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the finger knife and Ockham's razor: a problem in Asian culture history and economic anthropology
Author(s) -
MILES DOUGLAS
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1979.6.2.02a00010
Subject(s) - competition (biology) , production (economics) , southeast asia , agriculture , sociology , economic anthropology , economics , anthropology , history , ethnology , microeconomics , biology , ecology , archaeology
Yao poppy farmers, who reap rice with the finger knife rather than the sickle, thereby reduce competition for their labor from other agricultural pursuits and thus promote their employment opportunities in production of the grain. This paper examines whether similar productive strategies account for the implement's use among the Iban and the Javanese. The enquiry modifies standard perspectives into the economies of these two other societies and rejects the well‐established theory that the tool survives in Southeast Asia because of religious beliefs that discourage or prohibit allegedly more efficient techniques of harvesting.