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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...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2021
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8336859 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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