Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

own initiative rather than as a response to any overt social pressure, as in Wapishana
society people tend to speak out about such things only as a last resort. One notable
exception to the apparently relaxed operation of this system concerns a farming road
in Maruranau along which one man cut a short cut. Since he did this job alone, it is
reported, he enforced his rights of ownership to the fullest extent by refusing
permission to anyone else even to walk along this trail, which was thus used only by
his family up until the time of his death. Conversely, those farming in isolated
locations will sometimes encourage a neighbour or relative to cut a farm nearby, for
the sake of company and mutual assistance.
Social and ecological factors thus interact in the choice of location, or locations,
used by any particular family for farming. The system of ownership and permission
outlined above operates in a low-key fashion such as to disperse people away from
areas of high local agricultural pressure and maintain farms at a suitably low density.
The social consequence is that each farming road will be occupied by a number of
families connected sanguinely, affinaly or in some cases by friendship. These farming
communities effectively operate as forest-based sub-settlements, which owing to the
variety possible in the cognatic systems of allocation of both residential and farming
location, will correspond to varying degrees with the hamlets forming the residential
units in the village.
In general, agricultural activities are the major feature of day-to-day life in a
Wapishana village. Adults generally spend most of their days at the farm, occupied
with the ongoing tasks of weeding, replanting and harvesting and processing crops.
Children are expected to assist — as they are with domestic and subsistence tasks in
general — as soon as they are old enough to be able. Children of school age are thus
able to supplement their school teachings with a traditional education. This may help
to counterbalance the cultural degradation resulting from the adoption of formal
education that has been observed amongst Amerindian communities elsewhere in
Guyana (Forte 1993: 8-9). During term-time, Saturday is a weekly peak of agricultural
activity, being the only day when schoolchildren are available for a full day's work at
the farm. Many families take advantage of the opportunity provided by the long
school holidays of July and August to spend extended periods at the farm. Periods of
extended residence in the forest are such a common feature of Wapishana life that a
realistic concept of Wapishana settlement must encompass the farming area (cf. Ellen
1978: 26).
Consistent with the findings of previous studies among the Wapishana, many
families in Maruranau have a second dwelling, either in the forest, at the savannah