DOI: 10.3886/e104423v2
title: Lifestyle and social hierarchy during economic transition: Gender, relative material wealth and heterogeneity among Tsimane’ forager-horticulturalists

description: In small-scale societies economic transitions
from self-sufficiency 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 two
or more social hierarchies are in conflict, with deleterious effects on health
and well-being. A central focus of theory and research on social incongruence has
been the relationship between lifestyle–or what is needed to live a good life–and
other social hierarchies (e.g. stratification based on age, gender or wealth). Assessment
of multiple overlapping social hierarchies is challenging because most are
limitedly distributed across lives, cultures and contexts. In this study, I use
theory and methods from cognitive anthropology to investigate potential
conflicts between lifestyle and other social hierarchies among 101 adult Tsimane’
forager-horticulturalists living at two levels of economic transition in
Bolivian Amazonia. Results confirm moderate consensus in a 38-item model of market lifestyle (explaining 72.7% of sample
variance) elicited from community members. Market lifestyle consists of a mix
of overlapping traditional (e.g. weaving) and market-related (e.g. education) items
with a preference toward market items. Analyses also reveal a subcultural model
(explaining 18.2% of additional variance), syncretic
lifestyle, which is marked by elevated ratings for traditional items
compared to the market model. Among tested variables, only women’s knowledge of
market lifestyle better approximated the consensus. In comparison, knowledge of
syncretic lifestyle was associated with respondents relative material wealth and
residence in the less market-integrated of two communities. Elevated ratings for
items preferred by groups associated with syncretic lifestyle fit primarily into
two categories 1) traditional social and subsistence customs and 2) traditional
spiritual and health customs. This study deepens our knowledge of Tsimane’ lifestyle
and social hierarchy and highlights the need for more research in small-scale
societies on overlapping social hierarchies.

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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.