Tamana: a Study of a Reef Island Community

<p>This thesis is an exploration of the factors which give the tiny reef island of Tamana, in what is today the nation of Kiribati, its particular character. The research falls into three main sections. The first reviews the available documentary sources in order to build up an understanding of the settlement of the region by Micronesian peoples, the character of the island environment they encountered and the economy and society that developed. The changes resulting from the expansion of western capitalism into the region are then described. This material provides the context for the contemporary household-based study presented in the second section. This presents the findings of twelve month's field study of sixteen Tamana households. It considers household structure and, organisation, access to resources, patterns of tine allocation as well as the character of the subsistence and cash economies, their relationship to each other and the extent to which the household economy has become incorporated into the market economy of the outside world. The third section draws both sets of material together to consider issues of change and development and the likely future character of Tamana. The initial settlement of Tamana by Micronesian people led to some environmental modification and the introduction of new plant species. However, the system that evolved could be considered an autarkic man/environment system where a fluctuating balance between man and resources was maintained through drought-associated mortality. With the arrival of the whalers, traders, missionaries and colonial officials Tamana ceased to operate as an isolated entity and the changes which ensued resulted in the external relationships, through trade, employment and aid becoming increasingly important in determining the character of economic life on Tamana. In several important respects the process of incorporation into the market economy evident on Tamana differs from that encounted in other subsistence economies subject to similar influences. Colonial policy, in recognition of the high population densities and, obviously limited resources, discouraged the establishment of a plantation economy. The limiting atoll environment restricted the choice of cash crops to the coconut which was already an important element in the vegetation and whose productivity could be maintained with little intensification of labour inputs. The subsistence economy thus was able to maintain its vitality and enabled the islanders to oscillate between the subsistence and market economy as market conditions dictated. This is reinforced by the fact that some 45 percent of household income comes from outside the village economy through remittances and gifts, thus underlining the significance of Tamana as a "straddled economy" where the household depends on local production and wages earned in employment in either the phosphate workings or urban employment away from the island. For these reasons the commitment to the cash economy on Tamana is not strong. Because of the heavy emphasis of government spending on welfare and service spending and the emergence of a large, aid-dependent bureaucracy at the administrative centre on Tarawa, the aspirations of most Tamana peoples are towards wage employment which implies migration to the urban centre as an alternative to rural life. Unless these trends are rectified rural outmigration can be expected, to increase.</p>

Tamana: a Study of a Reef Island Community

<p>This thesis is an exploration of the factors which give the tiny reef island of Tamana, in what is today the nation of Kiribati, its particular character. The research falls into three main sections. The first reviews the available documentary sources in order to build up an understanding of the settlement of the region by Micronesian peoples, the character of the island environment they encountered and the economy and society that developed. The changes resulting from the expansion of western capitalism into the region are then described. This material provides the context for the contemporary household-based study presented in the second section. This presents the findings of twelve month's field study of sixteen Tamana households. It considers household structure and, organisation, access to resources, patterns of tine allocation as well as the character of the subsistence and cash economies, their relationship to each other and the extent to which the household economy has become incorporated into the market economy of the outside world. The third section draws both sets of material together to consider issues of change and development and the likely future character of Tamana. The initial settlement of Tamana by Micronesian people led to some environmental modification and the introduction of new plant species. However, the system that evolved could be considered an autarkic man/environment system where a fluctuating balance between man and resources was maintained through drought-associated mortality. With the arrival of the whalers, traders, missionaries and colonial officials Tamana ceased to operate as an isolated entity and the changes which ensued resulted in the external relationships, through trade, employment and aid becoming increasingly important in determining the character of economic life on Tamana. In several important respects the process of incorporation into the market economy evident on Tamana differs from that encounted in other subsistence economies subject to similar influences. Colonial policy, in recognition of the high population densities and, obviously limited resources, discouraged the establishment of a plantation economy. The limiting atoll environment restricted the choice of cash crops to the coconut which was already an important element in the vegetation and whose productivity could be maintained with little intensification of labour inputs. The subsistence economy thus was able to maintain its vitality and enabled the islanders to oscillate between the subsistence and market economy as market conditions dictated. This is reinforced by the fact that some 45 percent of household income comes from outside the village economy through remittances and gifts, thus underlining the significance of Tamana as a "straddled economy" where the household depends on local production and wages earned in employment in either the phosphate workings or urban employment away from the island. For these reasons the commitment to the cash economy on Tamana is not strong. Because of the heavy emphasis of government spending on welfare and service spending and the emergence of a large, aid-dependent bureaucracy at the administrative centre on Tarawa, the aspirations of most Tamana peoples are towards wage employment which implies migration to the urban centre as an alternative to rural life. Unless these trends are rectified rural outmigration can be expected, to increase.</p>

Faunal Exploitation Strategies During the Later Pleistocene in Southern Africa

The Late Pleistocene in southern Africa shows important developments in human subsistence economies. Zooarchaeological research indicates that early modern humans exploited a wide range of faunal species during the Middle Stone Age. Southern African societies developed flexible animal exploitation strategies that increased their resilience against the backdrop of drastic Pleistocene climatic changes. While megafauna are virtually absent, very large herbivores such as giant buffalo and dangerous prey such as suids were targeted with regularity. The study of faunal remains of such key sites as Border Cave, Blombos Cave, Klasies River, and Sibudu also played an important role in the development of overarching theories of the role of subsistence in the development of modern human behaviors through landmark studies by Richard Klein, Lewis Binford, and Curtis Marean, among others.

Let’s go fishing: A quantitative analysis of subsistence choices with a special focus on mixed economies among small-scale societies

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.

Human-Centred Indicators (HCI) to Regenerate Vulnerable Cultural Heritage and Landscape towards a Circular City: From the Bronx (NY) to Ercolano (IT)

Many cities globally are incorporating the circular economy model into their development strategies to start transitioning as “circular cities” towards the implementation of human-centred development. In many of them, one of the major challenges is represented by the large presence of cultural heritage being in a state of degradation, abandonment and underutilization, which determines waste conditions not only at physical/spatial level but also at economic level (the presence of subsistence economies) and at a social and cultural level (marginalization phenomena and high rates of unemployment). The perspective of circular economy allows rethinking these waste conditions as an opportunity to reactivate virtuous circuits capable of promoting sustainable development focused on human needs. In this perspective, the paper aims to demonstrate both the importance of participatory approaches in guiding circular and human-centred regeneration processes and of identifying evaluation tools capable of integrating the human and ecological dimension with the economic one. With this aim, a circular methodology is proposed and experimented with in Ercolano (Italy) and in the Bronx (New York), in which the adoption of a participatory approach was central in all phases of regeneration processes, from the identification and analysis of vulnerabilities and waste conditions to the definition of a strategy capable of transforming these limitations into opportunities. A first result is the elaboration of a framework of “Human-Centred Indicators” to monitor and support the adoption of the circular economy strategy toward implementing the “human-centred city”.

Scenario planning tools for mitigating industrial impacts on First Nations subsistence economies in British Columbia, Canada

The Montney Play Trend (MPT) is a 1090 km2 region in northeast British Columbia that produces approximately one-third of western Canada’s natural gas output. In response to a proposed expansion of the MPT in 2016, the Government of British Columbia launched a Regional Strategic Environmental Assessment (RSEA) to identify the necessary conditions to achieve sustainable environmental outcomes. In this paper, we describe the methods and scenario planning tools that were developed to estimate how the development of the MPT might affect the subsistence economies of First Nations in the region. To demonstrate the utility of our approach, two impact assessments—Prince Rupert gas transmission pipeline and the Coastal GasLink pipeline—are presented. While no scenario can provide a definitive portrayal of exactly what will happen in the future, the tools that were co-developed are serving as an effective starting point for exploring possibilities that are at least consistent with current knowledge and can serve as a platform for collaborative learning and conflict management.

Introduction

The Wretched Atom is the first historical study of efforts to promote nuclear technologies globally from the Second World War to the close of the twentieth century. It focuses on countries that seemed to live at the knife’s edge of human existence—those with subsistence economies or resource shortfalls, or where peoples routinely were threatened by famine, drought, and disease. The promise of civilian atomic energy was a formidable tool of state power in the late twentieth century because it took advantage of social aspirations, anxieties, and environmental vulnerabilities, especially in the developing world. The deployment of rhetoric to promote atomic energy was inseparable from geopolitics writ large and has rarely been entirely peaceful. Instead it has been embedded in stories of conventional warfare, racial and neocolonial divisiveness, struggles to assert control over the earth’s natural resources, and the abetting of nuclear weapons programs both old and new.

PREDICTORS THAT LEADS TO SOCIO ECONOMIC SUCCESS OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES

In Malaysia, the infusion of private and public sectors has attributed to the nation’s socio-economic development as strengthen by the need to address the demands and challenges of the local community. These efforts will more likely provide several important ideas that would suffice related and relevant literatures, which will be used to develop a better socio-economic growth in Malaysia. In an economic sense, development entails the transformation of simple subsistence economies into complex monetary economies. In the process, an increase in the proportion of products that are sold or exchanged and a decline in the proportion of consumption may take place concurrently. The purpose of this study is to examine the socio-economic demands and gaps of the local population and to suggest assistance and interventions required. The overall results of this study reveal the challenges faced at the community level in the District of Kuala Lipis in the context of social and economy. This study was carried out via a structured survey throughout the district involving 300 respondents and also complemented with a face-to-face interview carried out with key stakeholders. The study findings were also supported with secondary data compilation of journals, articles and speeches.

Consumption smoothing and price enhancement motives for grain storage: empirical perspectives from rural Ethiopia

Consumption smoothing and temporal price arbitrage are the two main economic motives for grain storage in semi-subsistence economies. Nonetheless, little has been documented on the determinants of households’ grain storage behavior. Using a rich panel data from maize producing households in Ethiopia, this paper investigates the determinants of households’ decision to store grain for consumption and/or for the market. We found that grain storage is mainly determined by climatic factors, technological innovations, and shocks. Grain storage for consumption and for the markets are not mutually exclusive decisions. While the decisions made by the households to store maize for consumption and for the markets are influenced by a host of similar factors, the effects of climatic factors and infrastructure are found to be heterogeneous.