Social memory and niche construction in a hypervariable environment

Douglass, Kristina; Rasolondrainy, Tanambelo

doi:10.1002/ajhb.23557

Cited by 16 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Research from diverse disciplines has pointed to the multitude of behavioural adaptations humans use to reduce risk [11][12][13][14][15][16]. Individuals are able to access a number of mechanisms depending on need and circumstance [17], and specific mechanisms cluster together and strengthen one another [10,18]. Some adaptations seek to pool risk by transferring it between wealthier and needier households (similar to insurance), while others seek to absorb or retain risk within the household with increased resources (i.e., stored food avoids starvation when harvests fail) [14].…”

Section: Risk Bufferingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sedentarisation and maternal childcare networks: role of risk, gender and demography

Page¹,

Migliano²,

Smith³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Worldwide mothers receive help with childcare from a diverse range of individuals (allomothers). Nonetheless, little exploration has occurred into why we see such diversity, such as different strategies used to buffer risk. Wide maternal childcare networks may be a consequence of situations of little material wealth and food storage - as is common in mobile hunter-gatherers - where households rely on the pooling of risk in informal insurance networks. In contrast, when households settle and accumulate wealth and food, they are able to retain the risk by absorbing losses within the household. Thus, the size and composition of mothers’ childcare networks may depend on whether households pool or retain risk, as captured by mobile and settled households in the Agta, a diverse Philippine foraging population. From in-depth observational data on 78 children, we find that childcare from grandmothers and sisters was higher in settled camps, while childcare from male kin was lower. Our findings offer little support for risk buffering, and additional analyses demonstrated that girls’ workloads were increased in settled camps, unlike boys, while grandmothers had fewer dependent children, increasing their availability as allomothers. These results point to gender-specific changes associated with shifting demographics as camps become larger and more settled.

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Section: Risk Bufferingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sedentarisation and maternal childcare networks: role of risk, gender and demography

Page¹,

Migliano²,

Smith³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…Currently, most Mikea living in the Namonte Basin reside in villages that are usually located near lake margins, where they fish, cultivate crops, and herd zebu and goats. Mikea complement their diet with a range of forest products, including wild tubers (Dioscorea, Colocasia, Ipomoea, and Tacca), honey, and wild meat (e.g., birds, tortoises, tenrecs and feral cats; Tucker, 2007;Douglass and Rasolondrainy, 2021). Deforestation has intensified greatly since the 1970s, with ∼55% of the primary forest lost between 1949and 2004(Blanc-Pamard et al, 2005.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Late Holocene Climate Change and Human Land Use on Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems in Southwest Madagascar

et al. 2021

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Madagascar’s biota underwent substantial change following human colonization of the island in the Late Holocene. The timing of human arrival and its role in the extinction of megafauna have received considerable attention. However, the impacts of human activities on regional ecosystems remain poorly studied. Here, we focus on reconstructing changes in the composition of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems to evaluate the impact of human land use and climate variability. We conducted a paleoenvironmental study, using a sediment record that spans the last ∼1,145 years, collected from a lakebed in the Namonte Basin of southwest Madagascar. We examined physical (X-ray fluorescence and stratigraphy) and biotic indicators (pollen, diatoms and micro- and macro-charcoal particles) to infer terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem change. The fossil pollen data indicate that composition of grasslands and dry deciduous forest in the region remained relatively stable during an arid event associated with northward displacement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) between ∼1,145 and 555 calibrated calendar years before present (cal yr BP). Charcoal particles indicate that widespread fires occurred in the region, resulting from a combination of climate drivers and human agency during the entire span covered by the paleorecord. Following settlement by pastoral communities and the disappearance of endemic megafauna ∼1,000 cal yr BP, grasslands expanded and the abundance of trees that rely on large animals for seed dispersal gradually declined. A reduction in the abundance of pollen taxa characteristic of dry forest coincided with an abrupt increase in charcoal particles between ∼230 and 35 cal yr BP, when agro-pastoral communities immigrated into the region. Deforestation and soil erosion, indicated by a relatively rapid sedimentation rate and high K/Zr and Fe/Zr, intensified between 180 and 70 cal yr BP and caused a consequent increase in lake turbidity, resulting in more rapid turnover of the aquatic diatom community. Land use and ongoing climate change have continued to transform local terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems during the last ∼70 years. The current composition of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems reflects the legacy of extinction of native biota, invasion of exotic species, and diminished use of traditional land management practices.

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“…For Vezo migrants, permission from local fishers is therefore not required given that permission from spirits is sufficient to access fishing grounds. The migrants already possess the knowledge and skills needed to exploit the most valuable species on the Barren Isles in order to construct an ecological niche (Douglass & Rasolondrainy, 2021). The undomesticated nature of the Barren Isles makes it an open frontier or unenclosed commons.…”

Section: Net Maintenance and Traditional Fishing Cannoementioning

confidence: 99%

From ritual performers to ocean defenders: fisher migrations, identity narratives and resource access in the Barren Isles, West Madagascar

Muttenzer

Andriamahefazafy

2021

African Identities

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Vezo migrant fishers have played a key role in shaping the seascape and resource use practices in the Southwest of Madagascar. As a population relying mainly on fishing for its livelihood, Vezo people have struggled to maintain their livelihood in the face of resource depletion. They migrate seasonally or long term from their home region on the southwest coast to marine frontiers further north such as the Barren Isles, a remote archipelago in the west of Madagascar. Exploiting sea cucumber and sharks for the global market involves economic and ritual practices that they have maintained in their journeys and constitute their identities as migrant fishers. Within a context of increasing commercialization and depletion of small-scale fisheries, various conservation initiatives have taken place within the migration route of the Vezo including the establishment of Madagascar's largest marine protected area in the Barren Isles. This article argues that migrant fishers have managed to gain, maintain and control access to marine resources, both by performing ancestral rituals by which newcomers attach themselves to ecological niches, and also by mobilizing an environmentalist identity narrative promoted by the Malagasy government and international NGOs. In this way, Vezo migrant fishers have become key actors in the management of marine resources while maintaining their ancestral practices. This is an important argument discussing the role of local identity narratives in the political economy of global resource appropriation and shows how migrant fishers fit in the contemporary seascapes.

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Social memory and niche construction in a hypervariable environment

Cited by 16 publications

References 64 publications

Sedentarisation and maternal childcare networks: role of risk, gender and demography

Sedentarisation and maternal childcare networks: role of risk, gender and demography

Influence of Late Holocene Climate Change and Human Land Use on Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems in Southwest Madagascar

From ritual performers to ocean defenders: fisher migrations, identity narratives and resource access in the Barren Isles, West Madagascar

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