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Understanding Variation in Prehistoric Agricultural Productivity: The Importance of Distinguishing among Potential, Available, and Consumptive Yields

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Sissel Schroeder
Sissel Schroeder*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706
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Abstract

Based on a model derived from an analysis of contemporary maize yields in Tennessee, Baden and Beekman claim that Mississippian yields would have ranged between 8 bu/acre (501.7 kg/ha) and 30 bu/acre (1,881.3 kg/ha). Using nineteenth-century observations of Native American farmers, I noted in 1999 that available maize yields ranged between 3.7 and 42.67 bu/acre (232.1 to 2,676.3 kg/ha), with a mean of 18.9 bu/acre (1,185.4 kg/ha) for groups that did not have plows. Consumptive yields would have been lower, probably closer to an average of 10 bu/acre (627.2 kg/ha). In this paper, I clarify the differences between potential yields, available yields to illustrate the advantages of my approach. I discuss some factors that affect maize plants prior to harvest, leading to available yields that may be lower than potential yields, and conditions that reduce the quantity of maize kernels available for consumption after the harvest. Baden and Beekman argue that modern agricultural technology provides a more reasonable baseline analog for modeling ancient maize productivity than nineteenth-century Native American technologies. In contrast, I explore agricultural yield data for Native Americans and Euroamericans from a number of tribes and states for 1850, 1867, and 1878. A comparison of these data shows that, overall, yields obtained by Native American farmers tend to be lower than yields for contemporaneous Euroamerican farmers. My approach using agricultural productivity data from nineteenth-century Native Americans, coupled with a consideration of potential, available, and consumptive yields, provides a plausible foundation for the evaluation of late prehistoric yields.

Résumé

Résumé

Basándose en datos agrícolos de Tennessee contemporáneo, Baden y Beekman (2001) calculan que la cosecha anual de maíz en la época Mississippiana variaba de 501.7 kilogramos por hectárea (8 bushéles por acre) a 1881.3 kilogramos por hectárea (30 bushelées por acre). Estos cálcules contrastan con los resultados de un estudio del cultive sin ararde maíz por agricultures indígenas en los Estados Unidos en el siglo XIX (Schroeder 1999), en lo cual se demostró que la cosecha anual de maíz variaba de 232.1 kilogramos por hectárea (3.7 búsheles por acre) a 2676.3 kilogramos por hectárea (42.67 búsheles por acre), con unpromedio de 1185.4 kilogramos por hectárea (18.9 búsheles por acre). Sepropuso también que de ésa cosecha menas quedaba disponible para consumir, alrededor de 627.2 kilogramos por hectárea (10 búsheles por acre). Baden y Beekman plantean que es mejor utilizar datos procedentes de estudios de la agricultura moderna para modelar la productividad del cultive antiguo de maíz, que usar datos procedentes de estudios de agricultura indlgena del siglo XIX. En este trabajo, se mantiene que para poder entender la productividad de sistemas agrtcolas, es precise diferenciar entre la cosecha posible, la cosecha realizada, y la cosecha disponible para consume, lo cual se demuestra por medio de una discusión de losfactores diverses que afectan a las plantas de malz y producen una cosecha menos que lo posible, y de los procesos que disminuyen la porción de la cosecha realizada que al final queda disponible para consumir. Además, el análisis de datos historiées de 1850, 1867, and 1878, los cuales proceden de varios estados de los Estados Unidos y representan varios grupos indígenas, demuestra que las cosechas realizadas por agricultures euroamericanos generalmente excedlan las de agricultures indígenas coetáneos. Se concluye que los estudios que utilizan datos anológicos basados en tecnologías agrícolas de grupos indígenas del siglo XIX, metodología que se planteó en 1999, y que a la vez distinguen la cosecha posible de la cosecha realizada y la cosecha disponible para el consumo, rinden un entendimiento mejor de la capacidad productiva de la agricultura prehispana.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 66 , Issue 3 , July 2001 , pp. 517 - 525
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2001

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