Abstract
It has been generally assumed until recently that tropical rain forests are food-rich biomes for human foragers, and that prehistoric hunter-gatherers once lived completely independent of cultivated foods in such environments. An alternative hypothesis that such forests are actually food-poor for humans is proposed here. Specifically, that wild starch foods such as yams were so scarce and so hard to extract that human foragers could not have lived in such biomes without recourse to cultivated foods. The symbiotic relationship found today between tropical forest hunter-gatherers and farmers is not a recent phenomenon, but evolved long ago as an adaptive strategy for successfully exploiting the tropical forest.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abruzzi, W. (1979). Population pressure and subsistence strategies among the Mbuti Pygmies.Human Ecology 7: 183–189.
Adi, H. (1981).The re-excavation of the Rockshelter of Gua Cha, Ulu Kelantan, West Malaysia. Unpublished Master's thesis in anthropology, Australian National University.
AFIO 89/60. (1745). Certificacion de Fr. Bernardo de Santa Rosa de administracion de sacramentos, 10, Marzo 1745, Catalog no. 89/60. Unpublished letter archived in the Archivo Franciscano Ibero-Oriental, Madrid.
Alexander, J., and Coursey, D. (1969). The origins of yam cultivation. In Ucko, P., and Dimbley, G. (eds.),Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals. Gerald Duckworth, London, pp. 405–425.
Allen, M. (1985). The rain forest of northeast Luzon and Agta foragers. In Griffin, P. B., and Estioko-Griffin, A. (eds.),The Agta of Northeastern Luzon: Recent Studies. San Carlos Publications, Cebu City, Philippines, pp. 45–68.
Bahuchet, S., and Guillaume, H. (1982). Aka-farmer relations in the northeast Congo Basin. In Leacock, E., and Lee, R. (eds.),Politics and History in Band Societies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 189–211.
Bailey, R., and Peacock, N. Efe pygmies of northeast Zaire: Subsistence strategies in the Ituri Forest. In de Garine, I., and Harrison, G. (eds.),Coping with Uncertainty in the Food Supply. Oxford University Press, Oxford. In press.
Barnard, A. (1983). Contemporary hunter-gatherers: Current theoretical issues in ecology and social organization.Annual Review of Anthropology 12: 193–214.
Bayard, D. (1984). Agriculture, metallurgy, and state formation in mainland Southeast Asia.Current Anthropology 25: 103–105.
Beckerman, S. (1979). The abundance of protein in Amazonia: A reply to Gross.American Anthropologist 81: 533–560.
Bellwood, P. (1985).Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago. Academic Press, New York.
Barry, J.,et al. (1986).On the Edge of the Forest: Cultural Adaptation and Cognitive Development in Central Africa. Swets North America, Berwyn, Illinois.
Brown, W. (1921). Wild foods of the Philippines. In Brown, W. (ed.),Minor Products of the Philippine Forests (Bulletin 22, Vol. 2). Bureau of Printing, Manila.
Brown, W. (1950).Useful Plants of the Philippines. Technical Bulletin 10, Department of Natural Resources, Bureau of Printing, Manila.
Burkill, I. (1935).A Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula. Millibank, London.
Burkill, I. (1939). Notes on the genusDioscorea in the Belgian Congo.Bulletin du Jardin Botanique de l'Etat, Bruxelles 15: 342–392.
Burkill, I. (1951). Dioscoreaceae.Flora Malesiana 4: 293–335.
Burkill, I. (1960). The organography and the evolution of the Dioscoreaceae.Journal of the Linnaean Society (Botany) 56(367): 319–412.
Cadeliña, R. V. (1982).Batak Interhousehold Food Sharing. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation in anthropology, University of Hawaii, Manoa.
Campbell, B. (1983).Human Ecology: The Story of Our Place in Nature from Prehistory to the Present. Aldine, New York.
Cavalli-Sforza, L. (1972). Pygmies, an example of hunter-gatherers, and genetic consequences for man of domestication of plants and animals. In deGrouchy, J., Ebling, F., and Henderson, I. (eds.),Human Genetics: Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Human Genetics. Excerpta Medica, Amsterdam, pp. 79–95.
Chagnon, N. (1968).Yanomamo: The Fierce People. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.
Clark, C.Trading Networks of the Northeastern Cagayan Agta. Unpublished Master's thesis in anthropology, University of Hawaii. In preparation.
Clastres, P. (1972). The Guayaki. In Bicchieri, M. (ed.),Hunters and Gatherers Today. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, pp. 138–174.
Coursey, D. (1967).Yams: An Account of the Nature, Origins, Cultivation and Utilisation of the Useful Members of the Dioscoreaceae. Longmans, London.
Coursey, D. (1972). The civilizations of the yam: Interrelationships of man and yams in Africa and the Indo-pacific region.Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania 7: 215–233.
Darlington, P. (1957).Zoography: The Geographical Distribution of Animals. John Wiley, New York.
Davies, O. (1967).West Africa before the Europeans: Archaeology and Prehistory. Methuen, London.
Davies, O. (1968). The origins of agriculture in West Africa.Current Anthropology 9: 479–482.
Dentan, R. (1968).The Semai: A Nonviolent People of Malaya. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Dickerson, R. (1928).Distribution of Life in the Philippines. Bureau of Printing, New York.
Dunn, F. (1975).Rain-Forest Collectors and Traders: A Study of Resource Utilization in Modern and Ancient Malaya. Monograph 5, Malaysian Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, Kuala Lumpur.
Eder, J. (1978). The caloric returns to food collecting: Disruption and change among the Batak of the Philippine tropical forest.Human Ecology 6: 55–69.
Endicott, K. (1979).Batek Negrito Sex Roles. Unpublished Master's thesis in anthropology, Australian National University.
Endicott, K. (1984). The economy of the Batek of Malaysia: Annual and historical perspectives.Research in Economic Anthropology 6: 29–52.
Estioko-Griffin, A. (1984).The Ethnography of Southeastern Cagayan Agta Hunting. Unpublished Master's thesis in anthropology, University of the Philippines.
Estioko-Griffin, A., and Griffin, P. B. (1981). Woman the hunter: The Agta. In Dahlberg, F. (ed.),Woman the Gatherer. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 121–149.
Evans, I. (1937).The Negritos of Malaya. Frank Cass, London.
Fernandez, C., and Lynch, S. (1972). The Tasaday: Cave-dwelling food gatherers of South Cotabato, Mindanao.Philippine Sociological Review 20: 279–330.
Flannery, K. (1973). The origins of agriculture.Annual Review of Anthropology 2: 271–310.
Flores, J., and Balagot, V. (1969). Climate of the Philippines. In Arakawa, H. (ed.),Climates of Northern and Eastern Asia. Elservier Publishing Co., Amsterdam, pp. 159–204.
Fox, R. (1953).The Pinatubo Negritos: Their Useful Plants and Material Culture. Bureau of Printing, Manila.
Francis, P., Kense, F., and Duke, P. (eds.) (1981).Networks of the Past: Regional Interaction in Archaeology. Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Conference of the Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary, The University of Calgary, Chicago.
Garvan, J. (1964). In Hochegger, H. (ed.),The Negritos of the Philippines. Verlag Ferdinand Berger Horn, Vienna.
Glover, I. (1977a). The Hoabhinian: Hunter-gatherers or early agriculturalists in Southeast Asia? In Megaw, J. (ed.),Hunters, Gatherers, and First Farmers beyond Europe. Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, pp. 145–166.
Glover, I. (1977b). Prehistoric plant remains from Southeast Asia, with special reference to rice.South Asian Archaeology 7: 7–37.
Glover, I. (1985). Some problems relating to the domestication of rice in Asia. In Misra, V., and Bellwood, P. (eds.),Recent Advances in Indo-Pacific Prehistory. Oxford and IBH, New Delhi, pp. 265–274.
Gorman, C. (1969). Hoabhinian: A pebble-tool complex with early plant associations in Southeast Asia.Science 163: 671–673.
Gorman, C. (1971). Hoabhinian and after: Subsistence patterns in Southeast Asia during the late Pleistocene and early recent periods.World Archaeology 2: 300–320.
Griffin, P. (1984). Forager resource and land use in the humid tropics: The Agta of northeastern Luzon, the Philippines. In Schrire, C. (ed.),Past and Present in Hunter Gatherer Studies. Academic Press, Orlando, pp. 95–121.
Griffin, P., and Headland, T. (1985). A selected bibliography of the Agta Negritos of eastern Luzon, Philippines. In Griffin, P. B., and Estioko-Griffin, A. (eds.),The Agta of Northeastern Luzon: Recent Studies. San Carlos Publications, Cebu City, Philippines, pp. 166–175.
Harako, R. (1976). The Mbuti as hunters: A study of ecological anthropology of the Mbuti pygmies (I).Kyoto University African Studies 10: 37–99.
Harako, R. (1981). The cultural ecology of hunting behavior among Mbuti pygmies in the Ituri Forest, Zaire. In Harding, R., and Teleki, G. (eds.),Omnivorous Primates. Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 499–555.
Harris, D. (1972). The origins of agriculture in the tropics.American Scientist 60: 180–193.
Harris, D. (1987). Aboriginal subsistence in a tropical rain forest environment: Food procurement, cannibalism, and population regulation in northeastern Australia. In Harris, M., and Ross, E. (eds.),Food and Evolution: Toward a Theory of Human Food Habits. Temple University Press, Philadelphia.
Hart, T., and Hart, J. (1986). The ecological basis of hunter-gatherer subsistence in African rain forests: The Mbuti of Eastern Zaire.Human Ecology 14: 29–55.
Hawkes, K. (1987). How much food do foragers need? In Harris, M., and Ross, E. (eds.),Food and Evolution: Toward a Theory of Human Food Habits. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, pp. 341–355.
Hawkes, K., Hill, K., and O'Connell, J. (1982). Why hunters gather: Optimal foraging and the Ache of eastern Paraguay.American Ethnologist 9: 379–398.
Hayden, B. (1981). Subsistence and ecological adaptations of modern hunter/gatherers. In Harding, R., and Teleki, G. (eds.),Omnivorous Primates: Gathering and Hunting in Human Evolution. Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 344–421.
Headland, T. (1975). The Casiguran [Agta] Dumagats today and in 1936.Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society 3: 245–257.
Headland, T. (1983). An ethnobotanical anomaly: The dearth of binomial specifics in a folk taxonomy of a Negrito hunter-gatherer society in the Philippines.Journal of Ethnobiology 3: 109–120.
Headland, T. (1985). Comment on mode of subsistence and folk biological taxonomy.Current Anthropology 26: 57–58.
Headland, T. (1986). Why foragers do not become farmers: A historical study of a changing ecosystem and its effect on a Negrito hunter-gatherer group in the Philippines. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor.
Headland, T. (1987). Ecosystemic change in a Philippine tropical rainforest and its effect on a Negrito foraging society. Paper read at the Conference in World Environmental History, Duke University, April 30–May 2.
Headland, T., and Reid, L. Hunter-gatherers and their relationships to agriculturalists from prehistory to the present. To appear.
Henry, J. (1964).Jungle People: A Kaingang Tribe of the Highlands of Brazil. Random House (Vintage), New York.
Hill, K., and Hawkes K. (1983). Neotropical hunting among the Ache of eastern Paraguay. In Hames, R., and Vickers, W. (eds.),Adaptive Responses of Native Amazonians. Academic Press, New York, pp. 139–188.
Hill, K., Kaplan, H., Hawkes, K., and Hurtado, A. (1985). Men's time allocation to subsistence work among the Ache of eastern Paraguay.Human Ecology 13: 29–47.
Hladik, A., Bahuchet, S., Ducatillion, C., and Hladik, C. (1984). Les plantes a tubercule de la foret dense d'Afrique centrale.Le Terre et la Vie 39: 249–290.
Hoffman, C. (1984). Punan foragers in the trading networks of Southeast Asia. In Shrire, C. (ed.),Past and Present in Hunter Gatherer Studies. Academic Press, Orlando, pp. 123–149.
Holdridge, C. (1967).Life Zone Ecology. Tropical Science Center, San Jose, Costa Rica.
Holmberg, A. (1969).Nomads of the Long Bow: The Siriono of Eastern Bolivia. Natural History Press, Garden City, New York.
Hutterer, K. (1974). The evolution of Philippine lowland societies.Mankind 9: 287–299.
Hutterer, K. (1976). An evolutionary approach to the Southeast Asian cultural sequence.Current Anthropology 17: 221–242.
Hutterer, K. (1982). Interaction between tropical ecosystems and human foragers: Some general considerations. Working paper, Environment and Policy Institute, East-West Center, Honolulu.
Hutterer, K. (1983). The natural and cultural history of Southeast Asian agriculture: Ecological and evolutionary considerations.Anthropos 78: 169–212.
Ichikawa, M. (1981). Ecological and sociological importance of honey to the Mbuti net hunters, Eastern Zaire.African Studies Monographs (Kyoto) 1: 55–68.
Isaac, B. (1977). The Siriono of Eastern Bolivia: A reexamination.Human Ecology 5: 137–154.
Kloos, P. (1977). The Akuriyo of Surinam: A case of emergence from isolation. IWGIA Document No. 27, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, Copenhagen.
Kozak, V., Baxter, D., Williamson, L., and Carneiro, R. (1979).The Heta Indians: Fish in a Dry Pond (Vol. 55, Part 6). Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, New York.
Labang, D., and Medway, L. (1979). Preliminary assessments of the diversity and density of wild mammals, man and birds in alluvial forest in the Gunong Mulu National Park, Sarawak. In Marshall, A. (ed.),The Abundance of Animals in Malaysian Rain Forests. Department of Geography, University of Hull, and Institute of Southeast Asian Biology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, pp. 53–66.
Liebig, J. (1840).Chemistry in Its Application to Agriculture and Physiology. Taylor and Walton, London.
Majid, Z. (1982).The West Mouth, Niah, in the Prehistory of Southeast Asia. Sarawak Museum Journal, Publication 31.
Milton, K. (1984). Protein and carbohydrate resources of the Maku Indians of Northwestern Amazonia.American Anthropologist 86: 7–27.
Mudar, K. (1985). Bearded pigs and beardless men: Predator-prey relationships between pigs and Agta in northeastern Luzon. In Griffin, P. B., and Estioko-Griffin, A. (eds.),The Agta of Northeastern Luzon: Recent Studies. San Carlos Publications, Cebu City, Philippines, pp. 69–84.
Myers, N. (1980).Conversion of Tropical Moist Forest. National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.
Myers, N. (1984).The Primary Source: Tropical Forests and Our Future. W. W. Norton, New York.
Omoto, K. (1985). The Negritos: Genetic origins and microevolution. In Kirk, R., and Szathmary, E. (eds.),Out of Asia: Peopling the Americas and the Pacific. The Journal of of Pacific History, Canberra, pp. 123–131.
Perez, P. (1928). Los Aetas y Ilongotes de Filipinas.Archivo Ibero Americano 15: 71–106.
Peterson, J. (1978a).The Ecology of Social Boundaries: Agta Foragers of the Philippines. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
Peterson, J. (1978b). Hunter-gatherer/farmer exchange.American Anthropologist 80: 335–351.
Peterson, W. (1974a). Summary report of two archaeological sites from northeastern Luzon.Archaelogy and Physical Anthropology in Oceania 9: 26–35.
Peterson, W. (1974b). Anomalous archaeology sites of northern Luzon and models of Southeast Asian prehistory. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation in anthropology. University of Hawaii, Honolulu.
Posnansky, M. (1969). Yams and the origins of West African agriculture.Odu 1: 101–107.
Radcliffe-Brown, A. (1964).The Andaman Islanders. Free Press of Glencoe, New York.
Rambo, A. (1981). Review of Dunn 1975.Asian Perspectives 24(1): 139–140.
Rambo, A. (1982). Orang Asli adaptive strategies: Implications for Malaysian natural resource development planning. In MacAndrews, C., and Chia, L-S. (eds.),Too Rapid Rural Development: Perceptions and Perspectives from Southeast Asia. Ohio University Press, Athens, pp. 251–299.
Reid, L. (1987). The early switch hypothesis: Linguistic evidence for contact between Negritos and Austronesians.Man and Culture in Oceania 3: 41–59.
Richards, P. (1952).The Tropical Rain Forest. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Richards, P. (1973). The tropical rainforest.Scientific American 229(6): 58–67.
Sahlins, M. (1972).Stone Age Economics. Aldine, New York.
Sauer, C. (1952).Agricultural Origins and Dispersals. M.I.T. Press, Cambridge.
Schebesta, P. (1927).Among the Forest Dwarfs of Malaya. Hutchinson, London.
Schimper, A. (1903).Plant-Geography upon a Physiological Basis. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Schrire, C. (1984). Wild surmises on savage thoughts. In Schrire, C. (ed.),Past and Present in Hunter Gatherer Studies. Academic Press, Orlando, pp. 1–25.
Silverwood-Cope, P. (1972). A contribution to ethnography of the Colombian Maku. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation in anthropology, University of Cambridge.
Snow, B., and Shutler, R., Jr., (1985).The Archaeology of Fuga Moro Island: New Approaches for the Isolation and Explanation of Diagnostic Ceramic Assemblages in Northern Luzon, Philippines. San Carlos Publication, Cebu City, Philippines.
Snow, B., Shutler, R., Jr., Nelson, D., Vogel, J., and Southon, J. (1986). Evidence of early rice cultivation in the Philippines.Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society 14: 3–11.
Solheim, W. (1972). An earlier agricultural revolution.Scientific American 226(4): 34–41.
Solheim, W. (1981). Philippine prehistory. In Casal G. (ed.),The People and Art of the Philippines. Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles, pp. 17–83.
Speth, J., and Spielmann, K. (1983). Energy source, protein metabolism, and hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies.Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 2: 1–31.
Sponsel, L. (1986). Amazon ecology and adaptation.Annual Reviews of Anthropology 15: 67–97.
Sponsel, L. Farming and foraging: A necessary complementarity in Amazonia? In Kent, S. (ed.),Farmers as Hunters: The Implications of Sedentism. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. In press.
Tanno, T. (1981). Plant utilization of the Mbuti pygmies.Kyoto University African Study Monographs 1: 1–53.
Thiel, B. (1980). Excavations in the Pinacanauan valley, northern Luzon.Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 2: 40–48.
Turnbull, C. (1965).Wayward Servants: The Two Worlds of the African Pygmies. Natural History Press, Garden City, New York.
Verstappen, H. (1975). On paleo-climates and landform development in Malaysia.Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 1: 3–35.
Vincent, A. (1985). Plant foods in savanna environments: A preliminary report of tubers eaten by the Hadza of northern Tanzania.World Archaeology 17: 131–148.
Vondra, C., Mathisen, M., Burggraf, D., and Kvale, E. (1981). Plio-Pleistocene geology of northern Luzon, Philippines. In Rapp, G., and Vondra, C. (eds.),Hominid Sites: Their Geologic Settings. Westview Press, Boulder, pp. 225–310.
Whitford, H. (1911).The Forests of the Philippines. Part I. Forest Types and Products. Bureau of Forestry, Manila.
Whitmore, T. (1975).Tropical Rain Forests of the Far East. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Yen, D. (1973). The origins of Oceanic agriculture.Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania 8: 68–85.
Yen, D. (1976). The ethnobotany of the Tasaday: III. Notes on the subsistence system. In Yen, D., and Nance, J. (eds.),Further Studies on the Tasaday. Panamin Foundation, Makati, Philippines, pp. 159–183.
Yen, D. (1977). Hoabhinian horticulture: The evidence and questions from northwest Thailand. In Allen, J., Golson, J., and Jones, R. (eds.),Sunda and Sahel. Academic Press, New York, pp. 567–599.
Yen, D., and Gutierrez, H. (1974). The ethnobotany of the Tasaday: The useful plants.The Philippine Journal of Science 103: 97–139.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Headland, T.N. The wild yam question: How well could independent hunter-gatherers live in a tropical rain forest ecosystem?. Hum Ecol 15, 463–491 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00888000
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00888000