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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Role Of Farmer Knowledge In Agroecosystem Science: Rice Farming And Amphibians In The Philippines, Catherine R. Propper, Lisa J. Hardy, Brittni D. Howard, Rica Joy B. Flor, Grant R. Singleton Sep 2020

Role Of Farmer Knowledge In Agroecosystem Science: Rice Farming And Amphibians In The Philippines, Catherine R. Propper, Lisa J. Hardy, Brittni D. Howard, Rica Joy B. Flor, Grant R. Singleton

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Rice (Oryza sativa) agriculture provides food and economic security for nearly half of the world’s population. Rice agriculture is intensive in both land and agrochemical use. However, rice fields also provide aquatic resources for wildlife, including amphibians. In turn, some species may provide ecosystem services back to the farmers working in the rice agroecosystem. The foundation for understanding the complexity of agroecosystem–human relationships requires garnering information regarding human perceptions and knowledge of the role of biodiversity in these rice agroecosystems. Understanding farmer knowledge and perceptions of the ecosystem services provided by wildlife in their fields, along with their …


A Landscape Perspective On Climate-Driven Risks To Food Security: Exploring The Relationship Between Climate And Social Transformation In The Prehispanic U.S. Southwest, Colleen Strawhacker, Grant Snitker, Matthew A. Peeples, Ann P. Kinzig, Keith W. Kintigh, Kyle Bocinsky, Brad Butterfield, Jacob Freeman, Sarah Oas, Margaret C. Nelson, Jonathan A. Sandor, Katherine A. Spielmann Jul 2020

A Landscape Perspective On Climate-Driven Risks To Food Security: Exploring The Relationship Between Climate And Social Transformation In The Prehispanic U.S. Southwest, Colleen Strawhacker, Grant Snitker, Matthew A. Peeples, Ann P. Kinzig, Keith W. Kintigh, Kyle Bocinsky, Brad Butterfield, Jacob Freeman, Sarah Oas, Margaret C. Nelson, Jonathan A. Sandor, Katherine A. Spielmann

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Spatially and temporally unpredictable rainfall patterns presented food production challenges to small-scale agricultural communities, requiring multiple risk-mitigating strategies to increase food security. Although site-based investigations of the relationship between climate and agricultural production offer insights into how individual communities may have created long-term adaptations to manage risk, the inherent spatial variability of climate-driven risk makes a landscape-scale perspective valuable. In this article, we model risk by evaluating how the spatial structure of ancient climate conditions may have affected the reliability of three major strategies used to reduce risk: drawing upon social networks in time of need, hunting and gathering of …


Subsistence Strategy Tradeoffs In Long-Term Population Stability Over The Past 6,000 Years, Darcy A. Bird Aug 2019

Subsistence Strategy Tradeoffs In Long-Term Population Stability Over The Past 6,000 Years, Darcy A. Bird

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

I conduct the first comparative analysis of long term human population stability in North America. Questions regarding population stability among animals and plants are fundamental to population ecology, yet no anthropological research has addressed human population stability. This is an important knowledge gap, because a species’ population stability can have implications for its risk of extinction and for the stability of the ecological community in which it lives. I use archaeological and paleoclimatological data to compare long term population stability with subsistence strategy and climate stability over 6,000 years. I conduct my analysis on a large scale to better understand …


The Southeast In Context: An Assessment Of The Trauma Associated With Agriculture, Martin Welker May 2013

The Southeast In Context: An Assessment Of The Trauma Associated With Agriculture, Martin Welker

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Hunter-gatherer tradition prevailed as the dominant subsistence pattern for most of human history. Between 9,000 and 13,000 years ago peoples in the Levant, New World, and Asia began the domestication and cultivation of wild flora and fauna, creating a subsistence pattern that subsequently spread to neighboring regions (Abbo et al. 2010; Bellwood 2009; Purugganan & Fuller 2009; Richerson et al. 2001). The influence of this agricultural transition on human populations is manifested in various forms in the human skeleton, many of which have received intensive study: dental caries, degenerative joint disease, decreased stature, and increased birth rates (Bridges 1991; Larson …


Cache County, Utah Agricultural Landevaluation And Site Assessment Handbook, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, G. Busch Jan 2003

Cache County, Utah Agricultural Landevaluation And Site Assessment Handbook, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, G. Busch

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Urban encroachment on farmland has serious implications for the farm sector. As the county’s economic base and population has grown, important agricultural lands have been converted to urban uses. Since 1986, Cache County has lost 8,884 acres of prime and statewide important farmland - nearly 14 square miles - to urban development. The current rate of development is consuming over 600 acres of prime and statewide important farmland each year. As we plan for the future and the most cost efficient means for housing this population growth, it is important to note two things: 1) Housing is most affordable in …


Planning For Agriculture In Wisconsin: A Guide Forcommunities, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith Jan 2002

Planning For Agriculture In Wisconsin: A Guide Forcommunities, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The purpose of this guide is to provide you with basic information to help Wisconsin’s rural communities prepare to plan for agriculture. The guide was developed in response to the Comprehensive Planning Law passed under the 1999-2001 Wisconsin State Biennial Budget. This law requires that by January 1, 2010, all programs, actions, and decisions affecting land use must be consistent with the locally adopted comprehensive plan in order for the community to continue making land use related decisions. The law applies to cities, villages, towns, counties, and regional planning commissions.


Smart Growth And Wisconsin Agriculture, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith Jan 2001

Smart Growth And Wisconsin Agriculture, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Relatively low and volatile agricultural commodity prices have placed increasing pressure on the state’s farm sector in the 1990s. At the same time, an unusually robust non-farm economy has generated significant demand for rural housing and recreational land development. The result has been a dramatic acceleration in the rate of farmland conversion to non- farm uses over the last 15 years. Non-farm growth pressures have affected many other aspects of Wisconsin’s urban and rural landscape as well. To help communities grapple with these new challenges, the state legislature passed a new “Smart Growth” law in the fall of 1999 (1999 …


Limitations Of Agricultural Land Useplanning Tools In Rural Wisconsin, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, J. Bukovac Jan 2000

Limitations Of Agricultural Land Useplanning Tools In Rural Wisconsin, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, J. Bukovac

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Recent opinion polls suggest that farmland preservation is one of the most widely shared goals for local land use planning in Wisconsin. Although the state has long been a leader in the use of tax and zoning policy tools to protect agricultural lands from residential or commercial development, continued high rates of farmland loss have cast doubt on their effectiveness. This paper critically examines statistical evidence for the effectiveness of farmland tax credit and exclusive agricultural zoning policies in Wisconsin. Using data collected at the township level (the local unit of land use decision-making in most counties), and controlling for …


Wisconsin Agriculture In Historical Perspective:Economic And Social Changes, 1959-1995, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith Jan 1996

Wisconsin Agriculture In Historical Perspective:Economic And Social Changes, 1959-1995, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Anyone who travels through the Wisconsin countryside and speaks with an average farm operator will quickly come to appreciate the acute sense of anxiety about the future of agriculture that permeates rural life in the state. Long hours, a lack of vacation time, declining commodity prices, and rising farm expenses have all contributed to a growing inability to find young people interested in taking over Wisconsin farm operations. The loss of farms - particularly dairy farms - in many regions of the state has placed stress on the economic vitality and cultural identities of rural communities that have traditionally depended …