Social scientists ordinarily classify the economic life of communities by a dominant mode of subsistence, such as foraging, agriculture, pastoralism, petty manufacture, etc. This dissertation research project by a cultural anthropology student at the University of North Carolina will study how hunter-gatherers of Madagascar meet their needs for subsistence and consumer gods thorough a diverse array of economic and ecological decisions. While all the members of the society hunt and gather to some extent, many households also maintain a diverse portfolio of maize and tuber cultivation, cattle and goat herding, fishing and manufacturing of mats and baskets for sale. Within this suite of possibilities a particular household is faced with options, between subsistence and cash, activities in different environmental zones, immediate and delayed returns, men, women and children's labor, and among diverse markets. This project will study the economic activities and decisions of a set of households in order to understand how risk is managed to survive in an unpredictable environment with a rudimentary technological tool kit. Understanding strategies within such a diverse economy is vital for understanding the general processes of economic and cultural change, whether they occur at the origins of agriculture or in the ongoing transition of small, rural populations into the global market economy.
