DOI article:
Prasad, Archana: The political ecology of swidden cultivation: the survival strategies of the Baigas in the central provinces of India, 1860-1890
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49004#0222
TOOLS & TILLAGE VII 4 1995
207
Fig. 1. Map of India with the location of the Baiga region and the fieldwork area. □ Karte von Indien mit
der Lage der Baiga Region und dem Untersuchungsgebiet.
For Conklin survival strategies in a shifting
cultivation system were characterized by one
single subsistence practice, namely farming.
The act of growing crops led to particular
kinds of settlements and cultural dispositions.
The seasonal rhythm of fallows was the only
sense of time that the cultivators possessed.
Conklin’s work shifted the focus from
purely socio-cultural studies to the impor-
tance of ecology in the study of subsistence.
It provided a simplistic explanation for a
complex system whose dynamism was based
on a correlation of many seasonal activities
as outlined by Audrey Richards. Her work
classified “hunger months” and “plentiful
months” in terms of the seasonal rhythm of
cultivation and gathering activities (Richards
1939). The definition of work groups, the sea-
207
Fig. 1. Map of India with the location of the Baiga region and the fieldwork area. □ Karte von Indien mit
der Lage der Baiga Region und dem Untersuchungsgebiet.
For Conklin survival strategies in a shifting
cultivation system were characterized by one
single subsistence practice, namely farming.
The act of growing crops led to particular
kinds of settlements and cultural dispositions.
The seasonal rhythm of fallows was the only
sense of time that the cultivators possessed.
Conklin’s work shifted the focus from
purely socio-cultural studies to the impor-
tance of ecology in the study of subsistence.
It provided a simplistic explanation for a
complex system whose dynamism was based
on a correlation of many seasonal activities
as outlined by Audrey Richards. Her work
classified “hunger months” and “plentiful
months” in terms of the seasonal rhythm of
cultivation and gathering activities (Richards
1939). The definition of work groups, the sea-