ศูนย์นวัตกรรมเทคโนโลยีหลังการเก็บเกี่ยว

Foragers that farm: a behavioral ecology approach to the economics of corn farming for the Fremont case (hunting and gathering, food production).

Barlow, K. Renee.

Thesis (Ph.D.) Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 1997. 219 pages.

1997

บทคัดย่อ

In this dissertation the local archaeological record of the Fremont is investigated as a striking example of a prehistoric transition from hunting and gathering to food production.  Optimal foraging models are explored to develop expectations about ecological situations that should favor the adoption of wild or cultivated seeds, and increasing investment in gardens or fields.  A model is developed to predict variation in the range of foraging and farming activities that individuals should pursue during the growing season.

 Ethnographic observations of subsistence corn farmers are employed to estimate return rates for time spent preparing, planting, needing and harvesting corn fields.  Corn farming is evaluated in the same currency employed to address resource choice among hunter-gatherers (Kcal/hr).  Contrary to conventional wisdom, the results of these analyses suggest that economic success in farming is not constrained by the abundance of harvest yields per se.  Instead, postharvest processing efficiency constrains maximum expected energetic returns, and time spent cultivating fields limits overall success when harvest yields are less than about 30 bu/acre.  Perhaps not surprisingly, corn horticulture, or gardening without investment during the growing season, appears economically comparable to the highest-ranked nuts and tubers taken by hunter-gatherers.  More intensive husbandry practices likely yield return rates similar to a variety of wild seeds available throughout the desert Southwest.