Toward a Cultural Ecology of Mountains: The Central Andes and the Himalayas Compared [and Comments and Reply]

Abstract

A model of the cultural ecology of tropical high mountains based on a comparison of the Central Andes and the Himalayas is presented. It is argued that mountain adaptations have three basic elements: (1) an array of vertical production zones, each characterized by a complex interaction of variables including agricultural regime, social organization, stratification, land tenure, labor organization, and level of productivity; (2) choice by the population of an overall production strategy for the exploitation of the vertical production zones available to it, a strategy that may involve specialization in one zone or, in response to a variety of constraints, the combined exploitation of several zones; and (3) a potential for change in production strategy, within the constraints of the mountain environment, under the influence of endogenous and exogenous factors.