deer at Tianluoshan, a Neolithic site in the lower Yangtze River region. The cull pattern and sex ratio of sika deer are reconstructed to display the pattern of prey selection. The results show a specific pattern targeting larger individuals including adults and juveniles, and targeting male over female. This pattern is able to maximize the yield, and keep the deer population sustainable. The sustainable hunting of sika deer probably is why the Tianluoshan site lasted for nearly a thousand years, during which sika deer had been a major prey for meat.

The nutritional impact of food insecurity (i.e., the reduced quality and accessibility of nutritional foods) is well researched in Guam. However, the adaptive strategies of Guam's food insecure communities, such as the Chuukese community, are not as well explored. This study investigated the adaptive strategies utilized by Guam's Chuukese community, and the strategies traditionally utilized in Chuuk. Such strategies provided insight into the relationship between culture, socioeconomic status, and the bare necessity of food. From a pool of food insecure Chuukese households (identified via the USDA survey module), nine participants were interviewed using basic interpretative qualitative interviews. Results were analyzed using constant comparative methodology, and four main thematic categories were formed. These categories identified adaptive strategies that highlighted the differences between Chuuk's traditional subsistence economy and Guam's cash economy. Participants utilized adaptive strategies that optimized resources outside the household; lowered food costs; used entrepreneurship for supplemental income; and managed food supplies. Due to the emphasis on subsistence culture, and the strain of a western cash economy, findings indicated that food security within the Chuukese community would improve with targeted urban agricultural practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fish are critical ecologically and socioeconomically for subsistence economies in the Arctic, an ecosystem undergoing unprecedented environmental change. Our understanding of the responses of nearshore Arctic fishes to environmental change is inadequate because of limited research on the physicochemical drivers of abundance occurring at a fine scale. Here, high‐frequency in situ measurements of pH, temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen were paired with daily fish catches in nearshore Alaskan waters of the Beaufort Sea. Due to the threat that climate change poses to high‐latitude marine ecosystems, our main objective was to characterize the abiotic drivers of abundance and elucidate how nearshore fish communities may change in the future. We used generalized additive models (GAMs) to describe responses to the nearshore environment for 18 fish species. Relationships between abundance and the physicochemical environment were variable between species and reflected life history. Each abiotic covariate was significant in at least one GAM, exhibiting both nonlinear and linear associations with abundance. Temperature was the most important predictor of abundance and was significant in GAMs for 11 species. Notably, pH was a significant predictor of abundance for six species: Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida), broad whitefish (Coregonus nasus), Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma), ninespine stickleback (Pungitius pungitius), saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis), and whitespotted greenling (Hexagrammos stelleri). Broad whitefish and whitespotted greenling abundance was positively associated with pH, while Arctic cod and saffron cod abundance was negatively associated with pH. These results may be a bellwether for future nearshore Arctic fish community change by providing a foundational characterization of the relationships between abundance and the abiotic environment, particularly in regard to pH, and demonstrate the importance of including a wider range of physicochemical habitat covariates in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition to agriculture is regarded as a major turning point in human history. In the present contribution we propose to look at it through the lens of ethnographic data by means of a machine learning approach. More specifically, we analyse both the subsistence economies and the socioecological context of 1290 societies documented in the Ethnographic Atlas with a threefold purpose: (i) to better understand the variability and success of human economic choices; (ii) to assess the role of environmental settings in the configuration of the different subsistence economies; and (iii) to examine the relevance of fishing in the development of viable alternatives to cultivation. All data were extracted from the publicly available cross-cultural database D-PLACE. Our results suggest that not all subsistence combinations are viable, existing just a subset of successful economic choices that appear recurrently in specific ecological systems. The subsistence economies identified are classified as either primary or mixed economies in accordance with an information-entropy-based quantitative criterion that determines their degree of diversification. Remarkably, according to our results, mixed economies are not a marginal choice, as they constitute 25% of the cases in our data sample. In addition, fishing seems to be a key element in the configuration of mixed economies, as it is present across all of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ghost Islands is a series of installations which investigates numerous fishing related activities, invisible stories, and multiple cultures. As part of a network of artworks set up in different regions of Asia, it addresses the issue of fishing nets discarded or lost at sea, as well as the health of our oceans, corals, and sea creatures. Shaped in the form of a group of islands and made from a complex assemblage of bamboo poles and disused fishing nets, Ghost Islands are composed by the accumulation and stratification of these numerous, yet distinct, layers. In addition, the construction of each new island helps to clean up the marine ecosystem through the collection of the nets from the surrounding sea. This process also engages with activist divers and establishes connections with fisherman to create new domestic products with the broken nylon threads of the collected nets.

The Taihu Lake region is an important area where China’s rice agriculture originated and where early Chinese civilisation formed. Knowing how this ecologically sensitive area’s Neolithic residents adapted to environmental changes and utilised natural resources is key to understanding the origins of their agricultural practices and civilisation. Focusing on food resources, we systematically organised data from archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological research, human bone stable isotopic analyses, and fatty acid and proteome residue analyses on the Taihu Lake area’s Neolithic findings to explore the interrelationships between subsistence, the environment, and society through qualitative and quantitative analysis supported by paleoenvironmental and archaeological evidence. The results showed that during the Neolithic era (7.0–4.3 ka BP), under a suitable climate with stable freshwater wetland environments, 38 varieties of edible animals and plants were available to humans in the Taihu Lake area. Despite agriculture being an important food source, rice cultivation and husbandry developed at different paces. Paddy rice cultivation began in wetlands and had always dominated the subsistence economy, as although gathering was universal and diverse, it produced a relatively low volume of food. In contrast, husbandry did not provide sufficient meat throughout the 2000 years of the Majiabang and Songze Cultures. Thus, fishing for freshwater organisms and hunting for wild mammals were the main meat sources before the domestication of pigs became the primary source of meat during the Liangzhu Cultural period. With the available wetland ecological resources and paddy rice farming (the sole crop), the Taihu Lake area transformed into an agricultural society in which rice cultivation dominated the Songze Culture’s subsistence economy, which was also the first to exhibit social complexity. Then, finally, early civilisation developed in the Liangzhu Cultural period. This study contributes to understanding the unique evolutionary path of early Chinese civilisation and has important implications on sustainable resource utilisation for constructing ecological civilisations in present-day societies.

Mixed economies provide a unique context for testing theories of fertility change. Because they have a stake in two traditions, mixed-economy households balance the demands of both a labor-based subsistence economy, which benefits from a large family, and a wage-labor economy, which benefits from reduced fertility. Additionally, household size changes over the course of its life-cycle and shapes available economic opportunities. Here we argue that in mixed economies, fertility may reflect opportunities for livelihood diversity rather than simply responding to the restricted socioeconomic benefits of small families. While low fertility may in some cases have an economic benefit, low fertility can also limit the livelihood diversity of a household which is a key strategy for long-term economic success. We test this prediction with longitudinal data from a Maya community undergoing both a sustained decline in fertility and rapid integration into the market economy. Using household-level fertility, number of adults, and livelihood diversity at two time points, we find that household size is positively related to livelihood diversity, which in turn is positively related to household income per-capita. However, household size also has a negative association with income per capita. The results reflect a balancing act whereby households attempt to maximize the economic diversity with as few members as possible. Broadly, these results suggest that theories of fertility decline must account for how households pool resources and diversify economic activities in the face of increasing market integration, treating fertility as both an outcome and an input into economic and reproductive decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban space is monetized. Survival in urban areas is therefore largely dependent on the dictates of methodological individualism, capitalist norms and values, which are invariably linked to rent-seeking and instrumentalism in most urban transactions. The urban poor in Ghana, who are mostly informal sector workers, face enormous challenges in transacting with banks and other financial institutions. This challenge, however, does not prevent them from participating in the money market. They devise strategies of savings and acquiring loans largely on interest-free basis. They also invest in informal activities to financially secure themselves and their future. This paper discusses the mechanisms that regulate the institutionalization of informal savings and investments in urban poor communities in Accra and Winneba in Ghana. It is based on a qualitative research conducted between 2014 and 2016 with 133 participants in four Ghanaian communities using purposive sampling technique. The study employs the concept of equality matching to discuss urban financial common strategies. The paper attempts to debunk the hegemony of the capitalist profit perspective in urban transactions, emphasizing that the urban poor in Ghana mobilize their finances through established social relations with largely no profit-making in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stone knife and stone muller are common artefacts belonging to the Neolithic period sites in the Yangtze River Basin, China. The Dawangling archaeological site is an important Neolithic site located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River. One stone knife and one stone muller were excavated from the Neolithic layer and examined using starch residue analysis to determine the functions of these tools. More than 165 starch granules and a few bordered pits of tracheid were retrieved from the residues of these stone tools. The results of starch granule analysis show that stone knife and stone muller were probably agricultural processing tools for ancient humans at the Dawangling site during the Neolithic period and hint at the possible existence of a broadspectrum subsistence economy during the Neolithic period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the role of high‐yielding maize varieties as one of the key drivers of smallholder farmers' market participation in a highly subsistence rural economy. The analysis is based on the End‐of‐Program Survey data collected by the Seeds of Life program in 2016 covering 700 households in rural Timor‐Leste. The results reveal significant positive impacts of technology adoption on farmers' market participation. Households where women are relatively more active in agriculture than men are more likely to engage in agricultural commerce. The results also show a positive impact of technology adoption on maize productivity. These findings present the first empirical evidence of the causal link between technology adoption and market participation choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of ESTOA: Revista de la Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo de la Universidad de Cuenca is the property of ESTOA Revista de la Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo de la Universidad de Cuenca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

30 years after socialism many groups of Evenki reindeer herders failed to survive in the suboreal taiga of East Siberia. By making reference to two case studies from the northern part of the Zabaikal region and southern part of the Republic of Sakha, this article shows how the successful continuation of reindeer herding is based on the ability of charismatic leaders mobilising Evenki communities around reindeer herding and subsistence economies. This success also relies on connection to different agents of power in local administrations, large cities and governments and the use of all of the available opportunities that infrastructure or economic agents can offer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farming economy was first introduced to the coastal areas of Southern France by Impressa groups (ca. 5850–5650 cal BC), originating from Italy, and subsequently spread to the hinterland by Cardial/Epicardial communities (ca. 5400–4500 cal BC). Fruit and seed remains preserved in archaeological sites provide direct evidence of the botanical resources cultivated and collected by these ancient social groups. But the transition from hunter-gathering to agricultural subsistence strategies is still poorly known in the area, due to insufficient and sometimes outdated archaeobotanical studies. Here we present new results and a critical review of all the available archaeobotanical data, in order to characterize food plant resources, cultivation practices and their variations in time and space. The archaeological dataset is composed of 19 sites (20 site/phases) mostly located in the Mediterranean lowlands. Our results demonstrate that farming economy of the Impressa groups was focused on the cultivation of hulled wheats, with only slight differences compared to their South Italian origins. The contribution of naked cereals increased in the Cardial/Epicardial agriculture, in agreement with the situation in other areas of the Western Mediterranean. The subsistence economy of hinterland sites seems to include a wider contribution of wild fruits and more limited contribution of crops. However, the poor evidence of cultivation activities in the hinterland is likely due first to the difficulties to find and excavate the sites and perform large-scale archaeobotanical sampling. It is likely that agriculture played a significant but variable role between sites and territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on development of tertiary education in Colombia is undergoing a crisis of a not only temporary nature, due to the phenomenon of the COVID-19 pandemic. It mentions research to contribute to the development of the country in the face of an accumulation of needs that have not yet been covered even at the minimum level of subsistence. It also mentions strengthening of the doctoral development process and transformations for country in framework of equity and social justice.

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Roman necropolis in Carrer Quart in Valencia (Spain) is the city's oldest known cemetery, dating from between the second century BC and third century AD. Based on its archaeological and bioanthropological analysis, we examine various hitherto unknown issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. By using isotopic archaeochemistry, various aspects, such as those concerning funerary practices, social stratification, paleodemography, quality of life, and the impact of disease, food, and the subsistence economy, as well as population mobility, have enriched our knowledge of the landscape of the old town. Science and memory converge in Valentia through the culture and traditions documented in the funerary ritual (funus valentiae). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private firms are uniquely positioned to provide significant relief to the misery that pervades the developing world. Global misery has persisted due to a variety of failures in the provision of relief by nation-states and non-governmental organizations, including corruption and the absence of strong background institutions in the countries in need of aid. In many situations, private firms have a comparative advantage over these entities in the provision of aid. Examples such as Merck and the cure for river blindness show how firms can use their specific competencies and knowledge to relieve misery through Direct Corporate Humanitarian Investment (DCHI). DCHl is legitimized by marketplace morality and is consistent with the role of business within society, including legal dimensions. Shareholders may formally approve a corporation's DCHI strategy and all stakeholders may act in support of their moral desires with respect to the firm and its DCHI strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper combines the historical analysis of the social transformation of rural Hungary with the evolution of the sociological concept of ‘peasant embourgeoisment’. The authors highlight the long lasting impact of the concept in the understanding of academic knowledge production. The concept was the product of thorough ethnographic studies in the inter- and postwar periods by scholarly intellectuals, whose aim went beyond academic purposes and translated into a political agenda of rural modernization. To make such a methodological combination the authors demonstrate that the global historical context is necessary in the understanding of how knowledge production occurs and interacts at various historical conjunctures, especially during periods of crises.

While most of the advanced economies are facing saturated markets, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been touted a stable and attractive investment region averaging 5.4%growth since 1980. In 2013, ASEANovertook China as the top foreign direct investment destination. Boasting the world's fifth largest economy with over 650 million people and 400 million reaching middle class, ASEAN has commendably transitioned from a subsistence economy to product and service industries. Despite the success, many live in marginalized areas without access to banking facilities. Advancing internet capability and availability present investors an opportunity to offer financial technology, or Fintech, to meet the need for financial services in this digital era. The aim of this research is to identify the countries with the highest need for financial inclusion and, hence, the best potential for Fintech growth. The results may help governments formulate policy that improves investment competitiveness. The methodology includes identifying relevant criteria and allocating weight to each criterion to evaluate the best international markets. The findings show Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia as the countries with the highest potential. The associated risks and opportunities are discussed, followed by managerial implications, limitations, and recommendations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]