Abstract
Traditionally, the Shipibo economy was subsistence-based with shifting cultivation supplying calories, principally in the form of plantains and root crops, while fishing and hunting provided animal proteins to the diet. Some men, who recently began producing rice for sale in regional markets, now allocate less time to wild food procurement. Moreover, this trend has been accompanied by the nucleation of households, a growing cash market for agricultural labor, and the intravillage sale of faunal foods. This paper shows that with cash cropping, some Shipibo now freely distribute less food to others in relation to the amount they produce. To account for this change, a theory is developed based on time allocation and patterns of economic behavior reported throughout the Amazon. This theory is then applied to explain specialization and the formation of cash markets for food labor among the Shipibo.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abelove, J. (1978). Pre-Verbal Learning of Kinship Behavior Among Shipibo Infants of Eastern Peru. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, City University of New York.
Afifi, A. A., and Clark, V. (1984).Computer-Aided Multivariate Analysis. Belmont, CA: Lifetime Learning Publications.
Baksh, M. (1987). Ecology of Cultural Change: The Machiguenga Case. Paper presented at the 86th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, November, Chicago.
Baksh, M. and Johnson, A. (1990). Insurance policies among the Machiguenga: An ethnographic analysis of risk management in a non-Western economy. In Cashdan, E. (ed.),Risk and Uncertainty in Tribal and Peasant Economies. Westview Press, Boulder, CO., pp. 193–227.
Barnum, H. N., and Squire, L. (1979).A Model of an Agricultural Household: Theory and Evidence. World Bank Staff Occasional Papers, Number 27, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
Becker, G. S. (1965). A theory of the allocation of time.Economic Journal 75: 493–517.
Becker, G. S., and Michael, R. T. (1973). On the new theory of consumer behavior.Swedish Journal of Economics 75: 378–395.
Behrens, C. A. (1986a). The cultural ecology of dietary change accompanying changing activity patterns among the Shipibo.Human Ecology 14(4): 367–396.
Behrens, C. A. (1986b). Shipibo food categorization and preference: Relationships between indigenous and Western dietary concepts.American Anthropologist 88(3): 647–678.
Behrens, C. A. (1989a). The scientific basis for Shipibo soil classification and land use: Changes in soil-plant associations with cash cropping.American Anthropologist 91(1): 83–100.
Behrens, C. A. (1989b).Shipibo Time Allocation. Cross-Cultural Studies in Time Allocation (Vol. 4). Human Relations Area Files, New Haven.
Chatterjee, S., and Price, B. (1977).Regression Analysis by Example. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Chiang, A. C. (1974).Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York.
Chirif, A., and Mora, C. (1976).Atlas de Comunidades Nativas. Sistema Nacional de Apoyo a la Movilización Social, Dirección General de Organizaciones Rurales, Lima.
Colby, B. N. (1987). Well-being: A theoretical program.American Anthropologist 89 (4): 879–895.
Dixon, W. J. (ed.) (1981).BMDP Statistical Software (1981 Ed.). University of California Press, Los Angeles.
Dorfman, R., Samuelson, P., and Solow, R. (1958).Linear Programming and Economic Analysis. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Flowers, N. M. (1983). Seasonal factors in subsistence, nutrition, and child growth in a central Brazilian Indian community. In Hames, R., and Vickers, W. (eds.),Adaptive Responses of Native Amazonians. Academic Press, New York, pp. 357–390.
Grossbard-Shechtman, A. (1984). A theory of allocation of time in markets for labour and marriage.Economic Journal 94: 863–882.
Hames, R. (1983). The settlement pattern of a Yanomamo population bloc: A behavioral ecological interpretatation. In Hames, R., and Vickers, W. (eds.),Adaptive Responses of Native Amazonians. Academic Press, New York, pp. 393–427.
Hames, R. (1990). Sharing among the Yanomamo: Part 1, The effects of risk. In Cashdan, E. (ed.),Risk and Uncertainty in Tribal and Peasant Economies. Westview Press, Boulder, CO., pp. 89–105.
Hames, R., and Vickers, W. T. (eds.) (1983).Adaptive Responses of Native Amazonians. Academic Press, New York.
Hill, K. (1988). Macronutrient modifications of optimal foraging theory: An approach using indifference curves applied to some modern foragers.Human Ecology 16(2): 157–197.
Hymer, S., and Resnick, S. (1969). A model of an agrarian economy with nonagricultural activities.American Economic Review 59(4): 493–506.
Johnson, A. (1978).Quantification in Cultural Anthropology: An Introduction to Research Design. Stanford University Press, Stanford.
Kaplan, H., and Hill, K. (1985). Food sharing among Ache foragers: Tests of explanatory hypotheses.Current Anthropology 26: 223–239.
Loukotka, C. (1968). In Wilbert, J. (ed.).Classification of South American Indian Languages. Latin American Center, University of California, Los Angeles.
Murphy, R. F., and Steward, J. H. (1956). Tappers and trappers: parallel process in acculturation.Economic Development and Cultural Change 4: 335–355.
Netting, R. (1968).Hill Farmers of Nigeria: Cultural Ecology of the Kofyar of the Jos Plateau. University of Washington Press, Seattle.
Nietschmann, B. (1973).Between Land and Water: The Subsistence Ecology of the Miskito Indians, Eastern Nicaragua. Seminar Press, New York.
Roe, P. (1980). Art and residence among the Shipibo Indians: A study in microacculturation.American Anthropologist 82: 42–71.
Roe, P. (1981). Aboriginal tourists and artistic exchange between the Pisquibo and the Shipibo: “Trade ware in an ethnographic setting.” In Francis, P., Kense, F., and Duke, P. (eds.),Networks in the Past: Regional Interaction in Archaeology. The Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada, pp. 61–84.
Roe, P. (1982).The Cosmic Zygote: Cosmology in the Amazon Basin. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ.
Shell, R. O. A., and Wise, M. R. (1971).Grupos Idiomáticos del Peru, Segunda Edición. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos/Instituto Linguistico de Verano, Lima.
Stryker, J. D. (1976). Population density, agricultural technique, and land utilization in a village economy.American Economic Review 66(3): 347–358.
Tabachnick, B. G., and Fidell, L. S. (1983).Using Multivariate Statistics. Harper & Row, New York.
Uriarte, L. M. (1976). Poblaciones nativas de la amazonía peruana.Amazonia Peruana 1: 9–58.
Werner, D., Flowers, N., Ritter, M., and Gross, D. (1979). Subsistence productivity and hunting effort in native South America.Human Ecology 7: 303–315.
Winterhalder, B. P. (1990). Open field, common pot: harvest variability and risk avoidance in agricultural and foraging Societies. In Cashdan, E. (ed.),Risk and Uncertainty in Tribal and Peasant Economics. Westview Press, Badder, CO., pp. 67–87.
Yost, J. A., and Kelly, P. M. (1983). Shotguns, blowguns, and spears: The analysis of technological efficiency. In Hames, R. and Vickers, W. (eds.),Adaptive Responses of Native Amazonians. Academic Press, New York, pp. 189–224.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Behrens, C.A. Labor specialization and the formation of markets for food in a Shipibo subsistence economy. Hum Ecol 20, 435–462 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00890429
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00890429