This paper discusses the cultural context of migration in a community in eastern San Blas, Panama... more This paper discusses the cultural context of migration in a community in eastern San Blas, Panama, describes recent changes in absence rates for male and female age groups, and develops a simple stochastic model for residential change during 1970-71 and 1975-76. Rates of absence have risen markedly among males: in 1968, about l0Vo of the male labor froce resided outside the community; in 1977, absentees accounted for over 40% of the male labor force. Rates of female absence have remained extremely low. The rate of out-migration for the community as a whole, however, has fluctuated between 4.3% and 4.7Vo between 1965 and 1976, while the rate of return migration has increased. On the average, the number of years spent in wage work away from the reservation was greater for average households than for wealthy ones. This difference may be linked to the relatively limited amounts of land for staple crops available to average households. Classical Markov chain models assume transition probabilities are uniform for a whole population, but recent studies have used multiple regression to estimate the effects of individual characteristics on transition probabilities. Observed frequencies are outside the range where ordinary least squares techniques are appropriate, so this paper uses minimum logit chi-square regression to estimate the effects of age, sex, education, and position within the household on the log-odds on remaining within the community or remaining outside it. The results agree with what we know of community control over women and over men working in the households of their fathers-in-law. OST RURAL COMMUNITIES that anthropologists M study lose and gain members as a result of migration. Wage work in distant areas is an important source of cash for members of many rural communities (Berg 1965; Frazier 1976; Caldwell 1969), and surveys often show that a large proportion of the adults in a rural community have worked outside the community. There is a growing literature that deals with the effects of such migration on family structure (Gonzales 1969; Helms 1976) and on the economic organization of sending areas (Richards 1939; Boyd 1975). In the light of growing concern about rates of rural-urban migration (Gaude and Peek Frances Stier received her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1979, after fieldwork in two communities in San Blas, Panama. She taught at Purdue University and from 1980 to 1982 worked as regional anthropologist at the Regional Economic Development Services Office, West Africa, of the Agency for International Development, through an institutional contract with Purdue. This paper is based on fieldwork in Playon Chico, San Blas (May to July 1975) and in Tubuala, San Blas (August 1976 to November 1977). The fieldwork was supported by Noble Fellowships from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and by a fellowship from the Doherty Foundation Program in Latin American Studies. A grant for dissertation research from the Graduate College of the University of Arizona provided for data entry and programming costs. During my time in the field, I was very much in the debt of the scientists and staff at STRZ for their help,
llehavioral chain analysis was devised by Schiffcr to reconstruct activity sets where rcdepositio... more llehavioral chain analysis was devised by Schiffcr to reconstruct activity sets where rcdeposition of wastes and reuse patterns have ~cattered the evidences of them. This paper is a preliminary attempt tu appl~ his method to yu<.:<.:a remains from Antelope House. This paper reports the results of a pilot study of the yucca vegetal refuse from selected rooms at Antelope House, together with inferences on manufacturing methods and use patterns for the yucca. For the portion of the site sampled, this plant made up 7 percent of the total vegetal refuse weight, giving some idea of its economic importance. In reconstructing prehistoric economic activities, this investigatirm draws on the assumption, articulated by Hill, that The spatial distributions of <.:ultural materials are patterned or structured (nun-random), and will be so within an ar<.:haeulogical site. A. These patterns reflect the loci of patterned behal'ior that existed in prehistori<: times. B. The kind of behavior represented in these lod depends on the nature or "behavioral meaning" of the item or set of items, the distributions of which is being studied. C. These "behavioral meanings" <.:an be determined with the aid of spc<.:ifk ethnographi.c evidence or general worldwide comparative evidence (1966: I 0).
This paper discusses household organization and subsistence agriculture in a Cuna community of th... more This paper discusses household organization and subsistence agriculture in a Cuna community of the Comarca de San Blas, Panama. Sahlins's adaptations of models from Chayanov are commonly used to analyze the relationship between household demographic characteristics, land use, and the labor intensity of agriculture. Several technical difficulties arise in this analysis, however, and it fails explicitly to incorporate information on the social organization of the community. A multiple regression approach is offered that eliminates the technical difficulties, shows a way to incorporate additional information, and introduces a path model of the relationship between household composition, economic status, and farming strategy. [subsistence agriculture, Chayanov, San Blas Cuna, Panama, demographic change]
This paper discusses household organization and subsistence agriculture in a Cuna community of th... more This paper discusses household organization and subsistence agriculture in a Cuna community of the Comarca de San Blas, Panama. Sahlins's adaptations of models from Chayanov are commonly used to analyze the relationship between household demographic characteristics, land use, and the labor intensity of agriculture. Several technical difficulties arise in this analysis, however, and it fails explicitly to incorporate information on the social organization of the community. A multiple regression approach is offered that eliminates the technical difficulties, shows a way to incorporate additional information, and introduces a path model of the relationship between household composition, economic status, and farming strategy. [subsistence agriculture, Chayanov, San Blas Cuna, Panama, demographic change]
This paper discusses the cultural context of migration in a community in eastern San Blas, Panama... more This paper discusses the cultural context of migration in a community in eastern San Blas, Panama, describes recent changes in absence rates for male and female age groups, and develops a simple stochastic model for residential change during 1970-71 and 1975-76. Rates of absence have risen markedly among males: in 1968, about 10% of the male labor froce resided outside the community; in 1977, absentees accounted for over 40% of the male labor force. Rates of female absence have remained extremely low. The rate of out-migration for the community as a whole, however, has fluctuated between 4.3% and 4.7% between 1965 and 1976, while the rate of return migration has increased. On the average, the number of years spent in wage work away from the reservation was greater for average households than for wealthy ones. This difference may be linked to the relatively limited amounts of land for staple crops available to average households. Classical Markov chain models assume transition probab...
This paper discusses the cultural context of migration in a community in eastern San Blas, Panama... more This paper discusses the cultural context of migration in a community in eastern San Blas, Panama, describes recent changes in absence rates for male and female age groups, and develops a simple stochastic model for residential change during 1970-71 and 1975-76. Rates of absence have risen markedly among males: in 1968, about l0Vo of the male labor froce resided outside the community; in 1977, absentees accounted for over 40% of the male labor force. Rates of female absence have remained extremely low. The rate of out-migration for the community as a whole, however, has fluctuated between 4.3% and 4.7Vo between 1965 and 1976, while the rate of return migration has increased. On the average, the number of years spent in wage work away from the reservation was greater for average households than for wealthy ones. This difference may be linked to the relatively limited amounts of land for staple crops available to average households. Classical Markov chain models assume transition probabilities are uniform for a whole population, but recent studies have used multiple regression to estimate the effects of individual characteristics on transition probabilities. Observed frequencies are outside the range where ordinary least squares techniques are appropriate, so this paper uses minimum logit chi-square regression to estimate the effects of age, sex, education, and position within the household on the log-odds on remaining within the community or remaining outside it. The results agree with what we know of community control over women and over men working in the households of their fathers-in-law. OST RURAL COMMUNITIES that anthropologists M study lose and gain members as a result of migration. Wage work in distant areas is an important source of cash for members of many rural communities (Berg 1965; Frazier 1976; Caldwell 1969), and surveys often show that a large proportion of the adults in a rural community have worked outside the community. There is a growing literature that deals with the effects of such migration on family structure (Gonzales 1969; Helms 1976) and on the economic organization of sending areas (Richards 1939; Boyd 1975). In the light of growing concern about rates of rural-urban migration (Gaude and Peek Frances Stier received her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1979, after fieldwork in two communities in San Blas, Panama. She taught at Purdue University and from 1980 to 1982 worked as regional anthropologist at the Regional Economic Development Services Office, West Africa, of the Agency for International Development, through an institutional contract with Purdue. This paper is based on fieldwork in Playon Chico, San Blas (May to July 1975) and in Tubuala, San Blas (August 1976 to November 1977). The fieldwork was supported by Noble Fellowships from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and by a fellowship from the Doherty Foundation Program in Latin American Studies. A grant for dissertation research from the Graduate College of the University of Arizona provided for data entry and programming costs. During my time in the field, I was very much in the debt of the scientists and staff at STRZ for their help,
llehavioral chain analysis was devised by Schiffcr to reconstruct activity sets where rcdepositio... more llehavioral chain analysis was devised by Schiffcr to reconstruct activity sets where rcdeposition of wastes and reuse patterns have ~cattered the evidences of them. This paper is a preliminary attempt tu appl~ his method to yu<.:<.:a remains from Antelope House. This paper reports the results of a pilot study of the yucca vegetal refuse from selected rooms at Antelope House, together with inferences on manufacturing methods and use patterns for the yucca. For the portion of the site sampled, this plant made up 7 percent of the total vegetal refuse weight, giving some idea of its economic importance. In reconstructing prehistoric economic activities, this investigatirm draws on the assumption, articulated by Hill, that The spatial distributions of <.:ultural materials are patterned or structured (nun-random), and will be so within an ar<.:haeulogical site. A. These patterns reflect the loci of patterned behal'ior that existed in prehistori<: times. B. The kind of behavior represented in these lod depends on the nature or "behavioral meaning" of the item or set of items, the distributions of which is being studied. C. These "behavioral meanings" <.:an be determined with the aid of spc<.:ifk ethnographi.c evidence or general worldwide comparative evidence (1966: I 0).
This paper discusses household organization and subsistence agriculture in a Cuna community of th... more This paper discusses household organization and subsistence agriculture in a Cuna community of the Comarca de San Blas, Panama. Sahlins's adaptations of models from Chayanov are commonly used to analyze the relationship between household demographic characteristics, land use, and the labor intensity of agriculture. Several technical difficulties arise in this analysis, however, and it fails explicitly to incorporate information on the social organization of the community. A multiple regression approach is offered that eliminates the technical difficulties, shows a way to incorporate additional information, and introduces a path model of the relationship between household composition, economic status, and farming strategy. [subsistence agriculture, Chayanov, San Blas Cuna, Panama, demographic change]
This paper discusses household organization and subsistence agriculture in a Cuna community of th... more This paper discusses household organization and subsistence agriculture in a Cuna community of the Comarca de San Blas, Panama. Sahlins's adaptations of models from Chayanov are commonly used to analyze the relationship between household demographic characteristics, land use, and the labor intensity of agriculture. Several technical difficulties arise in this analysis, however, and it fails explicitly to incorporate information on the social organization of the community. A multiple regression approach is offered that eliminates the technical difficulties, shows a way to incorporate additional information, and introduces a path model of the relationship between household composition, economic status, and farming strategy. [subsistence agriculture, Chayanov, San Blas Cuna, Panama, demographic change]
This paper discusses the cultural context of migration in a community in eastern San Blas, Panama... more This paper discusses the cultural context of migration in a community in eastern San Blas, Panama, describes recent changes in absence rates for male and female age groups, and develops a simple stochastic model for residential change during 1970-71 and 1975-76. Rates of absence have risen markedly among males: in 1968, about 10% of the male labor froce resided outside the community; in 1977, absentees accounted for over 40% of the male labor force. Rates of female absence have remained extremely low. The rate of out-migration for the community as a whole, however, has fluctuated between 4.3% and 4.7% between 1965 and 1976, while the rate of return migration has increased. On the average, the number of years spent in wage work away from the reservation was greater for average households than for wealthy ones. This difference may be linked to the relatively limited amounts of land for staple crops available to average households. Classical Markov chain models assume transition probab...
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Papers by Frances Stier