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Let’s go fishing: A quantitative analysis of subsistence choices with a special focus on mixed economies among small-scale societies

The transition to agriculture is regarded as a major turning point in human history. In the present contribution we propose to look at it through the lens of ethnographic data by means of a machine learning approach. More specifically, we analyse both the subsistence economies and the socioecologica...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ahedo, Virginia, Zurro, Débora, Caro, Jorge, Galán, José Manuel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8336859/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34347806
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254539
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author Ahedo, Virginia
Zurro, Débora
Caro, Jorge
Galán, José Manuel
author_facet Ahedo, Virginia
Zurro, Débora
Caro, Jorge
Galán, José Manuel
author_sort Ahedo, Virginia
collection PubMed
description The transition to agriculture is regarded as a major turning point in human history. In the present contribution we propose to look at it through the lens of ethnographic data by means of a machine learning approach. More specifically, we analyse both the subsistence economies and the socioecological context of 1290 societies documented in the Ethnographic Atlas with a threefold purpose: (i) to better understand the variability and success of human economic choices; (ii) to assess the role of environmental settings in the configuration of the different subsistence economies; and (iii) to examine the relevance of fishing in the development of viable alternatives to cultivation. All data were extracted from the publicly available cross-cultural database D-PLACE. Our results suggest that not all subsistence combinations are viable, existing just a subset of successful economic choices that appear recurrently in specific ecological systems. The subsistence economies identified are classified as either primary or mixed economies in accordance with an information-entropy-based quantitative criterion that determines their degree of diversification. Remarkably, according to our results, mixed economies are not a marginal choice, as they constitute 25% of the cases in our data sample. In addition, fishing seems to be a key element in the configuration of mixed economies, as it is present across all of them.
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spelling pubmed-83368592021-08-05 Let’s go fishing: A quantitative analysis of subsistence choices with a special focus on mixed economies among small-scale societies Ahedo, Virginia Zurro, Débora Caro, Jorge Galán, José Manuel PLoS One Research Article The transition to agriculture is regarded as a major turning point in human history. In the present contribution we propose to look at it through the lens of ethnographic data by means of a machine learning approach. More specifically, we analyse both the subsistence economies and the socioecological context of 1290 societies documented in the Ethnographic Atlas with a threefold purpose: (i) to better understand the variability and success of human economic choices; (ii) to assess the role of environmental settings in the configuration of the different subsistence economies; and (iii) to examine the relevance of fishing in the development of viable alternatives to cultivation. All data were extracted from the publicly available cross-cultural database D-PLACE. Our results suggest that not all subsistence combinations are viable, existing just a subset of successful economic choices that appear recurrently in specific ecological systems. The subsistence economies identified are classified as either primary or mixed economies in accordance with an information-entropy-based quantitative criterion that determines their degree of diversification. Remarkably, according to our results, mixed economies are not a marginal choice, as they constitute 25% of the cases in our data sample. In addition, fishing seems to be a key element in the configuration of mixed economies, as it is present across all of them. Public Library of Science 2021-08-04 /pmc/articles/PMC8336859/ /pubmed/34347806 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254539 Text en © 2021 Ahedo et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Ahedo, Virginia
Zurro, Débora
Caro, Jorge
Galán, José Manuel
Let’s go fishing: A quantitative analysis of subsistence choices with a special focus on mixed economies among small-scale societies
title Let’s go fishing: A quantitative analysis of subsistence choices with a special focus on mixed economies among small-scale societies
title_full Let’s go fishing: A quantitative analysis of subsistence choices with a special focus on mixed economies among small-scale societies
title_fullStr Let’s go fishing: A quantitative analysis of subsistence choices with a special focus on mixed economies among small-scale societies
title_full_unstemmed Let’s go fishing: A quantitative analysis of subsistence choices with a special focus on mixed economies among small-scale societies
title_short Let’s go fishing: A quantitative analysis of subsistence choices with a special focus on mixed economies among small-scale societies
title_sort let’s go fishing: a quantitative analysis of subsistence choices with a special focus on mixed economies among small-scale societies
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8336859/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34347806
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254539
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