DOI: 10.3886/e104423v1
title: Culturally meaningful social hierarchy in a small-scale society of forager-farmers: Age, gender and lifestyle during economic transition

description: Rapid economic transitions from
self-sufficient economies to market integrated cash-based systems, have been
associated with the exacerbation of existing, and the emergence of new, social
incongruities. Social incongruence occurs when an individual’s positions in multiple
social hierarchies conflict with one another, resulting in poor health. A
central focus of research on economic change and social incongruence has been
lifestyle (i.e. the items and behaviors that together symbolize living a good
life). It remains unclear, however, how the underlying mechanisms that drive
incongruence with lifestyle are influenced by economic transitions. Using
cognitive anthropological theory and methods combined with careful selection of
the study setting, I show that it is possible to simultaneously investigate
variation in the meaning of lifestyle and other social hierarchies across
levels of economic transition. To aid in this effort, I sampled purposively
from key demographic subgroups across two communities of relatively egalitarian
Tsimane’ forager-horticulturalists living at different levels of economic
transition in Bolivian Amazonia (communities located either two hours or two
days travel time from the nearest market town, respectively). In total, I
collected mixed qualitative and quantitative data from 101 adults aged 15–75
years during 2012–2013. I analyzed lifestyle via a multi-step consensus
analysis process that includes 1) development of lifestyle ratings questions
elicited from respondents, 2) calculation of an “ideal” lifestyle ratings key,
3) creation of respondent competence scores based on how well an individual’s
ratings match ideal ratings, and 4) a factor analysis of competence scores to
estimate goodness-of-fit for the lifestyle model. Results support the presence
of consensus around lifestyle with a 4:1 ratio of eigenvalues. Highly rated
items from the 38-item model include both long-valued local practices (e.g.
weaving bags and taking care of children) and newly-adopted elements (e.g.
education and raising livestock). I also found evidence of subgroup variation
in both the first and second factor loadings of competence, possibly indicating
social incongruence. In the first factor, there was a gendered distribution of
lifestyle knowledge with women from both communities significantly more
knowledgeable about this cultural domain (&gt;13% higher competence; p.01), and, older and younger age groups (p&gt;.05). I identify three
themes that differentiate these deviations in the second factor, namely, 1)
spiritual aid and health, 2) social life and autarky, and 3) market
integration. I conclude with a discussion of the implications of these results
in relation to literature on social incongruity and economic change.

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description: To obtain the cultural ratings key in the cultural consensus analysis, the informal model was used, which requires that the ratings responses are weighted according to individual competence values using a linear model. The estimated answers are based on the first set of factor scores from a factor analysis of the ratings correlation matrix. Weights were calculated using the UCINET 6 software package.
description: Response Rates: Of the 34 eligible community members approached to participate in free-listing interviews, 32 of 34 completed interviews, or 94.1%. Of the 75 eligible community members approached to participate in ratings surveys, 69 completed the survey, or 92%.<br>
description: Presence of Common Scales: Exhaustive free-listing with prompts and a Likert-type scale for ratings surveys.
description: face-to-face interview~~mixed mode~~on-site questionnaire~~paper and pencil interview (PAPI)~~All data was collected by A. Schultz, in the Tsimane' language, with the assistance of experienced Tsimane' translators (Ignacio Huasna Tayo; Orlando Durvano Tayo).
description: Adult Tsimane' forager-horticulturalists aged 15-75 years from two communities (one a two-hour roundtrip to the nearest market town and another, a two-day roundtrip to the nearest market town) along the Maniqui River in Tsimane' Moseten Native Community Land (TCO), Beni Department, Bolivia, South America.Smallest Geographic Unit: community or household
description: Life-stage purposive quota sampling based on three age-groups (15-34; 35-49; &gt;50), two genders, and local third-party evaluated wealth (three third-party evaluators confirmed each respondent wealth classification; options were dichotomous: higher wealth than most or lower wealth than most) in two communities.