FOOD RESOURCE DECISION-MAKING IN A PHILIPPINE PEASANT COMMUNITY
Abstract
The way peasants make decisions about how to allocate time and household resources and to make food choices is examined. Ecological, demographic, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts of decision-making are presented. Data for this research come from multiple sources: municipal records, a field survey, and a range of ethnographic procedures such as participant observation and key informant interviewing. A number of underlying premises frequently found in studies of peasants served to direct this research. One suggests that peasants are not economically rational. A second suggests that transnational corporations contribute to the increasing ecological deterioration and progressive impoverishment of their host country. A third premise is that agricultural development tends to restrict the range of food choices, resulting in a change in consumption habits and the eventual lowering of nutritional status. Data from this research indicate that the peasants in Alae, Mantibugao and MENZI choose among alternatives in order to maximize economic benefits under the constraining environmental and socioeconomic circumstances. They set higher priorities on security rather than profit-maximization. Independent small farmers express priorities in production technology, distribution strategies and food consumption practices. Plantation workers express priorities in terms of choice of occupation. Differences between and within groups are evident. Independent small farmers and plantation workers differ in demographic characteristics, scales of priorities and quantity and quality of food intake. Within each group, members can be internally differentiated according to size of landholding, number of alternative sources of income and psychological factors such as attitudes, perceptions, motivations and values. This study concludes that there are causal links between structural dissimilarities and degree of integration to plantation economy, on one hand, and the way independent small farmers and plantation workers manage their food resources and allocate their time and household budget, on the other hand.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Cultural anthropology
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