504 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1963 



yields decline owing to the leaching out of soluble salts and plant nu- 

 trients, as weeds take possession, and as rodent, bird, and insect popu- 

 lations build up, this land is abandoned for another nearby plot. The 

 jimgle takes over for anywhere from 3 to 20 or 30 years, and the cycle 

 is repeated. Since under this system of soil management it requires 

 some 15 hectares of land to support one person, subsistence farmers 

 are exploiting some 3 to 6 billion hectares of land, depending on the 

 length of the fallow period. Over the millennia, hundreds of mil- 

 lions of hectares of forest and brushland have been cut over in this 

 cycle, the forest-fallow phases of which may become longer and longer, 

 especially on easily eroded mountain slopes. One has but to observe 

 the beautiful leaves of a typical second-growth tree, the Cecropia sp., 

 as their silvery undersides are turned up in the afternoon breeze to 

 reflect the rays of the tropical sun over vast stretches of what might 

 appear to the uninitiated observer to be virgin forest, to realize the 

 extent of deforestation, and subsequent natural afforestation, due to 

 the activities of countless generations of slash-and-burn farmers. 

 Such subsistence farmers operate in a kind of shatter zone, where 

 first the forest and then man has the upper hand, a temporary no- 

 man's land of charred trees and stumps, fallen logs, and piles of un- 

 bumed brush ; Lilliputian man gradually causes to emerge from this 

 seeming chaos a successful system of land management from which he 

 is able to make his living as well as to achieve a degree of harmony be- 

 tween himself and his physical environment. 



SIGNIFICANT FACETS IN THE LIFE OF THE SUBSISTENCE CULTIVATOR 



First, a visit to a home in the forest : All the materials for house 

 construction are cut in the surrounding forest ; the six to eight upright 

 posts, often of the extremely hard center of a palm tree, and the cross- 

 beams and rafters, of 3- or 4-inch saplings of the hardwood trees 

 locally available, are all bound together with the long, ropelike lianas, 

 or hejucos, so pliable they can be tied when green or wet in a knot like 

 a rope ; the thatch for the roof is made of palm leaves, also deftly tied 

 to the rafters with lianas ; not a nail is used in tying the whole structure 

 together so securely that it will withstand windstorms as well as tor- 

 rential downpours in spite of its somewhat frail appearance ; yet it is 

 ideal for a tropical climate, giving ample air circulation while being a 

 shelter from the rain. Such a house can be constructed in a few days ; it 

 is socially acceptable, as well as being ideal for the climate, and there 

 are no mortgage payments to be made. The cooking is done over a 

 wood fire in one corner of the house. Most kitchen utensils, water 

 jars, spoons, bowls, plates, and so on, are made of wood or of hollo wed- 

 out gourds. 



