Typological Schemes and Agricultural Change: Beyond Boserup in Precolonial South India [and Comments and Reply]

Morrison, Kathleen D.; Feinman, Gary M.; Nicholas, Linda M.; Ladefoged, Thegn N.; Myrdal-Runebjer, Eva; Stone, Geoffrey R.; Wilk, Richard

doi:10.1086/204530

Cited by 107 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Boserup (2) outlined a theoretical sequence for intensification based on the frequency of cropping versus fallowing, but other forms of intensification involving investments in agricultural infrastructure such as terracing and irrigation ("landesque capital intensification") are also well documented (3,4). Intensification refers to a process that may follow distinctive pathways depending upon particular environmental, agronomic, social, and political conditions (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Household expansion linked to agricultural intensification during emergence of Hawaiian archaic states

Field

Ladefoged

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Leeward Kohala Field System (LKFS) covering ∼60 km 2 on Hawai'i Island is one of the world's best-studied archaeological examples of preindustrial agricultural intensification. Archaeological correlates for households over a 400-y period of intensification of the LKFS (A.D. 1400-1800) indicate that household age, number, and distribution closely match the expansion of agricultural features at both macro-and microscales. We excavated and dated residential complexes within portions of five traditional Hawaiian land units (ahupua'a), two in the central core of the field system and three in the southern margins. Forty-eight radiocarbon dates from 43 residential features indicate an overall pattern of exponential increase in the numbers of households over time. Spatial distribution of these dates suggests that the core of the LKFS may have reached a population saturation point earlier than in the southern margins. Bayesian statistical analysis of radiocarbon dates from residential features in the core region, combined with spatial analysis of agricultural and residential construction sequences, demonstrates that the progressive subdivision of territories into smaller socioeconomic units was matched by addition of new residences, probably through a process of household fissioning. These results provide insights into the economic processes underlying the sociopolitical transformation from chiefdom to archaic state in precontact Hawai'i.household archaeology | radiocarbon dating | relative chronology | sociopolitical evolution | paleodemography

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Household expansion linked to agricultural intensification during emergence of Hawaiian archaic states

Field

Ladefoged

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The ability of farmers to experiment and innovate is now well recognized (Richards, 1989;Morrison, 1996) and is reemphasized by the present study. The process of incorporation of new practices with customary transplanting practices by women is guided by farmers' previous knowledge (about climate, soil, water, varieties and social coordination), as well as their perceptions and receptiveness to new ideas (about young seedlings and reduced planting densities).…”

Section: Conclusion Discussion and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 55%

“…This often results in an increase in diversity and variation even within well-established agricultural practices and routines (Richards, 1989a;Morrison, 1996). Paul Richards' metaphor of 'agriculture as performance' recognizes this innovative and adaptive capacity, viewing farming as a product of 'human improvisational capacities' (Richards, 2010) and actions that are 'situated' in time and space (Suchman, 1987), conditioned by uncertainty or forced by unforeseen circumstances.…”

Section: Agriculture As Performance: Understanding Individual Performmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Smallholder Farmers in Uttarakhand Reworked the System of Rice Intensification: Innovations from Sociotechnical Interactions in Fields and Villages

Şen

2015

SSRN Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

How Smallholder Farmers in Uttarakhand Reworked the System of Rice Intensification: Innovations from Sociotechnical Interactions in Fields and VillagesThe System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is presented in Asia and other parts of the world as an alternative 'agro-ecological' and 'farm-based' innovation in rice production. SRI calls for modifications in crop-management practices without relying on external inputs, which makes it different from innovations based on new rice varieties, which became dominant since the Green Revolution. SRI practices are therefore said to be appropriate for resource-poor smallholder farmers.Previous studies on SRI have focused mainly on the yield effects in comparison with other crop management practices, overall costs and benefits of SRI or deviations from recommended practices. These studies have largely neglected farmers' underlying strategies. This thesis provides an understanding of whether and how SRI can be called a 'farm-based' innovation. Rather than returning to earlier debates about SRI's adoption and disadoption, the study looks as how farm households and communities in Western Himalayan region of India responded to the introduction of SRI.The main objective of this research was to understand how farmers respond to an intervention like SRI and what this tells us about SRI as a socio-technical system. The main research question addressed by this thesis is how SRI, conceived as a set of practices introduced from outside the communities, was incorporated into the local rice farming system. Specifically, the thesis examines how existing work groups were adjusted to accommodate the new method, how the SRI practices were interpreted and adjusted to fit with the local social and agro-ecological arrangements, and how the new method influenced existing rice farming practices in the locality.The research was carried out in three contrasting villages of Uttarakhand, located in the Bhilangana sub-basin of the Western Himalayan region of India. SRI was introduced in this area in 2008. Fieldwork in the three villages was conducted throughout two rice seasons.The theoretical resources drawn upon for this research include the concept of "sociotechnical system", "agriculture as performance", and the culture of "task groups". Together these concepts help to understand rice farming as a collective and mutually shaping social and technical performance rather than the activity of an individual farmer. The thesis shows how existing and new rice farming practices and task groups are reconfigured through socio-technical innovations within a given agroecological setting. SRI acted as a catalyst, initiating a process of readjustments in the socio-technical configurations of rice farming, varying according to the local context. Farm households, while incorporating SRI into the existing farming system, try to ii seek complementarity and synergy between various rice farming methods. This allows fluidity among task groups and leads to the extension and diversification of the repertoire of m...

show abstract

“…For example, the intensity of inscriptional activity, reflected by the temporal distribution of dated inscriptions, is bimodal for the region as a whole, a pattern that varies in amplitude but not in form within smaller territorial units . This pattern reflects the intensive economic and other activity associated with the founding and initial rapid growth of the city in the fourteenth century, a period of relative stasis in the fifteenth century, and a dramatic expansion of the empire and intensification of agricultural and other production in the sixteenth century (Morrison, , 1996.…”

Section: Sourcing the Sources: Context And Vijayanagara Inscriptionsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Inscriptions as artifacts: Precolonial south india and the analysis of texts

Morrison

Lycett

1997

J Archaeol Method Theory

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper examines one assemblage of texts from southern India, stone inscriptions of the ldjayanagara period, and considers both how these texts have been studied and how that history of research has structured our understanding of the past. We ask how these texts might be interpreted differently, (1) under different conditions of sampling and recovery, with a specific focus on in-field locations of inscriptions, and (2) as sources of information combined with archaeological data. We suggest that traditional source-side criticism of texts might be profitably expanded routinely to include contextual analysis, such as archaeologists apply to studies of artifacts.

show abstract

Typological Schemes and Agricultural Change: Beyond Boserup in Precolonial South India [and Comments and Reply]

Cited by 107 publications

References 5 publications

Household expansion linked to agricultural intensification during emergence of Hawaiian archaic states

Household expansion linked to agricultural intensification during emergence of Hawaiian archaic states

How Smallholder Farmers in Uttarakhand Reworked the System of Rice Intensification: Innovations from Sociotechnical Interactions in Fields and Villages

Inscriptions as artifacts: Precolonial south india and the analysis of texts

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About