Emergency behaviors of nonliterate groups are taken as a useful starting point for demonstrating ... more Emergency behaviors of nonliterate groups are taken as a useful starting point for demonstrating that decisions can be integrated more directly into cultural analysis and that the explanatory payoffs can be far-reaching. The methodological feasibility of studying group decisions directly is explored through three exceptional tribal ethnographies with a focus on emergency adaptive problem solving and its implications for both culturaland gene-selection theory. Urgently discussed decision alternatives become apprehensible to fieldworkers through open group debate, while the reproductive effects of decisions are readily assessed whenever groups act in unison. Implications for the development of a more effective theory of cultural microselection and a truly processual definition of culture in its guided phase are suggested. With respect to long-term genetic evolution, the implications of emergency decision making are extended to foragers, exploring special possibilities that enable genetic group selection to become robust when groups are egalitarian and engage in consensual problem solving. Prehistorically, the verdict is that group-selection effects were amplified at the same time that individual effects were suppressed. On this basis it is hypothesized that the genetic evolution of human cooperative and altruistic tendencies can be explained in part by selection at the level of groups rather than inclusive fitness.
... Finally, it was the fur traders Re-villon Freres (not the cosmetic company Revlon) who financ... more ... Finally, it was the fur traders Re-villon Freres (not the cosmetic company Revlon) who financed Nanook of the North (p. 211). ... a key element of bridewealth) that listeners under-stand to be veiled statements about her own experi-ences; (3) Hermanus Rangga Horo, installed as ...
In a recent article in Critique of Anthropology, Stefan Helmreich deconstructs my research on the... more In a recent article in Critique of Anthropology, Stefan Helmreich deconstructs my research on the water temple networks of Bali, as published in Priests and Programmers (1991) and various articles: [Lansing] is hardly at the helm of a giant anti-politics machine, ideologically or financially, even if he has garnered some monetary support from international agencies, most notably the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. His activities might rather be understood as small moments in the production of a dispersed and distributed network of practices that reinstall in more complicated ways some of the patterns of dependency and relations of inequality that have characterized neocolonialism. (1999: 256) Helmreich is concerned that my use of simulation models to analyse water temple networks 'oversimplifies history and power relations', since 'the simulation encodes an objectivist God's eye view, that view most familiar to administrators charged with counting and correcting'. Moreover, my presentation of model results in print and on video reinforces the 'colonial gaze'; for these reasons 'the use and abuse of computer simulations bears watching-especially in situations where there is a notable power differential between those putting together the simulation and those whose lives are the subjects and objects of these simulations'. Thus Helmreich sees my work as not merely conceptually flawed, but morally deplorable. His views of my work are new to me, but evidently have been in circulation since 1993, at such distinguished venues as the 13th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences and the Center for Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture at Rutgers. So far I have not been invited to contribute a response, but here I claim the privilege of offering one. My comments will be directed first towards his discussion of my use of simulation models, and then his assessment of their political implications. Helmreich begins with a brief summary of my research on Balinese water temples. Perhaps to save time, he quotes from an unpublished manuscript by A.J. Michael, who purports to summarize my findings: 'This complex system of irrigation and water management, which has been a functioning ecological system for over one thousand years, is controlled by Debate
We convened a workshop to enable scientists who study water systems from both social science and ... more We convened a workshop to enable scientists who study water systems from both social science and physical science perspectives to develop a shared language. This shared language is necessary to bridge a divide between these disciplines' different conceptual frameworks. As a result of this workshop, we argue that we should view socio-hydrological systems as structurally coconstituted of social, engineered, and natural elements and study the "characteristic management challenges" that emerge from this structure and reoccur across time, space, and socioeconomic contexts. This approach is in contrast to theories that view these systems as separately conceptualized natural and social domains connected by bi-directional feedbacks, as is prevalent in much of the water systems research arising from the physical sciences. A focus on emergent characteristic management challenges encourages us to go beyond searching for evidence of feedbacks and instead ask questions such as: What types of innovations have successfully been used to address these challenges? What structural components of the system affect its resilience to hydrological events and through what mechanisms? Are there differences between successful and unsuccessful strategies to solve one of the characteristic management challenges? If so, how are these differences affected by institutional structure and ecological and economic contexts? To answer these questions, social processes must now take center stage in the study and practice of water management. We also argue that water systems are an important class of coupled systems with relevance for sustainability science because they are particularly amenable to the kinds of systematic comparisons that allow knowledge to accumulate. Indeed, the characteristic management challenges we identify are few in number and recur over most of human history and in most geographical locations. This recurrence should allow us to accumulate knowledge to answer the above questions by studying the long historical record of institutional innovations to manage water systems.
In earlier publications we have proposed a model to explain the functional role of water temple n... more In earlier publications we have proposed a model to explain the functional role of water temple networks in the agro-ecology of wet rice irrigation on the island of Bali. We argued that the key ecological effects of temple networks are best understood as emergent properties of a complex adaptive system. This argument implies that important aspects of the temple system are largely opaque from the perspective of conventional social science. We proposed that the Green Revolution created a real-world test of our model, by effectively removing the temple networks from their functional role in ecological management. The idea that water temple networks represent a hitherto-unknown kind of institution has been met with appropriate skepticism by other social scientists, who have run a fine-toothed comb through our evidence. Here we evaluate their critiques.
Ethnohistory, genetics and simulation are used to propose a new 'budding model' to describe the h... more Ethnohistory, genetics and simulation are used to propose a new 'budding model' to describe the historical processes by which complex irrigation communities may come into existence. We review two alternative theories, Wittfogel's top-down state-formation theory and common-pool resource management, and suggest that a budding model would better account for existing archaeological and ethnographic descriptions of a well-studied network of irrigation communities on the island of Bali. The budding model is supported by inscriptions and ethnohistorical documents describing irrigation works in and around the drainage of the Petanu River, an area with some of the oldest evidence for wet-rice agriculture in Bali. Genetic analysis of Y-STR and mtDNA shows correlated demographic histories and decreased diversity in daughter villages, consistent with the budding model. Simulation results show that the network of irrigation communities can effectively adjust to repeated budding events that could potentially shock the system outside the parameter space where good harvests can be maintained. Based on this evidence we argue that the budding model is a robust explanation of the historical processes that led to the emergence and operation of Petanu irrigation communities.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2007
Numerous studies indicate strong associations between languages and genes among human populations... more Numerous studies indicate strong associations between languages and genes among human populations at the global scale, but all broader scale genetic and linguistic patterns must arise from processes originating at the community level. We examine linguistic and genetic variation in a contact zone on the eastern Indonesian island of Sumba, where Neolithic Austronesian farming communities settled and began interacting with aboriginal foraging societies ≈3,500 years ago. Phylogenetic reconstruction based on a 200-word Swadesh list sampled from 29 localities supports the hypothesis that Sumbanese languages derive from a single ancestral Austronesian language. However, the proportion of cognates (words with a common origin) traceable to Proto-Austronesian (PAn) varies among language subgroups distributed across the island. Interestingly, a positive correlation was found between the percentage of Y chromosome lineages that derive from Austronesian (as opposed to aboriginal) ancestors and t...
The Austronesian expansion into Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific was the last and most far-r... more The Austronesian expansion into Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific was the last and most far-reaching prehistoric human migration. Austronesian languages replaced indigenous languages over nearly half the globe, yet the absolute number of Austronesian colonists was small. Recently, geneticists have identified large geographic disparities in the relative proportions of Asian ancestry across different genetic systems (NRY, mitochondrial DNA, autosomes and X chromosomes) in Austronesian-speaking societies of Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Surprisingly, a substantial genetic discontinuity occurs in the middle of a continuous chain of islands that form the southern arc of the Indonesian archipelago, near the geographic center of the Austronesian world. In the absence of geographic barriers to migration, this genetic boundary and swathe of Austronesian language replacement must have emerged from social behavior. Drawing on decades of comparative ethnological research inspired by F.A.E. van Wouden's structural model of Austronesian social organization, later codified by Claude Lévi-Strauss as ''House societies'' (''sociétés à maison''), we propose a two-stage ethnographic model in which the appearance of matrilocal ''House societies'' during the initial phase of the Austronesian expansion, and the subsequent disappearance of ''House societies'' in lowland rice-growing regions, accounts for the observed linguistic, genetic and cultural patterns.
Since the advent of high-yielding ''Green Revolution'' rice agriculture in the 1970s, Balinese fa... more Since the advent of high-yielding ''Green Revolution'' rice agriculture in the 1970s, Balinese farmers have been advised to supply all the potassium and phosphate needed by rice plants via chemical fertilizers. This policy neglects the contribution of minerals leached from the volcanic soil and transported via irrigation systems. We documented frequent deposition of volcanic ash deposits to rice producing watersheds. Concentrations of phosphorus in rivers were between 1 and 4 mg l − 1 PO 4 , increasing downstream. We measured extractable potassium and phosphate levels in the soils of unfertilized Balinese rice paddies, and found them to be indistinguishable from those in fertilized paddies, and sufficient for high grain yields. Field experiments varying phosphorus applications to rice fields from 0 to 100 kg superphosphate per hectare (7-26 kg P ha − 1) demonstrated small increases in harvest yields only with the smallest additions. Direct measurements of PO 4 in irrigation waters indicate that most of the added phosphate flows out of the paddies and into the river systems, accumulating to very high levels before reaching the coast.
Ecosystems may undergo nonlinear responses to stresses or perturbations. Hence there can be more ... more Ecosystems may undergo nonlinear responses to stresses or perturbations. Hence there can be more than one stable state or regime. It is not known whether alternate regimes also occur in coupled social-ecological systems, in which there is the potential for intricate feedbacks between natural and social processes. To find out, we investigated the management of rice paddies by Balinese farmers, where ecological processes impose constraints on the timing and spatial scale of collective action. We investigated responses to environmental and social conditions by eight traditional community irrigation systems (subaks) along a river in Bali to test the intuition that older and more demographically stable subaks function differently than those with less stable populations. Results confirm the existence of two attractors, with sharply contrasting patterns of social and ecological interactions. The transition pathway between the two basins of attraction is dominated by differences in the efficacy of sanctions and the ability of subaks to mobilize agricultural labor. The relationship between the social and natural worlds is a perennial question in anthropology and more broadly in the social and environmental sciences. But the methods of social scientists and ecologists are not easily combined. Most research on cooperation, public goods, and collective action problems is organized around ideas of stability. Both microeconomics and evolutionary game theory are equilibrium the
... James N. Kremer, a systems ecologist, and Lansing developed an eco-logical simulation model t... more ... James N. Kremer, a systems ecologist, and Lansing developed an eco-logical simulation model to evaluate the effect of the water temples on the pro-ductivity of the rice terraces. ... If no alternative hosts are available, the pest popu-lation will drop (Aryawan et al. 1993). ...
The Austronesian expansion into Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific was the last and most far-r... more The Austronesian expansion into Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific was the last and most far-reaching prehistoric human migration. Austronesian languages replaced indigenous languages over nearly half the globe, yet the absolute number of Austronesian ...
In a recent article in Critique of Anthropology, Stefan Helmreich deconstructs my research on the... more In a recent article in Critique of Anthropology, Stefan Helmreich deconstructs my research on the water temple networks of Bali, as published in Priests and Programmers (1991) and various articles: [Lansing] is hardly at the helm of a giant anti-politics machine, ideologically or financially, even if he has garnered some monetary support from international agencies, most notably the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. His activities might rather be understood as small moments in the production of a dispersed and distributed network of practices that reinstall in more complicated ways some of the patterns of dependency and relations of inequality that have characterized neocolonialism. (1999: 256) Helmreich is concerned that my use of simulation models to analyse water temple networks 'oversimplifies history and power relations', since 'the simulation encodes an objectivist God's eye view, that view most familiar to administrators charged with counting and correcting'. Moreover, my presentation of model results in print and on video reinforces the 'colonial gaze'; for these reasons 'the use and abuse of computer simulations bears watching-especially in situations where there is a notable power differential between those putting together the simulation and those whose lives are the subjects and objects of these simulations'. Thus Helmreich sees my work as not merely conceptually flawed, but morally deplorable. His views of my work are new to me, but evidently have been in circulation since 1993, at such distinguished venues as the 13th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences and the Center for Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture at Rutgers. So far I have not been invited to contribute a response, but here I claim the privilege of offering one. My comments will be directed first towards his discussion of my use of simulation models, and then his assessment of their political implications. Helmreich begins with a brief summary of my research on Balinese water temples. Perhaps to save time, he quotes from an unpublished manuscript by A.J. Michael, who purports to summarize my findings: 'This complex system of irrigation and water management, which has been a functioning ecological system for over one thousand years, is controlled by Debate
Since the advent of high-yielding ''Green Revolution'' rice agriculture in the 1970s, Balinese fa... more Since the advent of high-yielding ''Green Revolution'' rice agriculture in the 1970s, Balinese farmers have been advised to supply all the potassium and phosphate needed by rice plants via chemical fertilizers. This policy neglects the contribution of minerals leached from the volcanic soil and transported via irrigation systems. We documented frequent deposition of volcanic ash deposits to rice producing watersheds. Concentrations of phosphorus in rivers were between 1 and 4 mg l − 1 PO 4 , increasing downstream. We measured extractable potassium and phosphate levels in the soils of unfertilized Balinese rice paddies, and found them to be indistinguishable from those in fertilized paddies, and sufficient for high grain yields. Field experiments varying phosphorus applications to rice fields from 0 to 100 kg superphosphate per hectare (7-26 kg P ha − 1 ) demonstrated small increases in harvest yields only with the smallest additions. Direct measurements of PO 4 in irrigation waters indicate that most of the added phosphate flows out of the paddies and into the river systems, accumulating to very high levels before reaching the coast.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2007
Numerous studies indicate strong associations between languages and genes among human populations... more Numerous studies indicate strong associations between languages and genes among human populations at the global scale, but all broader scale genetic and linguistic patterns must arise from processes originating at the community level. We examine linguistic and genetic variation in a contact zone on the eastern Indonesian island of Sumba, where Neolithic Austronesian farming communities settled and began interacting with aboriginal foraging societies Ϸ3,500 years ago. Phylogenetic reconstruction based on a 200-word Swadesh list sampled from 29 localities supports the hypothesis that Sumbanese languages derive from a single ancestral Austronesian language. However, the proportion of cognates (words with a common origin) traceable to Proto-Austronesian (PAn) varies among language subgroups distributed across the island. Interestingly, a positive correlation was found between the percentage of Y chromosome lineages that derive from Austronesian (as opposed to aboriginal) ancestors and the retention of PAn cognates. We also find a striking correlation between the percentage of PAn cognates and geographic distance from the site where many Sumbanese believe their ancestors arrived on the island. These language-gene-geography correlations, unprecedented at such a fine scale, imply that historical patterns of social interaction between expanding farmers and resident hunter-gatherers largely explain community-level language evolution on Sumba. We propose a model to explain linguistic and demographic coevolution at fine spatial and temporal scales.
Emergency behaviors of nonliterate groups are taken as a useful starting point for demonstrating ... more Emergency behaviors of nonliterate groups are taken as a useful starting point for demonstrating that decisions can be integrated more directly into cultural analysis and that the explanatory payoffs can be far-reaching. The methodological feasibility of studying group decisions directly is explored through three exceptional tribal ethnographies with a focus on emergency adaptive problem solving and its implications for both culturaland gene-selection theory. Urgently discussed decision alternatives become apprehensible to fieldworkers through open group debate, while the reproductive effects of decisions are readily assessed whenever groups act in unison. Implications for the development of a more effective theory of cultural microselection and a truly processual definition of culture in its guided phase are suggested. With respect to long-term genetic evolution, the implications of emergency decision making are extended to foragers, exploring special possibilities that enable genetic group selection to become robust when groups are egalitarian and engage in consensual problem solving. Prehistorically, the verdict is that group-selection effects were amplified at the same time that individual effects were suppressed. On this basis it is hypothesized that the genetic evolution of human cooperative and altruistic tendencies can be explained in part by selection at the level of groups rather than inclusive fitness.
... Finally, it was the fur traders Re-villon Freres (not the cosmetic company Revlon) who financ... more ... Finally, it was the fur traders Re-villon Freres (not the cosmetic company Revlon) who financed Nanook of the North (p. 211). ... a key element of bridewealth) that listeners under-stand to be veiled statements about her own experi-ences; (3) Hermanus Rangga Horo, installed as ...
In a recent article in Critique of Anthropology, Stefan Helmreich deconstructs my research on the... more In a recent article in Critique of Anthropology, Stefan Helmreich deconstructs my research on the water temple networks of Bali, as published in Priests and Programmers (1991) and various articles: [Lansing] is hardly at the helm of a giant anti-politics machine, ideologically or financially, even if he has garnered some monetary support from international agencies, most notably the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. His activities might rather be understood as small moments in the production of a dispersed and distributed network of practices that reinstall in more complicated ways some of the patterns of dependency and relations of inequality that have characterized neocolonialism. (1999: 256) Helmreich is concerned that my use of simulation models to analyse water temple networks 'oversimplifies history and power relations', since 'the simulation encodes an objectivist God's eye view, that view most familiar to administrators charged with counting and correcting'. Moreover, my presentation of model results in print and on video reinforces the 'colonial gaze'; for these reasons 'the use and abuse of computer simulations bears watching-especially in situations where there is a notable power differential between those putting together the simulation and those whose lives are the subjects and objects of these simulations'. Thus Helmreich sees my work as not merely conceptually flawed, but morally deplorable. His views of my work are new to me, but evidently have been in circulation since 1993, at such distinguished venues as the 13th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences and the Center for Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture at Rutgers. So far I have not been invited to contribute a response, but here I claim the privilege of offering one. My comments will be directed first towards his discussion of my use of simulation models, and then his assessment of their political implications. Helmreich begins with a brief summary of my research on Balinese water temples. Perhaps to save time, he quotes from an unpublished manuscript by A.J. Michael, who purports to summarize my findings: 'This complex system of irrigation and water management, which has been a functioning ecological system for over one thousand years, is controlled by Debate
We convened a workshop to enable scientists who study water systems from both social science and ... more We convened a workshop to enable scientists who study water systems from both social science and physical science perspectives to develop a shared language. This shared language is necessary to bridge a divide between these disciplines' different conceptual frameworks. As a result of this workshop, we argue that we should view socio-hydrological systems as structurally coconstituted of social, engineered, and natural elements and study the "characteristic management challenges" that emerge from this structure and reoccur across time, space, and socioeconomic contexts. This approach is in contrast to theories that view these systems as separately conceptualized natural and social domains connected by bi-directional feedbacks, as is prevalent in much of the water systems research arising from the physical sciences. A focus on emergent characteristic management challenges encourages us to go beyond searching for evidence of feedbacks and instead ask questions such as: What types of innovations have successfully been used to address these challenges? What structural components of the system affect its resilience to hydrological events and through what mechanisms? Are there differences between successful and unsuccessful strategies to solve one of the characteristic management challenges? If so, how are these differences affected by institutional structure and ecological and economic contexts? To answer these questions, social processes must now take center stage in the study and practice of water management. We also argue that water systems are an important class of coupled systems with relevance for sustainability science because they are particularly amenable to the kinds of systematic comparisons that allow knowledge to accumulate. Indeed, the characteristic management challenges we identify are few in number and recur over most of human history and in most geographical locations. This recurrence should allow us to accumulate knowledge to answer the above questions by studying the long historical record of institutional innovations to manage water systems.
In earlier publications we have proposed a model to explain the functional role of water temple n... more In earlier publications we have proposed a model to explain the functional role of water temple networks in the agro-ecology of wet rice irrigation on the island of Bali. We argued that the key ecological effects of temple networks are best understood as emergent properties of a complex adaptive system. This argument implies that important aspects of the temple system are largely opaque from the perspective of conventional social science. We proposed that the Green Revolution created a real-world test of our model, by effectively removing the temple networks from their functional role in ecological management. The idea that water temple networks represent a hitherto-unknown kind of institution has been met with appropriate skepticism by other social scientists, who have run a fine-toothed comb through our evidence. Here we evaluate their critiques.
Ethnohistory, genetics and simulation are used to propose a new 'budding model' to describe the h... more Ethnohistory, genetics and simulation are used to propose a new 'budding model' to describe the historical processes by which complex irrigation communities may come into existence. We review two alternative theories, Wittfogel's top-down state-formation theory and common-pool resource management, and suggest that a budding model would better account for existing archaeological and ethnographic descriptions of a well-studied network of irrigation communities on the island of Bali. The budding model is supported by inscriptions and ethnohistorical documents describing irrigation works in and around the drainage of the Petanu River, an area with some of the oldest evidence for wet-rice agriculture in Bali. Genetic analysis of Y-STR and mtDNA shows correlated demographic histories and decreased diversity in daughter villages, consistent with the budding model. Simulation results show that the network of irrigation communities can effectively adjust to repeated budding events that could potentially shock the system outside the parameter space where good harvests can be maintained. Based on this evidence we argue that the budding model is a robust explanation of the historical processes that led to the emergence and operation of Petanu irrigation communities.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2007
Numerous studies indicate strong associations between languages and genes among human populations... more Numerous studies indicate strong associations between languages and genes among human populations at the global scale, but all broader scale genetic and linguistic patterns must arise from processes originating at the community level. We examine linguistic and genetic variation in a contact zone on the eastern Indonesian island of Sumba, where Neolithic Austronesian farming communities settled and began interacting with aboriginal foraging societies ≈3,500 years ago. Phylogenetic reconstruction based on a 200-word Swadesh list sampled from 29 localities supports the hypothesis that Sumbanese languages derive from a single ancestral Austronesian language. However, the proportion of cognates (words with a common origin) traceable to Proto-Austronesian (PAn) varies among language subgroups distributed across the island. Interestingly, a positive correlation was found between the percentage of Y chromosome lineages that derive from Austronesian (as opposed to aboriginal) ancestors and t...
The Austronesian expansion into Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific was the last and most far-r... more The Austronesian expansion into Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific was the last and most far-reaching prehistoric human migration. Austronesian languages replaced indigenous languages over nearly half the globe, yet the absolute number of Austronesian colonists was small. Recently, geneticists have identified large geographic disparities in the relative proportions of Asian ancestry across different genetic systems (NRY, mitochondrial DNA, autosomes and X chromosomes) in Austronesian-speaking societies of Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Surprisingly, a substantial genetic discontinuity occurs in the middle of a continuous chain of islands that form the southern arc of the Indonesian archipelago, near the geographic center of the Austronesian world. In the absence of geographic barriers to migration, this genetic boundary and swathe of Austronesian language replacement must have emerged from social behavior. Drawing on decades of comparative ethnological research inspired by F.A.E. van Wouden's structural model of Austronesian social organization, later codified by Claude Lévi-Strauss as ''House societies'' (''sociétés à maison''), we propose a two-stage ethnographic model in which the appearance of matrilocal ''House societies'' during the initial phase of the Austronesian expansion, and the subsequent disappearance of ''House societies'' in lowland rice-growing regions, accounts for the observed linguistic, genetic and cultural patterns.
Since the advent of high-yielding ''Green Revolution'' rice agriculture in the 1970s, Balinese fa... more Since the advent of high-yielding ''Green Revolution'' rice agriculture in the 1970s, Balinese farmers have been advised to supply all the potassium and phosphate needed by rice plants via chemical fertilizers. This policy neglects the contribution of minerals leached from the volcanic soil and transported via irrigation systems. We documented frequent deposition of volcanic ash deposits to rice producing watersheds. Concentrations of phosphorus in rivers were between 1 and 4 mg l − 1 PO 4 , increasing downstream. We measured extractable potassium and phosphate levels in the soils of unfertilized Balinese rice paddies, and found them to be indistinguishable from those in fertilized paddies, and sufficient for high grain yields. Field experiments varying phosphorus applications to rice fields from 0 to 100 kg superphosphate per hectare (7-26 kg P ha − 1) demonstrated small increases in harvest yields only with the smallest additions. Direct measurements of PO 4 in irrigation waters indicate that most of the added phosphate flows out of the paddies and into the river systems, accumulating to very high levels before reaching the coast.
Ecosystems may undergo nonlinear responses to stresses or perturbations. Hence there can be more ... more Ecosystems may undergo nonlinear responses to stresses or perturbations. Hence there can be more than one stable state or regime. It is not known whether alternate regimes also occur in coupled social-ecological systems, in which there is the potential for intricate feedbacks between natural and social processes. To find out, we investigated the management of rice paddies by Balinese farmers, where ecological processes impose constraints on the timing and spatial scale of collective action. We investigated responses to environmental and social conditions by eight traditional community irrigation systems (subaks) along a river in Bali to test the intuition that older and more demographically stable subaks function differently than those with less stable populations. Results confirm the existence of two attractors, with sharply contrasting patterns of social and ecological interactions. The transition pathway between the two basins of attraction is dominated by differences in the efficacy of sanctions and the ability of subaks to mobilize agricultural labor. The relationship between the social and natural worlds is a perennial question in anthropology and more broadly in the social and environmental sciences. But the methods of social scientists and ecologists are not easily combined. Most research on cooperation, public goods, and collective action problems is organized around ideas of stability. Both microeconomics and evolutionary game theory are equilibrium the
... James N. Kremer, a systems ecologist, and Lansing developed an eco-logical simulation model t... more ... James N. Kremer, a systems ecologist, and Lansing developed an eco-logical simulation model to evaluate the effect of the water temples on the pro-ductivity of the rice terraces. ... If no alternative hosts are available, the pest popu-lation will drop (Aryawan et al. 1993). ...
The Austronesian expansion into Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific was the last and most far-r... more The Austronesian expansion into Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific was the last and most far-reaching prehistoric human migration. Austronesian languages replaced indigenous languages over nearly half the globe, yet the absolute number of Austronesian ...
In a recent article in Critique of Anthropology, Stefan Helmreich deconstructs my research on the... more In a recent article in Critique of Anthropology, Stefan Helmreich deconstructs my research on the water temple networks of Bali, as published in Priests and Programmers (1991) and various articles: [Lansing] is hardly at the helm of a giant anti-politics machine, ideologically or financially, even if he has garnered some monetary support from international agencies, most notably the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. His activities might rather be understood as small moments in the production of a dispersed and distributed network of practices that reinstall in more complicated ways some of the patterns of dependency and relations of inequality that have characterized neocolonialism. (1999: 256) Helmreich is concerned that my use of simulation models to analyse water temple networks 'oversimplifies history and power relations', since 'the simulation encodes an objectivist God's eye view, that view most familiar to administrators charged with counting and correcting'. Moreover, my presentation of model results in print and on video reinforces the 'colonial gaze'; for these reasons 'the use and abuse of computer simulations bears watching-especially in situations where there is a notable power differential between those putting together the simulation and those whose lives are the subjects and objects of these simulations'. Thus Helmreich sees my work as not merely conceptually flawed, but morally deplorable. His views of my work are new to me, but evidently have been in circulation since 1993, at such distinguished venues as the 13th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences and the Center for Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture at Rutgers. So far I have not been invited to contribute a response, but here I claim the privilege of offering one. My comments will be directed first towards his discussion of my use of simulation models, and then his assessment of their political implications. Helmreich begins with a brief summary of my research on Balinese water temples. Perhaps to save time, he quotes from an unpublished manuscript by A.J. Michael, who purports to summarize my findings: 'This complex system of irrigation and water management, which has been a functioning ecological system for over one thousand years, is controlled by Debate
Since the advent of high-yielding ''Green Revolution'' rice agriculture in the 1970s, Balinese fa... more Since the advent of high-yielding ''Green Revolution'' rice agriculture in the 1970s, Balinese farmers have been advised to supply all the potassium and phosphate needed by rice plants via chemical fertilizers. This policy neglects the contribution of minerals leached from the volcanic soil and transported via irrigation systems. We documented frequent deposition of volcanic ash deposits to rice producing watersheds. Concentrations of phosphorus in rivers were between 1 and 4 mg l − 1 PO 4 , increasing downstream. We measured extractable potassium and phosphate levels in the soils of unfertilized Balinese rice paddies, and found them to be indistinguishable from those in fertilized paddies, and sufficient for high grain yields. Field experiments varying phosphorus applications to rice fields from 0 to 100 kg superphosphate per hectare (7-26 kg P ha − 1 ) demonstrated small increases in harvest yields only with the smallest additions. Direct measurements of PO 4 in irrigation waters indicate that most of the added phosphate flows out of the paddies and into the river systems, accumulating to very high levels before reaching the coast.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2007
Numerous studies indicate strong associations between languages and genes among human populations... more Numerous studies indicate strong associations between languages and genes among human populations at the global scale, but all broader scale genetic and linguistic patterns must arise from processes originating at the community level. We examine linguistic and genetic variation in a contact zone on the eastern Indonesian island of Sumba, where Neolithic Austronesian farming communities settled and began interacting with aboriginal foraging societies Ϸ3,500 years ago. Phylogenetic reconstruction based on a 200-word Swadesh list sampled from 29 localities supports the hypothesis that Sumbanese languages derive from a single ancestral Austronesian language. However, the proportion of cognates (words with a common origin) traceable to Proto-Austronesian (PAn) varies among language subgroups distributed across the island. Interestingly, a positive correlation was found between the percentage of Y chromosome lineages that derive from Austronesian (as opposed to aboriginal) ancestors and the retention of PAn cognates. We also find a striking correlation between the percentage of PAn cognates and geographic distance from the site where many Sumbanese believe their ancestors arrived on the island. These language-gene-geography correlations, unprecedented at such a fine scale, imply that historical patterns of social interaction between expanding farmers and resident hunter-gatherers largely explain community-level language evolution on Sumba. We propose a model to explain linguistic and demographic coevolution at fine spatial and temporal scales.
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Papers by Steve Lansing