Changing Perceptions of Risk: The Development of Agro-Ecosystems in Southeast Asia

New long-term environmental sequences for Southeast Asia provide a basis for reevaluating the development of agro-ecosystems. Previous models depict agricultural development as a singular, relatively rapid response to various stimuli such as climate change and population growth. In contrast, the Sou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American anthropologist 2002-03, Vol.104 (1), p.178-194
Main Author: Kealhofer, Lisa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural development
Agriculture
Agroecology
Agroecosystems
Anthropology
Crops
Cultural change
Ecosystems
Environmental studies
Food crops
Food production
Geology and climatology
Land use
Methodology and general studies
Perception
Phytoliths
Plant domestication
Plants
Prehistory and protohistory
Rice
Risk
Southeast Asia
Sustainable agriculture
Thailand
White, Joyce
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Summary:New long-term environmental sequences for Southeast Asia provide a basis for reevaluating the development of agro-ecosystems. Previous models depict agricultural development as a singular, relatively rapid response to various stimuli such as climate change and population growth. In contrast, the Southeast Asian data indicate that the development of tropical agro-ecosystems are the result of stresses separated in time and not part of a unitary developmental process. Two phases are evident: At the end of the Pleistocene, environmental data indicate a significant climatic change that would have affected the distribution of food resources. In some areas, this encouraged food production as previous food resources decreased or disappeared. In the second phase, during the mid-Holocene, increased cultural and social risks led to shifts in strategies that created agro-ecosystems - a more fundamental transformation of landscape ecology. This distinct two-phase pattern suggests groups were responding to very different challenges in each period. These findings underscore the need to reexamine agricultural models that conflate separate and distinct processes of cultural change.
ISSN:0002-7294
1548-1433
DOI:10.1525/aa.2002.104.1.178