Marsha B. Quinlan

Considerations for Collecting Freelists in the Field: Examples from Ethobotany

In freelists, informants create an inventory of all the items they know within a given category. Freelists reveal cultural salience and variation in individuals’ topical knowledge. The ease and accuracy of freelist interviewing makes it ideal for collecting data on local knowledge from relatively large samples. This method, however, does not work well with broad topical areas: People tend to omit some items and cluster responses as they unpack mental subcategories. Successive freelisting can reduce and redefine topics (domains), thus focusing the content of interviews. In oral freelists, interviewers should prevent bystanders from contaminating the informant’s list, and written freelists are advisable in literate communities. Responses from freelists should be cross-checked with informal methods as much as practicable, as in this Caribbean case. With proper attention to detail, freelisting can amass high-quality ethnobotanical data.

Parental investment and age at weaning in a Caribbean village

Abstract Predicting the timing of weaning in diverse environments is important because breast-feeding significantly contributes to child survival and overall health, especially in developing countries. This study examines associations between weaning and household demographic variables that test predictions derived from parental investment (PI) theory. Data were collected for 101 children (49 males and 52 females) in a rural community in Dominica. Analyses indicate that father absence is associated with early weaning. This was the only prediction from PI theory that was supported. The following results were contrary to expectations: (1) Availability of female alloparents and household wealth were negatively associated with age at weaning. (2) Number of dependent children in the household was positively associated with age at weaning. (3) Mothers age at birth was not correlated with the timing of weaning. Lastly, (4) interaction terms for childs sex by wealth and sex by maternal social support were not associated with age at weaning, indicating the lack of a Trivers–Willard effect on weaning in this population. We suggest that explanations of weaning from PI theory will benefit from including high opportunity costs of prolonged nursing, demands for reciprocal female labor, and the importance of investment in “embodied capital.”

Human Lactation, Pair-bonds, and Alloparents A Cross-Cultural Analysis

The evolutionary origin of human pair-bonds is uncertain. One hypothesis, supported by data from forgers, suggests that pair-bonds function to provision mothers and dependent offspring during lactation. Similarly, public health data from large-scale industrial societies indicate that single mothers tend to wean their children earlier than do women living with a mate. Here we examine relations between pair-bond stability, alloparenting, and cross-cultural trends in breastfeeding using data from 58 “traditional” societies in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS). Analyses show that stable conjugal relationships were associated with significantly later weaning among the societies in the SCCS. The relationship between pair-bond stability and age at weaning was not mediated by women’s ability to provision themselves or women’s kin support. Availability of alloparental care was also inversely related to age at weaning, and the association was not significantly reduced after controlling for frequency of divorce. This study indicates that among a woman’s kin relationships, a pair-bond with a child’s father is especially supportive of breastfeeding. These cross-cultural findings are further evidence that human pair-bonds may have evolved to support lactation.

Evolutionary ecology of human pair-bonds : Cross-cultural tests of alternative hypotheses

Human pair-bonds may have multiple evolved functions. One long-standing hypothesis suggests that pair-bonds evolved for male provisioning. Alternatively pair-bonds may occur as a response to male mating competition when benefits of staying with a current mate outweigh costs of seeking new mates. A third hypothesis suggests that pair-bonds function to protect against infanticide by aggressive males. Tests of these hypotheses used data from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample on divorce, alloparenting, polygyny, male contribution to subsistence, and male aggression. Results were not consistent with the infanticide and/or male aggression hypothesis; however, parental investment and male mating competition accounted for significant cross-cultural variance in conjugal stability, suggesting that human pairing has multiple functions. Pair-bonds tended to be stable when men and women contributed equally to subsistence, and unstable when either sex contributed the majority to subsistence. The authors use the ethnographic record to explore relations among pair-bonds, mating competition, showing off, and conjugal complementarity.

Local Resource Enhancement and Sex-biased Breastfeeding in a Caribbean Community

Quinlan, Robert J., Marsha B. Quinlan, and Mark V. Flinn. (2005) Local Resource Enhancement and Sex-biased Breastfeeding in a Caribbean Community. Current Anthropology, 46(3):471-480.

VULNERABILITY AND RESILIENCE OF SIDAMA ENSET AND MAIZE FARMS IN SOUTHWESTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract Enset (Ensete ventricosum) is the traditional staple food of Sidama people who live in Rift Valley lowlands to highlands in southwest Ethiopia. Enset is drought resistant, but it matures slowly, requires substantial manure inputs from cattle, and intensive processing. Maize, introduced to Sidamaland in the mid-twentieth century, is common in midlands and lowlands. Maize matures rapidly and provides more kcal/kg than enset, but it is prone to failure in dry years and requires chemical fertilizer, which is subject to global market price fluctuations. We compare cultural ecology, productivity, failure, and resilience of enset and maize in 410 farms across four Sidama ecological zones. The risks and benefits of enset and maize are complexly associated with variable local environments. Enset offers drought-resistant produce that, with sufficient manure inputs, is adequate for subsistence in the wet highlands, but its performance is more variable elsewhere. Fertilized, maize yields larger harvests than enset, but vulnerability to rainfall and global processes create special challenges. Maize and enset appear to be in different adaptive cycle phases: maize grows quickly and maize farms rebounded from crop loss within four years. Only half of enset farms recovered within six years after crop failure, complicating farming decisions in an environment with tremendous localized variation. In general, the Sidama zone shows a pattern of regional diversity with local specialization for maize only, enset only, or mixed maize and enset cultivation. In some areas maize has become a preferred crop and food for younger people.

Antimicrobial use and veterinary care among agro-pastoralists in Northern Tanzania

Frequent and unregulated use of antimicrobials (AM) in livestock requires public health attention as a likely selection pressure for resistant bacteria. Studies among small-holders, who own a large percentage of the world’s livestock, are vital for understanding how practices involving AM use might influence resistance. We present a cultural-ecological mixed-methods analysis to explore sectors of veterinary care, loosely regulated AM use, and human exposure to AMs through meat and milk consumption across three rural to peri-urban Tanzanian ethnic groups (N = 415 households). Reported use of self-administered AMs varied by ethnic group (Maasai: 74%, Arusha: 21%, Chagga: 1%) as did consultation with professional veterinarians (Maasai: 36%, Arusha: 45%, Chagga: 96%) and observation of withdrawal of meat and milk from consumption during and following AM treatment (Maasai: 7%, Arusha: 72%, Chagga: 96%). The antibiotic oxytetracycline was by far the most common AM in this sample. Within ethnic groups, herd composition differences, particularly size of small-stock and cattle herds, were most strongly associated with differences in lay AM use. Among the Arusha, proxies for urbanization, including owning transportation and reliance on “zero-grazing” herds had the strongest positive associations with veterinarian consultation, while distance to urban centers was negatively associated. For Maasai, consultation was negatively associated with use of traditional healers or veterinary drug-shops. Observation of withdrawal was most strongly associated with owning technology among Maasai while Arusha observance displayed seasonal differences. This “One-Health” analysis suggests that livelihood and cultural niche factors, through their association with practices in smallholder populations, provide insight into the selection pressures that may contribute to the evolution and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance.

Children’s Acquisition of Ethnobotanical Knowledge in a Caribbean Horticultural Village

Abstract Subsistence horticulturalists learn considerable local ecological knowledge by early adulthood. We investigate the relationship between children’s family environments and learning of their plant environment. In a rural village in Dominica, West Indies, children of ages four through 17 (N = 51) participated in a “plant trail” along a route containing 50 core local plants marked for identification. Plants in question resulted from village adults’ freelists on members of local plant domains found via nominal group technique (i.e., trees, staple foods, vegetables, condiments, medicines, and ornamentals). Individual children’s ethnobotanical knowledge was assessed through proper plant identification with a local term. Findings indicate that children learn botanical domains differentially. They identify trees and staple crop plants early in life. As they develop, they learn other plant domains, and trees and staples decrease in proportion to total ethnobotanical knowledge. Boys retain a larger proportion of tree knowledge, as tree care is part of the masculine labor division. Children’s, especially girls’, proportion of medicinal plant knowledge grows steadily into adulthood. As predicted, children with homes in extended family compounds demonstrate more ethnobotanical knowledge than children whose neighbors are not close kin. Contrary to predictions, a father’s presence in the household is not an indicator of the children’s plant identification ability. Having younger siblings predicts learning more plants. Trees form a smaller proportion of total plant knowledge for family-compound-living children and those with lower birth order, who tend to have greater overall ethnobotanical knowledge. Ethnobotanical learning relates to gender, birth order, and extended kin access.

Medical pluralism and livestock health: ethnomedical and biomedical veterinary knowledge among East African agropastoralists

BackgroundHuman and animal health are deeply intertwined in livestock dependent areas. Livestock health contributes to food security and can influence human health through the transmission of zoonotic diseases. In low-income countries diagnosis and treatment of livestock diseases is often carried out by household members who draw upon both ethnoveterinary medicine (EVM) and contemporary veterinary biomedicine (VB). Expertise in these knowledge bases, along with their coexistence, informs treatment and thus ultimately impacts animal and human health. The aim of the current study was to determine how socio-cultural and ecological differences within and between two livestock-keeping populations, the Maasai of northern Tanzania and Koore of southwest Ethiopia, impact expertise in EVM and VB and coexistence of the two knowledge bases.MethodsAn ethnoveterinary research project was conducted to examine dimensions of EVM and VB knowledge among the Maasai (N = 142 households) and the Koore (N = 100). Cultural consensus methods were used to quantify expertise and the level of agreement on EVM and VB knowledge. Ordinary least squares regression was used to model patterns of expertise and consensus across groups and to examine associations between knowledge and demographic/sociocultural attributes.ResultsMaasai and Koore informants displayed high consensus on EVM but only the Koore displayed consensus on VB knowledge. EVM expertise in the Koore varied across gender, herd size, and level of VB expertise. EVM expertise was highest in the Maasai but was only associated with age. The only factor associated with VB expertise was EVM expertise in the Koore.ConclusionsVariation in consensus and the correlates of expertise across the Maassi and the Koore are likely related to differences in the cultural transmission of EVM and VB knowledge. Transmission dynamics are established by the integration of livestock within the socioecological systems of the Maasai and Koore and culture historical experiences with livestock disease. Consideration of the nature and coexistence of EVM and VB provides insight into the capacity of groups to cope with disease outbreaks, pharmaceutical use patterns, and the development of community health interventions.

Culture and Psychological Responses to Environmental Shocks: Cultural Ecology of Sidama Impulsivity and Niche Construction in Southwest Ethiopia

Sidama people occupy a subsistence niche partitioned between traditional enset agropastoralism and transitional maize farming. Enset production is low risk and requires multiple years for cultivation and processing. Maize farming is high risk and high yield, requiring one growing season from planting to harvest. Contrasting enset and maize farming, we examine effects of crop loss and social shocks on Sidama impulsivity. We argue that impulsivity is a psychological process that is differentially activated by environmental shocks in the stable, traditional enset regime and unstable, transitional maize regime. Using a robust psychometric model derived from Barratt impulsiveness scale items, we demonstrate two dimensions of Sidama impulsivity: careful control (CC) and acts without thinking (AWT). Both dimensions are associated with environmental shocks, but the associations are moderated by social-ecological regimes. In the enset regime, effects of shocks on impulsivity are muted. However, increased impulsivity is significantly associated with shocks in the global market–dependent maize regime. Effects on CC were significant for social shocks but not crop loss, while AWT was associated with crop loss and social shocks. Results may indicate domain-specific aspects of impulsivity in response to environmental perturbation. Impulsivity may be adaptive in the context bidirectional predictive processing in active cultural niche construction.