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| ~Yanomamo Subsistance~ |
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| ~Yanomamo Subsistance~ |
Slash and burn agriculture as a mode of subsistence Slash and burn agriculture is generally composed of 5-steps before the actual planting of a plot of land. These are: 1) Selection of the site (taking possible flooding among other things into consideration). 2) Cutting the underbrush with a machete. 3) Clearing trees (stripped of branches and often left in place). 4) Left to dry for 1-2 months (if too soon, will not burn completely). 5) Swidden or burning the field. In forest areas the nutrients are heavily contained above ground, and after the burn, Calcium, Potash, and other nutrients stay in the ash and ‘trickle’ in to the ground. The planting should be done quickly while the nutrients still remain. The maturation times should be staggered and the replacement environment should resemble the original environment as much as possible. In 2-3 years, the weeds and forest begin to re-grow, at which time the plot is abandoned and left to ‘fallow’ ideally for 20-30 years before coming back to it. The Yanomamo often simply extended the boundaries of the same plot, rather than abandoning the entire plot. Slash and burn agriculture is very energy efficient, producing 16 calories for every 1-calorie of energy expended. It is not responsible for large amounts of de-forestation when done as subsistence. Large corporations are responsible for the de-forestation, clearing thousands of acres at a time. 50 million people in the tropics use slash and burn subsistence, and it provides 80-90% of the Yanomamo’s subsistence. |
Thanks and intellectual credit to Dr. P. Claus, ethnographer and professor.
The above is paraphrased from notes from his lectures that I have attended.
