The mixed economy of the south Indian Kurumbas

Abstract

This article reports on the Kurumbas, forager-horticulturists of Attappady, India. The concern here is with the relationship between the subsistence economy and social organization in an attempt to explain the persistence of both immediate- and delayed-return systems. The explanation I propose lies in the nature of adaptation to the physical environment and Kurumba relations with tribal and peasant neighbors that affect their subsistence pattern and put them in a state of partial transformation; i.e., suspended between, while participating in, different economic and social arenas. (Social organization, hunter-gatherers, Kurumbas, Attappady) © 2003 The University of Pittsburgh. All rights reserved.