The Ecology of the Barí: Rainforest Horticulturalists of Latin America

4. Production

CHAPTER 4 Production The natural environment is always a place of variable food availability. A major issue for subsistence economy human populations is stabilizing the supply of food. The field of human ecology has been criticized for its excessive emphasis on how populations achieve and/or maintain homeostasis, and the point is in general well taken. Human beings do not as a rule maintain stationary populations, or seek to; history is full of examples of burgeoning populations linked to expanding territories and ravaged resources— and of displaced and conquered neighbors who suffer the consequences of these disequilibria. Contrariwise, one does not have to look far in history books to find examples of populations—sometimes those of whole continents —shrinking with catastrophic speed. And with regard to the means of supporting human populations, history is full of instances of the adoption of new subsistence techniques that are more (or occasionally less) productive than those they replace: new tools, new ways of using them, new crops—and the abandonment of old ones—not to mention the extinction of numerous wild local species and the introduction of foreign species to new habitats. Clearly, such changes may disequilibrate the populations whose food they provide. Nevertheless, it will not do to throw the dietary baby out with the ecological bathwater. All people want their daily bread or its local equivalent. The avoidance of a subsistence shortfall is a universal concern. And it is usually only after the introduction of substantial long-distance commerce that the production of a food surplus, that is, beyond what can be consumed locally, becomes a goal. In an egalitarian subsistence economy, in particular one with a high degree of family and local group autonomy, most people happily turn from the food quest to alternative activities as Production 83 soon as they have assured themselves enough to eat and a comfortable margin against misfortune. The Barí are no exception. Their subsistence problem is assuring a regular supply of food in the face of an irregular environment. They have no use for a food surplus above a reasonable excess for the possibility of adversity and the demands of hospitality. They are few enough (for reasons discussed in subsequent chapters) that in traditional times their nutritional demands constituted no threat to the natural environment. The issue for the Barí, then, is a constant need for food in an inconstant environment. Inconstancy in this context has two faces. On the spatial scale, as one ascends the slopes of western and southern Motilonia, the rivers are smaller than in their lower courses, and run straighter and faster. Pockets of alluvium, furnishing agriculturally desirable soils such as Tropaquepts and Eutropepts, become fewer and smaller with increasing altitude. Horticulture is more laborious. Also, fish are smaller and less abundant (although sometimes more visible). Game, however, may be more abundant at higher elevations and hunting more productive, as there is less intense hunting pressure here compared to the lowlands. Many gathered food items appear to be spatially restricted by such factors as soil type, proximity to rivers, and other less sweeping patterns, as well as by altitude. On the temporal scale, a field that is slashed just at the end of the major wet season and left to lie in the sun throughout much of the dry season will burn well. Because thoroughness of burn has agricultural implications , horticultural productivity may be related to the timing of field preparation. Fishing returns are strongly related to rainfall, as rain generates fish migrations and controls water clarity and depth. In contrast to the strong seasonality of fishing productivity, we have discovered no significant effect of seasonality per se on the abundance of terrestrial or arboreal game. Many gathered foods, however, are fruits with a seasonal peak of abundance. Despite the spatiotemporal inconstancy of their natural environment, the Barí manage to provide themselves with a continuously adequate supply of food. We can expect that the Barí, like the great majority of peoples—like the great majority of organisms, in fact—are rate maximizers in their subsistence activities. That is, while engaged in subsistence activities, they try to obtain their food at the greatest rate achievable, to maximize the quotient of food obtained per time spent obtaining it. There is considerable evidence, summarized below, that this expectation is generally met. However, there are additional questions that arise in the 84 The Ecology of the Barí context of maximization.This chapter...