Household coping strategies and contradictions in response to seasonal food shortage.
Uncertainty is a primary consideration in adjusting to seasonal environments as attempts are made to synchronize productive inputs with critical periods in the annual cycle. Coping responses of small scale producers therefore rely on the coordination and control of diverse resources, and on flexibility in choosing between multiple options. Generalizations concerning seasonal coping responses to food shortage of households, and of women within households, are reviewed. Particular attention is given to how socio-economic differentiation affects the capacity to use such strategies, and how these differ with regard to the degree of resource commitment and reversibility once initiated. Our primary concern is in exploring the process whereby seasonal strategies become eroded. Thus, as seasonal uncertainties are exacerbated by unpredictable fluctuations in commercial economies, and as productive resources become less accessible to households, adaptive conflicts and contradictions are introduced. Uncertainty is further intensified by illness and unequal access to adaptive options based on class and gender. The increasing inability of small scale producers to cope with seasonal uncertainty emphasizes the need to understand this erosive process.
Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 01003.
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Thomas
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Leatherman
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D005523:Food Supply; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012621:Seasons; D012737:Sex Factors; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors