high altitude subsistence slope temperature aspect water wind soil clouds
Post on 21-Dec-2015
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High Altitude Subsistence
Slope
Temperature
Aspect
Water
Wind
Soil
Clouds
Primary Types of Subsistence/Land Use
Natural Adaptation: Make use of indigenous species
Modification: Adapt environment to a species or species to environment
Agriculture
Animal Husbandry
Agro-pastoral
Transhumance
Nomads
Multiple Combinations
Agriculture in Mountains MUST Exhibit:•Stability and Resilience to Environmental Fluctuations
•Sustainability or Optimum level of Renewable Resource Use and Recycling
•Equitability and Vested Self Interest- Resource Maintenance of activities that modify the environment
Also Crop Selection Considers:•What people want to consume and sell
•What is produces in adjacent fields
•Ecological Limitations
Issues of Carrying Capacity of land…..Population Control
Production Zones (Culturally Created)
A communally managed set of specific productive resources in which crops are grown in distinctive ways. Include Infra-structural features, a specific rationing system of resources (irrigation) and rule making mechanisms that regulate how productive resources are used.
Land Tenure
Rights and Obligations held by different groups or actors over diverse privileges concerning land…Dictates who has the rights to use land, not the right to own land
Households and Communities, Land Creates Communities
Agriculture in High Altitude
Hardy Crops- Barley, Wheat, Quinoa
Maize production….Alfalfa….
Yields versus Maturation Time
Shorter Growing Season and Longer Maturation Period
Crop Rotation and Fallow periods- Soil Fertility and Maintenance
Altitude and Crop Placement- Verticality
Aspect/Cloud Cover and Crop Placement
Double Cropping and Timing
Diurnal Temperatures
Risk of Frost
Terracing and Irrigation•Catching water, Re-diverting water, Storing water in soil, disperse surplus water
•Dealing with Slope: Orography
•Dealing with water scarcity and surplus
•Furrowing
•Erosion
Andes Example:
•Canal Building and distribution of Plots
•Faenas- obligatory work parties
Sectorial Fallow System (3400-4000m)
In Andes:
•Crops of tubers and hardy grains
•No irrigation
•Use of Foot Plow- Communal
•Communal Control
Reciprocity and Exchange in the Andes
In the Andes this is crucial to having agricultural system work
Verticality of crop growth and Anexio Villages…Exchanging crops and goods that grow at different altitudes.
“Vertical Archipelago” (Murra)
Symmetrical and Asymmetrical modes of Reciprocity
Waje-Waje- Exact Exchange (account kept, Ayuda-no account)
Minka- Return with goods, more formal, no ties
Voluntad- Kinship
Cuy-Guinea Pig
High Protein, Low Fat
Have high fecundity- 1 male and 7 females can produce 360 cuy a year- 77 lbs of meat!
Kept in kitchen-believe that they need smoke
Eat scraps and alfalfa
Pastoralism/Animal Husbandry•Pack animals, travel, meat, milk, wool, hides
•Cattle/Horse-low, Sheep/Goat-Mid, Llama/Alpaca/Yak-High
•Reproduction and Physical
•Helps to alleviate agricultural deficits
•Seasonal movement of the animals-Transhumance
•Storage of Fodder versus Grazing year round
•Animals adapted to eating high altitude grasses
•Shared Pastures
•DUNG- Fertilizer and Fuel
TranshumanceHow does it differ from nomadism, semi-nomadism and seasonal alpine
pasture use….?
Ascending Transhumance
Descending Transhumance
Intermediate Stationed Transhumance
Dual Stationed Transhumance
DUNG!
Animals important for food, travel, etc., but are ESSENTIAL for agriculture and fertilization
Camelid/Yak Dung for Fuel-no trees
Sheep Dung for Fertilizer
Pastoral Nomads in the Himalayas- “drokpa”
An Example from Limi, Nepal
•Move the herds year-round, no storage of fodder
•Movements are based on LATITUDE and NOT ALTITUDE
•Move herds north into Tibet….low snowfall, high wind velocity
•Use black haired yak tents “ba”
•Nuclear Family units with a hired hand
•Rich diet in dairy and protein
•Trade- Surplus
Almwirtshaft-Alps
Mixed Mountain Agriculture
Rhoades and Thompson (1975):
“The key to the success of agro-pastoral transhumance in the alpine valleys is the constant motion, the vertical oscillation of cultivators, herders and beasts following the vicissitudes of climate in an effort to exploit micro-niches at several altitudinal levels”
Is this a valid statement? Do all mountain cultures practice their land-use in this way…What about the case of Limi?
Dr. Pitambar Sharma, Geographical Development Expert: "Mountain culture is different from other cultures. If you go to mountain regions of other parts of the world, say to Bolivia or Ecuador in South America, and come back to the mountains of Nepal, you sense some commonalities. People's capacity to adapt to mountain environment - coping mechanism - is more or less similar no matter which mountain regions of the world they come from."