Hunting-Herding

This concept refers to the group of activities associated with the use and
distribution of locally available fish, wildlife, and domestic reindeer.
Relevant variables include:

SUBSIST and SUBACT: Both variables are identical and indicate the number
of activities participated in by the respondent in the past 12 months.

SUBLEVEL: High or low number of subsistence activities by respondent.

SUBLEV3: High, low, zero number of subsistence activities by respondent.

SUBDUM: None versus some subsistence activities by respondent.

A39: Proportion of household meat and fish eaten in the past 12 months
that was traditional food.

GTHALF: A39 recoded to identify households where more than half of
household meat and fish was traditional food from other households.

A40: Proportion of household meat and fish eaten in the past 12 months
that was harvested by a household member.

GTHALF40: A40 recoded to identify households where more than half of
household meat and fish was harvested by household members from
other households.

SHARING: Households that received traditional foods from other households
and shared traditional foods with households in other communities (A41,A42).

HHEXCH: Number of different ways households shared traditional foods
(A41a, A41b, A41c, A42, A43).

BORROW: Households that borrowed equipment for one or more subsistence
activities (E15a to E15r).

There are several household-level measures of subsistence besides proportion
of traditional foods eaten and harvested:

HHSUBACT: Sum of nine possible subsistence activities over all adults living
in household (A13 to A21).

NRSUBACT: Sum of nine possible subsistence activities over all adults other
than the respondent living in household (A13 to A21).

AVSUBACT: Average number of subsistence activities per adult in the household.

NRSUBAV: Average number of subsistence activities per adult other than the
respondent.

Note: below we discuss many of these concepts in more detail as well as an
attempt to see if it is useful to create an overall subsistence index variable
(we don't think it is).

The list of subsistence activities differs somewhat by country.

In Alaska, respondents were asked about their participation in the following activities over the past 12 months:

a. MEMBER OF A WHALING CREW?
b. SKINNED AND BUTCHERED A CARIBOU?
c. HELP WHALING CREWS BY COOKING, GIVING MONEY OR SUPPLIES, CUTTING MEAT?
d. SEW SKINS, MAKE PARKAS AND KAMIKS?
e. MAKE SLEDS OR BOATS?
f. HUNT CARIBOU, MOOSE, OR SHEEP?
g. HUNT SEAL OR UGRUK?
h. HUNT WALRUS?
i. HUNT WATERFOWL?
j. GATHER EGGS?
k. FISH?
l. GATHER GREENS, ROOTS, OR OTHER PLANTS
m. PRESERVE MEAT OR FISH?
n. TRAP?
o. PICK BERRIES?
p. MAKE NATIVE HANDICRAFTS?

Both Inupiat men and women participated in all of these activities. The percentage participating usually differs by gender. The list includes a break down of harvest activities by species group but not a breakdown of processing activities by species group. Given the differences in participation in harvest and processing activities by gender, the differences in specificity of harvesting vs. processing activities explains why women on average participated in five different activities and men on average participated in seven different activities. As the figure shows below, however, the distribution of the variable SUBACT (the count of activities participated in during the past 12 months) is roughly normal for both genders, with the exception of a second peak at zero.

* June 7, 2004.
*Calculation of Hunting-Herding variables.
crosstabs tables=c5a to c5p by a8a/cells=column.
count subact=c5a to c5p(1).
variable labels subact 'Number of subsistence activities in last 12 months'.
means tables=subact by a8a.
crosstabs tables=subact by a8a/barchart.
crosstabs tables=a39 by a40.
do if (a40 gt a39).
compute a40=a39.
end if.
crosstabs tables=a39 by a40.
frequencies a39, a40/piechart percent.
frequencies a41 to a43.
frequencies a13b, a14b, a15b, a16b, a17b, a18b, a19b, a20b, a21b.
frequencies a13a, a14a, a15a, a16a, a17a, a18a, a19a, a20a, a21a.

There are two, household-level variables concerning the proportion of meat and fish eaten in the past 12 months that was traditional food:

1. (A39)Proportion of all meat and fish eaten that was traditional food.

2. (A40) Proportion of all meat and fish eaten that was traditional food harvested by household members.

The second (A40) is subject to measurement error. A few respondents apparently based their answer on a different question: the proportion of traditional meat and fish eaten that was harvested by household members. This would account for how answers to the second question could have been a higher proportion than answers to the first question. We addressed this problem by constraining the response to A40 to be no greater than the response to A39 for the 18 cases (see below).

Proportion of all meat and fish that is traditional food * Proportion of all meat and fish harvested by hh Crosstabulation

Count

		Proportion of all meat and fish harvested by hh				Total
		None	Less than half	About half	More than half
Proportion of all meat and fish that is traditional food	None	6			2	8
	Less than half	45	91	3	4	143
	About half	14	65	58	9	146
	More than half	21	54	77	191	343
Total		86	210	138	206	640

Percentages responding to various patterns of giving and receiving food were as follows in Alaska (unweighted):

92% received traditional foods from others

51% received traditional food in exchange for helping others

53% received traditional food in exchange for other trad'l food

90% received traditional food as a gift

82% shared traditional food by sending it to households in other places

18% purchased traditional food.

Note that there is a household analog to SUBACT that can be constructed from elements of the household activity chart A13-A32. We calculated this both including and excluding the respondent. Below is the histogram including the respondent.

average number of subsistence activities a12-a21 per adult

		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	.00	29	4.4	4.4	4.4
	1.00	57	8.6	8.6	13.0
	2.00	88	13.3	13.3	26.3
	3.00	128	19.3	19.3	45.6
	4.00	138	20.8	20.8	66.5
	5.00	116	17.5	17.5	84.0
	6.00	65	9.8	9.8	93.8
	7.00	31	4.7	4.7	98.5
	8.00	8	1.2	1.2	99.7
	9.00	2	.3	.3	100.0
	Total	662	99.8	100.0
Missing	System	1	.2
Total		663	100.0

NRSUBAV

		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	.00	166	25.0	25.1	25.1
	1.00	58	8.7	8.8	33.8
	2.00	79	11.9	11.9	45.8
	3.00	88	13.3	13.3	59.1
	4.00	89	13.4	13.4	72.5
	5.00	94	14.2	14.2	86.7
	6.00	53	8.0	8.0	94.7
	7.00	25	3.8	3.8	98.5
	8.00	9	1.4	1.4	99.8
	9.00	1	.2	.2	100.0
	Total	662	99.8	100.0
Missing	System	1	.2
Total		663	100.0

count of ways hh shared traditional foods - a41a-c,a42,a43

		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	.00	35	5.3	5.3	5.3
	1.00	94	14.2	14.2	19.5
	2.00	157	23.7	23.7	43.1
	3.00	139	21.0	21.0	64.1
	4.00	197	29.7	29.7	93.8
	5.00	41	6.2	6.2	100.0
	Total	663	100.0	100.0

An overall index to hunting-herding might be constructed. We examined this possibility and decided that no combination achieves a level of reliability (coefficient alpha) sufficiently high to be considered a measure of a single concept. The variables are correlated, however:

Correlations

		household subsistence index - avsubact,subact, a39,a40,hhexch	average number of subsistence activities a12-a21 per adult	NRSUBAV	Number of subsistence activities in last 12 months	Proportion of all meat and fish that is traditional food	Proportion of all meat and fish harvested by hh	count of ways hh shared traditional foods - a41a-c,a42,a43
household subsistence index - avsubact,subact,a39,a40,hhexch	Pearson Correlation	1	.759	.376	.905	.537	.631	.533
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000
	N	663	662	662	663	653	645	663
average number of subsistence activities a12-a21 per adult	Pearson Correlation	.759	1	.557	.581	.276	.394	.321
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000
	N	662	662	662	662	652	644	662
NRSUBAV	Pearson Correlation	.376	.557	1	.209	.188	.279	.192
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.000	.	.000	.000	.000	.000
	N	662	662	662	662	652	644	662
Number of subsistence activities in last 12 months	Pearson Correlation	.905	.581	.209	1	.336	.438	.330
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.000	.000	.	.000	.000	.000
	N	663	662	662	663	653	645	663
Proportion of all meat and fish that is traditional food	Pearson Correlation	.537	.276	.188	.336	1	.656	.218
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.000	.000	.000	.	.000	.000
	N	653	652	652	653	653	640	653
Proportion of all meat and fish harvested by hh	Pearson Correlation	.631	.394	.279	.438	.656	1	.159
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	.	.000
	N	645	644	644	645	640	645	645
count of ways hh shared traditional foods - a41a-c,a42,a43	Pearson Correlation	.533	.321	.192	.330	.218	.159	1
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	.
	N	663	662	662	663	653	645	663

The best measure of respondent engagement in subsistence is SUBACT.

The best measure of household engagement in subsistence is AVSUBACT.

The best measure of household adults other than the respondent engagement in subsistence is NRSUBAV.

The best measure of household consumption of traditional foods is A39.

The best measure of household harvest of traditional foods is A40.

The best measure of exchange and gifting of traditional foods is HHEXCH (but note that specific types of exchange may be more relevant in some contexts).